62 years old, 5'9" and weighed 250 in June 2023. I joined a group fitness training class (weight lifting, rowing and treadmill) and began tracking macros and calories in/out. In less than a year I was down to 183, with a BF of 21% and lean muscle way up, and I was stronger and faster. The program I was in had a lot of benchmarks, and I enjoyed tracking my progress.
Last summer I added cycling because my coach was training for a triathlon and hadn't ridden a bike since childhood. Being comfortable on one and owning a bike, I started cycle training her on Sundays.
Last October I ran my first Spartan. It was epic. However, I had maxed out on the group training, I felt like I was no longer improving. I could have maintained an excellent fitness level there, but I wanted to improve. In November of 24 I joined a traditional Gym and began strength training on my own. My program is as follows
Lower body 2 day split (no running on leg days, PTs orders)
Upper body 2 day split - I also do running intervals on these days
Two group fitness endurance days (or one day and a easy long run day)
Sundays are either cycling followed by a workout or run.
I am doing Yoga after leg workouts and try to hit the sauna twice a week
I really didn't know what I was doing for leg days, and my workouts did not account for a weak gluteus Medius and TFL that I didn't even realize I had. I was training for my first Half Marathon scheduled for mid February of this year, and in December 8 miles into a 10 mile run my left heel began to feel like a knife jabbing into it. I stopped running for a while and after a few weeks I decided to go back to my Sports Physical Therapist who had fixed my shoulder last year. She diagnosed Planters Fasciitis caused by an imbalance in my hips, specifically gluteus medius and TFL. She put me on the two day lower body split with a lot of unilateral work. I had noticed my hips getting tight on runs over 6 miles, but I was able to run the 13.2 mile race with no pain and no tightness. I love my PT.
I have been able to increase the weight I am lifting on all areas of my upper body, and am noticing an additional increase in muscle mass, both on the scale and visually. Adding the strength-training days has helped enormously.
My current multi-faceted approach is hybrid. I completed a second Spartan last month, a Super (6 miles and 25 obstacles) I have a Hyrox race scheduled for November.
Traditional Strength training
Group fitness training- HIIT (this is the endurance piece)
Running-cycling-rowing-Skierg
Recovery work like Yoga and Sauna
Macro tracking- 216 grams of protein per day