The magic workout (Especially for returning athletes)

Triathlon Forum
1

I was an “athlete” during my teens and early 20’s. Voted best physique my senior year in highschool, broad shoulders, thick chest, skinny waist, low body fat, and I could easily eat whatever I wanted, when I wanted. Football during the fall, wrestling during the winter, cycling through spring and summer. Some sort of weight training all year round. Life was grand.

Then life really began, a career, a wife, a house, children. 10 years later I woke up, looked in the mirror and said “what have I done”? I had gained 55 pounds since graduating highschool and didn’t resemble the athlete that I still pretended to be. Took me another 2 1/2 years to commit to the dream of Ironman. Triathlon became a way of life even though I had never done one.

I’ve spent the hours in the pool, thousands of miles on the bike, hours of running for the past two years. Now I have found…

THE MAGIC WORKOUT

At 34 years old, I started pilates. And I’ll say for the record; Pilates is by far, the absolutley best complimentry 30 minute workout I could spend training towards triathlon. There is no hiding your weaknesses when you are doing pliates. I quickly have come to realize that I have no core strength, even though I thought I did. I will also say that Pilates to me is quite humbling and humiliating. I can’t even come close to mimic the form the instructor shows the movements, I need assistance on most movements after the first “rep” for my lack of core strength. It’s amazing that some of the women in the class are pound to pound 10x stronger then I am. These women are truely amazing and I can only hope with time, patience and hard work I will attain their core strength times 10.

So for you ex-athletes coming out of retirement start working on your core strength and you will meet your goals quicker then if you just concentrate on swimming, biking and running.

See you at the races!

2

I have come to realize, sadly and painfully, that core strength is very important for not just good performance but overall good health.

Short story: Through 25 years of running and triathlon training I never had ANY back problems. I also never really did any core strength work as it is something that has only been talked about in the last few years. I recently found out that I have a herniated disc in my back( L4L5) that has left me in a mild to moderate pain, most of the time and has curtailed ALL physical activity other than easy spins on the bike. There seems to be a history of bad backs in my family as both my Mother and Sister have similar problems. Knowinf what I know now, I would have worked on this years ago.

I recently started doing Pilates and It seems to be helping. I am told that not much will help the herniated disc - that’s permanant damage, but shoring up the muscles in the area will be a huge help. The basic pilates routine is has the same impact as taking the NSAID’s that I have been prescribed for the pain.

Fleck

3

if some of the women are 10x stronger than you, i would recommend you look for a different sport (fantasy football?).

4

If they were all triathletes, I probably would;-)
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