This has been a very interesting journey. At first I was overwhelmed with how easy it was to hurt myself in training - tendonitis in the elbows and hip and knees. They all seemed to stem from too much stress during workouts. Doctors, physical therapist, trainer, and exercise massuese all agreed that it was tendonitis. I was offered physical therapy that didn't seem to help much, and injections which I decided against. My young trainer said that in his experience just giving the joints an extended rest was best and use ice and heat after any activity.
And I have to say he has been absolutely right. I really started focusing on not using those tendons and staying away from pain. After any small workout that involved those joints I applied heat and cold for 10 minutes and would apply voltaren to the joint for another 15 minutes. I'm just about completely well now with a lot of new knowledge. I need to limit my workouts at this age. I only go three times a week for 50 to 60 minutes a session. If anything hurts, I back off and try to do something in that area that just doesn't hurt so much. I spend more time on aerobics now than strength training. But I do have this one experiment going.
I've decided to try and increase my bench press weights. My trainer is guiding me and the process is revealing to me. In three weeks we still haven't actually tried to increase the bench press performance. Once a week we work through increasing loads for a specified number of reps and once a week I try to do as many pushups as I can in 20 minutes, taking breaks after I max out each time. I'm up to 80 push-ups in 2o minutes now with an eventual goal of 100. And I'm learning that bench pressing is not so much using the arms as it is using the legs and shoulders and back. And I'm beginning to understand that if I really take things slow and stop when it hurts, things go much better.
My left knee is the only joint that hurts at all this moment. And I damaged that knee 35 years ago so it's understandable. But even now I can improve things with this approach. I'm still not jogging again yet but I am beginning to take slightly longer walks in the woods with the dog with ice and heat afterwards.
I feel like I'm finally learning how to race like a tortoise!