Does getting your heart rate up always matter?

You need to "get your heart rate up" meaning get your muscles oxygenated and your metabolism going. That's what happens when you get your heart rate up and you will feel better and get more accomplished. Toning up means replacing fat with lean muscle. Nothing will take off the fat like cardio vascular workout because oif the reasons I mentioned. I would, for a man your age, run on an eliptical or treadmill or sit on a stationary bike for as long as it takes to get your heart rate up to say 130 or 135, say 5 or 10 minutes, and then do your lifting. this will also warm your muscles up so you can stretch a bit. You don't want to stretch cold. I ride my bike to the gym to warm up ...10 miles, and then ride back home. The difference in results is dramatic compared to just lifting with no cardio.

When you finish do another 30 minutes of cardio. That's what will get your metabolism really cranking and you'll get way more benefit than from lifting alone.

I believe Slappy will concur.

You don't HAVE to do cardio, you can build muscle without it. Building muscle and doing cardio are two seperate things. At a gym, you could do a circuit type training, where you're jumping from exercise to exercise with little rest which will keep you heart rate up. But dicksmack brings up some good points also. Cardio helps all around, and gets your muscles warmed up.

You should do cardio mostly for health reasons...I just do 15 minutes on the eliptical before lifting, and my workouts have been going much better since I started doing this last December. Just from lifting, my heart used to start pounding, and I'd get winded. Now I can workout noticeably harder and not get winded at all.

Just suck it up and join a gym...doing some curls here and there isn't going to do a hell of a lot. Routine is the key. Or at least get yourself on some kind of consistent plan, whether it's X amount of push-ups & situps every day, running X minutes, ect.

so you see kick you can just lift and get some results like our friend Captain Biceps, or you can choose to add the regular cardio and combine the ability to have stamina and be able to f**k without coming in two minutes and feeling like it's giving you a stroke like me.

Of course if you work out to build like Slappy you'll look much more manly when you shoot your load into that tissue.

Thanks guys. This was my first day of working out in about ten years. I will take your advice...if I feel like continuing this torture. There is no way I'm going to pay a hundred bucks a month to join a gym though. I can't afford it. I need that money for booze and drugs.

There is a rec center about twenty blocks from my apartment that only costs about $75/year. Maybe I should jog over there and sign up. They have a pool and everything. I hear swimming is an excellent cardio-vascular workout.

wow.. I pay 29.99 a month. Circuits, free weights, classes, pool, tanning beds, (which I don't give a **** about) steam room, sauna, they supply the soap, shampoo, shave cream, towels, cardio theater....I guess life is cheaper here in Barney land....

You will find, I promise you... that if you work your way through the torture part you will then look forward (most days) to getting to the gym and will feel badly if you miss a day and you WILL feel and look better.
At my age I'll never have washboard abs or anything again no matter how I work but I can trell you I feel better and stronger than ever and people who see me can tell I'm a guy who takes care of himself.

And don't forget that the higher you keep your metabolism rate the more you can drink without a hangover :wink:

Yeah, the gyms here are ridiculous. I could probably find someplace for maybe $70 or so if I really wanted to, but I'd rather pay that for a whole year at the rec center if I'm going to do this.

I think I'm going to try to work out at home for a little while to get my strength up a little more, so that if/when I do go to a gym I don't embarrass myself.

that's what everyone thinks.... then they get to the gym and discover that for every stunningly perfect body builder there are 10 average to below average softies just trying to stay alive... no one notices.... if youhave the discipline to work out at home then by all means do it I don't. I have to put myself into a gym situation.

I'm going to ride my bike here in a ferw minutes for a couple of hours. Today is a ride bike and sit ups day, tomorrow I combine that with lifting.

You're not going to embarrass yourself. Most of the people at the gym really aren't in great shape. A lot of people join, work out for a few months, then stop going.

If you sign up, you'll have more reason to work out. Doing it at home is difficult, and you'll lose the motivation easier. Like Freddie Mercury said, once you get past that intial pain phase, it gets easier and you'll look forward to going, as you start to feel a lot better.

Yeah, I know it is hard to work out at home. I need to completely change my priorities for this to work. If I used even one-tenth of the time that I now spend watching porn to work out, I'd be a f*cking gorilla.

and now with the Freddie Mercury? I think Slappy wants to do me....sorry pal, I belong to Gus.

I found this article. I hope you find it useful.
http://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/04/sports/fitness-target-heart-rate-is-it-important-or-overrated.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm