My fitness plan - comments welcome

[Steve]

Hi, everyone. I thought I'd post some details about what I've been doing recently. I'm very open to any comments and suggestions for improvement.

I'm a 62-year-old male. Until recently I was about 50 pounds overweight. I've lost 30 pounds in the past 4 months, so I must be doing something right. I feel good and I'm preserving most of my lean body mass during the process.

Initially most of my workouts were cardio HIIT. But I recently read Jim Karas's book, The Cardio Free Diet, and I became convinced that strength training ought to be a more important part of my regime. I don't buy Karas's idea that all cardio is bad, however. I've seen enough sources that say cardio HIIT avoids putting the body into a catabolic state, so I'm retaining that in my plan.

Lately I've been using a 4 or 5 day rotation, something like this:

1. Upper body: lat pulldowns, seated row, bench press, overhead press, pullover, triceps extension, biceps curl
2. HIIT: 10 minute warmup, 10 minutes working, 5 minute cooldown
3. Optional extra rest day
4. Lower body: leg press, leg extension, hamstring curl, calf raise
5. Rest or mild cardio

For my HIIT I use an exercise bike. During the warmup period I gradually crank up the intensity, reaching a level a little above my lactate threshold, then backing off to a level a little below the threshold (my "recovery level"). During the working period I choose from one of these patterns:

1. 20 seconds max intensity, 70 seconds at recovery level
2. 20 seconds 95% max, 40 seconds at recovery
3. 30 seconds 90% max, 60 seconds recovery
4. 30 seconds 85% max, 30 seconds recovery

By "max intensity" in this context I just mean the highest level I can sustain for 20 seconds when doing several repetitions. Usually I'll get very close to my maximum heart rate after a few reps of pattern 1 or 2. With the other two, the heart rate stays at maybe 90 - 95% max.

I've seen this kind of workout referred to as "peaking threshold" in one book I read some time ago. It hurts like the dickens, but it seems to be very effective.

Comments? Thoughts? Suggestions?