Has Lockdown Changed Fitness Forever?

They were halcyon days (if you could ignore the pandemic and you were lucky enough to avoid it, and you weren't working double shifts in a hospital or supermarket). When the sun shone forever, and the streets were full of people walking, running and cycling with only the occasional Ocado truck on the road. We were told we could exercise once a day, and many people took it as an instruction. More people were outside exercising in more numbers than ever before. A route I run in my local town, before lockdown I used to see 0 to 5 other runners, but during it I would see 20-40 other people walking and running.

For some people lockdown was a fitness bootcamp, with 3 or 4 sessions a day. For others it was a 1000 yard stare, a drinking competition with sloe gin and slow internet connection. Others were in the middle like me, initially over-reached myself trying to do 30 ab-wheels in a row and ripped my abs, then couldn’t run for weeks due to persistent cough and then found a happy middle ground of runs, walks and home workouts, however, the people who run my local corner shop probably think I live on beer, discos and double deckers.

Home workout kit: Will this be the end of gyms? (These are not all my kettlebells, didn't want to make anyone jealous)

And if you weren’t outside, you were inside following Joe Wicks (or the parents were while the kids were on their ipads) or yoga with Adrienne, (I also like yoga with Kassandra and SarahBeth yoga). Or doing a zoom class with some instructors from your local gym, or like me taking part in a zoom yoga class once a week. At the same time every fitness influencer on instagram was showing you how you could do a home booty blaster workout with equipment you made from a watering can, a towel and 2 bags of weight loss tea.

I saw a lady walking around my local park eating a pot noodle, I guess she figured it was a way of staying in calorie balance. And from the odour wafting through some of my local parks, half the population have been stoned through lockdown, and getting the munchies could account for supermarket shelves being bare for a while. And these people may be desperate to get back to the gym to lose some of the ‘lockdown lard’ (I’m copyrighting this phrase because some gym is bound to use it in a membership campaign). But many people may not be going back to the gym.


And now things are getting back to normal. Already I see less people out walking and running, maybe they’ve gone back to work or popped to Primark instead. And the traffic went back to normal, which means I could either run into the dick on the pavement who refuses to socially distance or run in the road and risk getting hit by a Ford Ranger. There are still a good amount of cyclists on the road, families too, which is good to see, and some place have increased cycle lanes and provision. Unfortunately, where I live that hasn’t happened, which means if I cycled to work it would be like a scene from the Spielberg film Duel.

In the park I’ve seen old guys doing jumping jacks, a couple teaching themselves to skip and an adult lone guy teaching himself how to skateboard (must have been a lockdown goal he set himself). The personal trainers are out in the park too, and you can play ‘eye spy which one of these people watched the body coach’. To paraphrase Homer Simpson, it’s like a freakin’ fitness jambaroo around here!


Meanwhile crossfit imploded because one of its head honchos went insane, and not in a cool Colonel Kurtz has gone ‘up river’ Apocalypse Now way but more like that dishevelled guy you see wandering around town carrying a bag for life with indeterminant contents who then stands too close to you in the supermarket queue and talks about lizard people conspiracies and then follows you onto the bus and sits next to you with no mask because viruses are a myth because you can’t see them.

And then all those crossfit affiliates realised that yes, people joined because of the crossfit name, but now they stay for the community and people. So there probably is no need to be an affiliate anymore because 1) You get to make up your own random circuit workouts 2) You can now call those workouts whatever you want, no need to call them Cindy or Fran anymore… you could use a wildlife name instead, Woodpecker WOD and Natterjack AMRAP to celebrate the fact the animals took the land back while we were all watching Netflix and daily briefings.

At this point no one knows when gyms will re-open, but it will probably be the day the kettlebells and bands you ordered 3 months ago finally arrive. But will people go back? The answer is some wont, they are happy with home workouts and training outside, especially in the summer, things are always different in the winter. And if your activity is swimming you will go back unless you're brave enough to do open water swimming, because you can’t do lengths in your kids paddling pool.

But I think most people will go back in some fashion. Because the gym is not just about exercise, it is about community and belonging and this is a big one for many people, mental health. Yes, you could workout at home, the same way I could make a coffee and sit at home and save £2.80, but I like going to coffee shops and watching the world go by.

How ever much corporations and businesses think otherwise, generally people don’t join and stay at gyms because of anything your marketing department put together, every local micro/ single site gym knows this. People join because of location and price, and these days its less about equipment because all gyms are pretty much the same. But they stay because of the atmosphere, their friend's, the instructors.  Your entire management team could leave tomorrow and members wouldn’t know, but if their favourite yoga or pump instructor leaves you will definitely know about it.

The unsung heroes of fitness during this lockdown are all the instructors and coaches who have carried on teaching classes on zoom, doing house party hangouts or instagram live workouts for free or donation only. Not because anyone in the companies they work for asked them to do it or paid them but because that is what they do, they teach people, they make peoples day better. And your customers and members want to support your business because of your staff they see every day. And some of those instructors and PTs may not be coming back, they may have figured online zoom classes and PT in the park is better for them and their clients.

It could change for the better, people realising that workouts don’t have be one hour, and businesses providing more online content for members and better in person coaching. It may diversify how people consume fitness. If it makes more people more active in any way, it will be a positive thing to take from this terrible event.

People will go back because collective amnesia is a powerful thing. Just like in The Plague by Camus (which of course, I read in lockdown), people go back to normal, people forget, people get used to new norms. And maybe it will make fitness facilities raise their game as well as their cleaning rather than their prices.

And when gyms re-open they should probably instigate fancy dress Friday in homage to Joe Wicks. And in 100 years time someone will ask "why do you all dress as spiderman and knights on a Friday?" and someone else will reply saying "I think it’s to celebrate when Sir Joe of Richmond stopped parents going insane during the first corona pandemic" and then they will eat a post workout Soylent Green protein bar and discuss who will win The Hunger Games 2121, will it be Crossfit Oceana airstrip one, or Crossfit Eurasia.

But until those gyms open, I'm off to do some press ups in the sun followed by a post workout beer.

Night Run.

"Midway upon the journey of our life

I found myself within a forest dark,

For the straightforward pathway had been lost."

-Dante, The Divine Comedy: Inferno, Canto I

I'm running up the sand dune. Well, not really running but crawling, it's too steep to run.

All day waiting on the beach, then a zodiac boat ride across the bay to the start point. It's some time after 9pm when we start. The sea, the beach, the sky, the dune are like a pastel drawing we're moving through. Pastel pinks, blues, mauve and pale yellow.

It has an 'other world' quality about it.

Night is falling in.

On top of the dune, head torch lights flicker on, like insane fire flies we head into the forest. Fairy lights strung out through the night.

I'm probably in this picture somewhere. Source: trails-endurance.com

The forest at night. The stuff of nightmares and fairy tales. The primordial human fear of being alone in the forest at night. A trail of breadcrumbs is replaced with glow sticks to lead you out. After several hours your sense of direction is lost, it's hard to orientate, up and down look the same, the torchlight rebounds back and washes out the contours and gradient, it tells you nothing about the ground.

I didn't go into the the forest 'to live deliberately' or 'suck the marrow out of life' like Thoreau. I went in to find the edges. If something doesn't scare you, its easy.

Running with my brother, some time after midnight, he is suddenly injured. We tape up his leg, and then agree that I should go on, as he is now having to walk. Leaving someone behind in the forest goes against the human instinct to stay together, stay in tribes, stay safe, don't leave someone behind. I leave him and run off into the night.

We were walking and I have cooled down quickly. The heat of the day has dissipated into the ether. I run hard temporarily to get my body temperature up. I also run hard so I don't have to hear anything apart from my breath, I don't want to listen to the sounds of the forest right now. I turn off my head torch, there's nothing, like a coal mine I once visited as a kid.

Sounds. Sounds of the forest, everything that is meant to be here at night, we are not meant to be here.

Shapes, coming across an oil field one time and seeing the nodding machinery of hydrocarbon extraction in the middle of nowhere. Another time in another forest, a tree stump looking like a native American head carved, pointing the way to go.

Movement, there is rustling, keeping looking straight ahead. Then you see your shadow cast in front of you, you see it before you hear the people behind approaching, the light bobbing light lanterns at sea. Breathe in the torch light.

Another time, running in the mist at night, the torch light rebounds off the water particles hanging in the air, no path, no direction, running by feel and memory on familiar ground.

Another time, hours alone, senses in overdrive, making sure every turn is correct, no marker is missed. Follow the breadcrumbs, follow the clues. Others were lost but somehow I made it with no wrong turns, luck.

So focused, no time for the mind to drift, no time to think or reminisce. One pointedness.

'What do you think about when running?' In moments like this, nothing, the past and future are gone, its just night and movement.

If you think too much in these moments you will miss a turning, miss a marker. You will be lost, alone in the forest at night.

And the last time. An easy circuit. This time real fairy lights hanging in the trees, and the last thing I hear is 'Running up that hill' before I wake up in another town. The circle is not complete. The final night run.

-------------------

In the distance a vague hum of a generator and artificial light. Hot soup, or ginger beer or coffee at 3am, depending where you are. You've made it. And if you don't , the horizon always glows, the dawn always breaks. Another day will begin.

There is something about night running that cannot be captured anywhere else.
Sometimes I think about running at night.

Ghosts.

I park up. The rain and cloud are closing in.

I've already stopped at the petrol station I always used to go after a run and got a take away tea and driven up here. There are two other cars in the car park and then one.

A version of me is still out there running on The Downs. A younger version.

Low cloud and rain.

There is the first version, when I first seriously tried to run a distance 9 years ago with my father, a rucksack on my back, I think it was 30 or 35k. I got lost, and it hurt, I finished it, and had that classic feeling of my legs seizing up driving back, and the next day it hurt even more.

Now I can run these trails from sense memory. I know the markers for 10k and 12k and 20k, I know the ground. The topography is etched on me.

I think of all those other versions of me still out there running, those versions would not be able to picture the older, greyer, version of me sitting here now thinking back. The younger version of me doesn't know this moment, here and now, is coming. He doesn't know how far he will run, or that he will go to terrain that scares him and run across it for days. He doesn't know about the mountains, and the trails and breaking down crying from exhaustion in tents, he doesn't know the exact moment this journey will end. He doesn't know how strong he will get and how weak he will become.

There are versions running in hail and rain. Another version is running in the early morning mist as the sun breaks through and horses run across a field, and that version smiles at how perfect the moment is. There are versions running in heat, and wind and night. There is a version trying to run the big 50 in training, with his partner waiting in the car park. There are versions running alone and seeing no one, shouting at the top of their voice and there is no one to hear. There are versions running on summer days, with the car parks full, and daytrippers and mountain bikers on the trail.

Echoes of long lost conversations. There are versions of me in the car park talking to my brother and father about GPS watches, and energy gels, and Tarahumura indians, and before ultrarunning became a thing.

I ran to break myself. And one day I broke. Broken, frozen, soaked to the bone, sitting in the car, with my heart beat banging in my ears.

Under repair.

I can't run those distances anymore. I'm afraid of those distances now.
Afraid of early mornings, sleep deprivation and creatine kinase. But maybe that version will pass into history too.

There is a future version of me that will come here with my son. We might fly a kite, like the child version of me that came here years before and remembered seeing that. My son wont know this version of me, he wont know that version of me out there running on the trail. But that ghost is out there always running.

Maybe ghosts are versions of ourselves we cross paths with sometimes, trying to teach us a lesson from the past or future.

There are earlier versions of me out there everywhere running. One is running a 5 mile fun run as a kid. Another is running from the old house to the farm, the classic out and back, he's not even a teenager yet. There's another in one of those northern towns running through an endless winter in a park next to a university, running just to run, no idea of time or distance. There's another running up that hill to the apartment in the heat to prove he's still got it and he's not even 30 yet.

There are earlier versions of you out there too, they live in memory, they are captured in landscape. There are versions of the people you meet now, you will never know them.

'What did you do up there... read a book?'
No, I didn't. I started to write one.

I thought about that version of me that will always be on that trail, the one who stepped on this trail 9 years ago.

I start the car. The windscreen wipers grind. I head back towards the towns.

New Morning.

Where walls meet and coffee cups are made.

An oblate spheroid has spun round one more time and orbited a giant fireball. Due to an arbitrary decision made a millennia ago, you woke up and a new year had begun.

Over the last year practically every cell in your body has been replaced and renewed. You are a new version of yourself but a year older. The atoms that make you up have been around since the beginning of the universe... and still you can't figure out what your new year resolutions should be.

An infinite number of possibilities brought you to this exact moment, most of which are unknowable. I am typing on a computer invented by someone in California, containing precious elements mined in Africa or Asia, which lay buried in the ground for millions of years, drinking a coffee farmed somewhere in South America, in a cup made of earth fired in a kiln, with milk from a cow in England, all made using a machine made of metal dug out of the earth and run using electricity burning in a power station somewhere, I'm sitting in a room where the walls meet at a perfect right angle, built before I was born by a person who was skilled at things I can't even comprehend how to do. All of this is one moment, all of those things took thousands of humans, thousands of years to perfect, it is beyond the imagination of just one person.

We want to see certainty, meaning, patterns, logic and reason, and when we don't the universe seems like it was built on shaky ground.

No i ching throwing, fortune telling, tarot card reading, astrologer will be able to make sense of it for you, there are just too many variables.

All these infinite events will coalesce into moments you will remember over the next year.

Fragments.

Through a grubby bus window the sun will hit the hoar frost on the fields, and for a second the prosaic and poetic collide and everything will seem perfect, as it should be.

Other times. The sun comes up like a piss stain streaked across an old tramps blanket. But you will still get up and start another day.

But most days are in the middle. Most conversations you will forget, in a lifetime only a handful will stick; same with people.

3am and you'll wake up haunted by things that don't matter and somethings that do, and there will be nothing you can do.

Fragments will spin out of your brain; driving into Reno in the sleeting rain, watching a hillside fire in the Mediterranean, standing under an aircraft wing sheltering from the rain, watching the bodies burn at Pashupatinath. What seeps out of your brain will be unique to you and meaningful to you alone.

Memories, are they what make you 'you'?

Kindness and Gratitude.

The year in review, a long list things you've forgotten. Then your own year in review, for me I didn't read Proust or War and Peace, I didn't write a novel, didn't even have an idea for a novel. Didn't start a PhD or MSc in Neuroscience or anything, didn't run more than a few miles, did no events. But then, be kind to yourself. I do live in a great place with a great partner and a great son, I met some good people and had some good conversations; went to some new places. Everyday life is full of highlights, a cup of coffee here, a laugh at work there. These moments form a life.

Don't go in with too many fixed ideas. What you thought were your goals, may not ultimately be the ones you need to pursue.

The only responses that seem to make sense in the face of all this chaos and stuff is to be kind. Be kind to yourself and others, in a world where we are all trying to be happy and make connections.

And gratitude, to be thankful for the little things that make make up each day and manage to puncture through the hardness of it all.

Try and find a sense of purpose in the moment, every moment. This does not mean everything you do has to be imbued with mystical meaning. The fact that the sun comes up, rain falls from the sky and we are in a nondescript corner of the universe where I'm writing this and you are reading this, despite all the other infinite possibilities of things we could have been doing is mystical enough for any one day.

Goals. The Why.

'comfort is overrated' see the video below.



Anything that involves learning something new or doing something new will be uncomfortable. People like the idea of speaking a new language. They can visualize themselves sitting in an Italian cafe conversing with the locals fluently, what they don't want to visualize is the hard slog of remembering verbs and making mistakes. Ultimately they don't want to look or feel stupid, which is probably the main reason most adults don't try new things or learn new subjects, the ego is fragile.

In the words of Zen fella John Tarrant Roshi

"There is no end to the suffering caused by comparison."

Whether that be comparison with others or comparing yourself to what you think you should be.

Why do those new year resolutions fail? Is it because people are stuck in the future goal, they don't like the process, it brings them no satisfaction. There is no real sense of purpose, except some vague idea of capturing their lost youth by weighing the same as they did when they were eighteen. The most satisfied people love the process of training, gym or running or classes, or whatever they are learning or doing.

It's the reason your 1 day or 7 day free gym trial wont work. People who take these out have no investment in the process and 7 days isn't long enough for them to start enjoying it. It is long enough to remind them they can't achieve anything in 7 days, their goal is harder than they thought, will take longer than they thought and involves something they don't get that much pleasure from. It reminds them of their mortality, that life is short and to give up and go and do something they do enjoy doing like watching Netflix or going to the pub.

The guiding lights for the next year:

3 principles as outlined by Richard Nisbett (2015:225) and which underlie Eastern thought:

1) Principle of change: Reality is a process of change. What is currently true will shortly be false.
2) Principle of contradiction: Contradiction is the dynamic underlying change. Because change is constant, contradiction is constant.
3) Principle of relationships(holism): The whole is more than the sum of its parts. Parts are meaningful only in relation to the whole.

Is it worth having a goal, or plans, or resolutions?

Here is a little exchange:

Dizang asked "Where are you going?"
Fayan said "Around on pilgrimage."
Dizang asked "What is the purpose of pilgrimage?"
Fayan replied "I don't know."
Dizang responded "Not knowing is most intimate."

Replace the word pilgrimage in the third line with the word 'goals', or 'resolutions' or 'relationshsips'.

If through all of the information, chaos, infinite decisions, fuzziness and confusion that life throws, you somehow become aware of a clear goal or subject or area of interest or something that sparks something in you; then go for it, cling to that life raft.

The burning questions and ideas that keep coming back to you, they are your life koan. The ones you carry around with you your entire life.

It's up to you, the most important thing is to enjoy the process, to find things that are satisfying, and mostly these are things that are out of your comfort zone. The years are spinning on, you are wearing down, but there are still infinite moments to enjoy, little things. You can always learn and renew.

You don't need to retreat to the woods to 'suck the marrow out of life' or 'to live deliberately', you can do it in everyday humdrum life and make it meaningful. You don't need someone elses list of goals.

And of course, sometimes the best thing to do is binge watch a TV series on Netflix and have a beer.

It's a new morning, a new day, a new beginning, a new moment. It always is.

Happy New Year, have a good 2018 or whichever year you are in.

"Great understanding is broad and unhurried; little understanding is cramped and busy. Great words are clear and limpid; little words are shrill and quarrelsome. In sleep, people’s spirits go visiting; in waking hours, their bodies hustle. With everything they meet they become entangled. Day after day they use their minds. in strife, sometimes grandiose, sometimes sly, sometimes petty. Their little fears are mean and trembly; their great fears are stunned and overwhelming. They bound off like an arrow or crossbow bolt, certain that they are arbiters of right and wrong. They cling to their position as though they had sworn before the gods, sure that they are holding on to victory. They fade like fall into winter—such is the way they dwindle day by day. They drown in what they do—you cannot make them turn back. They grow dark, as though sealed with seals—such are the excesses of their old age. And as they draw near to death, nothing can restore their minds to the light."

- The complete works of Zhuangzi, Burton Watson translation, Ch, 2, p.8 

Other references:

The idea of infinite unknowable things, pilgrimage quote and John Tarrant quote taken from a day workshop on Freedom & Intimacy by Kevin Jikai Pickard at Zenways.

Nisbett, R (2015) Mindware. Tools for Smart Thinking. Penguin.

Give yourself a break.

It's that time of the year when half the population is eating their body weight in chocolate and promising themselves they are going to get fit and lose in January.

And another smaller group of people are panicking that they will not be able to go the gym on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, wondering when they will fit in arm day. And waking up in a cold sweat about their fat percentage increasing by 1% when the ambassador offers them one more ferrero rocher.

Why yes ambassador I will have another Ferrero Rocher (and tomorrow I will spend 3 hours in the gym guilt ridden).

This is aimed at the second group of people.

A break from training for a week or so will not make any difference unless:-

• You are training for the 2018 Olympics.
• You have a 100 mile race in late January.
• You are stepping on stage and need to be contest ready in the middle of January.

If none of these apply give yourself a break.

A break will do you good.

This a good time for a deload week or two. Go easy, have some back off sessions, no heavy lifting, or if you are a runner some easy runs.

You may not be near your usual gym or usual running routes. Take some time to do something different. Do the opposite of what you normally do, if you normally lift heavy go for a jog or a run, if you normally do endurance work then do some body weight work or mobility.

If you normally train 4 or 5 times a week and can't guarantee your normal routine or you're not sure how many times a week you can train then go total body.

For example, pick one exercise from each of the following:

Vertical Pull

Vertical Push

Horizontal Pull

Horizontal Push

Quad dominant

Hip Dominant

Accessory - core/ arms/ whatever

Which could be something like:-

Latpulldown

Dumbbell shoulder press

Seated Row

Lunge or goblet squat

Leg curl or dumbbell RDL

Plank or some bicep/ tricep supersets

2-3 sets of 10 to 15 reps.

Or if you don't have access to any equipment then try a simple body weight routine:

Press up

Body weight squat

Do a simple a ladder up routine, 1 rep of each then 2,3,4,5,6 up to 20.

Other things to consider:

A simple Christmas mobility routine, you spend days on end sitting down in a chair or in car stuck in traffic or stooped over a stove (or over a pint), time to reverse posture.

Something like:

Cat camel

Bird dog

Downward dog

Updog

Spidermans with overhead reach

Half kneeling hip flexor stretch with over head reach

Sit back into hamstring/ half splits stretch

Finish in puppy dog pose.

This is the type of routine you can bust out in your Christmas jumper. (In fact I will film it later this week and post it up).

But most importantly - ITS OKAY TO TAKE A DAY OFF!

Think outside the box.

You are in a house that has been centrally heated to the same temperature as the Sahara. This is a chance to do some heat acclimatization training for that desert race you have been considering. Put on your running kit and rucksack and run up and down the stairs.

Mass building phase. Been trying to bulk up and put on weight but can never get enough calories in? Now is your chance, you should have protein and carbs coming out of your ears. For once you can hit those 6000 calories. Train hard up to until Christmas day, over reach as  much as possible, then sit back and let the super-compensation happen while you watch you favourite Christmas film. You are literally resting for mass. Your biceps and quads will be growing as you lay there with the meat sweats.

How much does that turkey weigh? Quick press it over head for maximum reps before putting it in the oven, a chance for a sneaky shoulder workout.

Always wanted to get photo shoot ready? Now's your chance. Go low carb for the week before hand. Then start drinking alcohol from 8am Christmas day, bucks fizz, wine and beer should dehydrate you nicely combined with the indoor greenhouse, then add in all those carbs. Next thing you know, your muscles have refilled with glycogen, all the water has been drawn out from under your skin, you will be pumped and ripped and all you need to do is find someone to give you a fake tan on Boxing Day and get ready for that photoshoot. (Ask for a fake tanning kit as a gift, problem solved).

Burpee drink penalty. Every time you have a drink do 10 burpees.

Exercise food label. Use your Christmas gift tags to label the exact number of minutes of exercise it will take to burn off the calories in the food. Yes, labelling every Quality Street or Heroes will take some time.

Sleep penalty. First person to fall asleep has to do 50 mountain climbers or is made to join a crossfit gym in the new year.

Christmas cracker exercises. Get those crackers that you can put your own gifts and jokes in. Instead of jokes put in exercise routines. What better way to start dinner than 25 jumping jacks.

Television penalty. If anyone mentions any soap opera christmas special, 1000 burpee penalty. Enforce this.

Exercise charades. You have to mime a sport and everyone has to guess which one. For crossfitters, WOD charades, you start doing a WOD and everyone has to guess which one, of course that is Kelly or is that Fran? Wear the crossfit gear you got as a present while you do this.

Weighted cups and cutlery. You can be working on your biceps all day long. A great stocking filler.

Baileys protein shake. Of course you can put Baileys in a protein shake. And yes, I've now decided this is a real thing.

Protein eggnog. See above.

Alternatively, relax. Don't be so hard on yourself. Go for a walk in the fresh air. Don't get too stressed. All your progress will not be undone in one week. Consistency always wins, if you're consistent the rest of the year, give yourself a well earned break and enjoy yourself.

Christmas dinner is basically lean meat and vegetables. And if you are in the UK Boxing Day is more lean meats and vegetables.

All the stats about people putting on weight at Christmas and never losing it are about sedentary people with crappy diets all year round.

And as long as you don't drink until your liver dissolves or eat until you go into insulin shock, you'll be okay.

And hey, there's always next year.

May the Kwanzaa-bot bring you everything you wished for.

Happy Christmas one and all.

Getting Older (and training).

Do you need to train differently as you get older?

Recently there has been a spate of books and resources for the 'older' lifter, which the people providing these resources normally define as over 40. A few of them define it as over 30 or 35, which is of course laughable (these are normally the ones written by people in their 20's).

This trend seems to be because all the coaches writing these various programmes now find themselves in their 40's or 50's.

Full disclosure I haven't read any of the books aimed at the over 40 trainee or joined any of the online programmes ( I'm 43 by the way). I have purchased Bill Hartmans book on kindle but not read it yet. Therefore anything I write here is my take on it.

Notice I have generally referred to these as resources for the older 'lifter,' as most of the guys writing this stuff are coming from a lifting back ground and not so much the endurance background.

But do you need to train differently as you get older? Does anything need to change? And does it depend more on your training age or chronological age? Is it more to do with your training background, whether it be classic bodybuilding training, powerlifting, olympic weightlifting, endurance running 10k to 160k, or a sport like football (soccer)? And is it just a matter of getting wiser and not doing stupid stuff so much?

"Remember when you were you young, you shone like the sun"

When you're young you can pretty much get away with any stupid training regime and diet.

You can drink a gallon of milk, inhale some pre-workout, train for two hours, have a post workout KFC, go for a few beers, sleep in til 11am and repeat as necessary.

Remember those days you could spend 2-3 hours in the gym, with 30 minutes mobility, a chat, and a dedicated soleus and forearm day? No, me neither. Of course no one did any mobility work in the 1990's for a start.

And then you can do stupid stuff like deadlift maximum with no warm up because your friends are, keep running with an open wound on your foot because you want to finish a 5 day event, or run off a wall drunk in the dark, injure your knee and elbow, wake up covered in blood and don't bother seeking any medical treatment (okay, these are all things I did).

And then...

"With a boulder on my shoulder, feelin' kinda older"

One day you wake up and things hurt. And the bit that hurts keeps changing, it could be your shoulder, or lower back, or neck, or forearm, or t-spine or knee (or is that just me?).

If you made it into your 40's without any injuries you are either a replicant or never did anything stupid or pushed out of your comfort zone. Well done either way.

And all those guys that were squatting maximum everyday, well they had hip replacements. Maybe there was no correlation and they were going to get them anyway. Who knows. And training like a Bulgarian weightlifter is probably okay if you are genetically gift, chemically assisted and are only doing it for a short window of time to win something.

One day you wake up and realise you are going to face the grim reaper, which means you need to do 2 things: 1) Improve your chess game 2) Not knock on heavens door with a Dad-bod.

"So you're scared and you're thinking that maybe we ain't that young anymore"

Playing chess with death. Film reference for the day. The Seventh Seal. source:empire online magazine

I know quite a few guys lifting weights into their late 50's, and guys running into their 60's.

There are two interesting things I've observed, the guys still lifting in their 50's when I've talked to them never deadlifted or squatted heavy. Basically when they started in gyms in the UK there were no power racks, so they never did that type of training. And then when these things were popular they decided it was too late for them to take up that type of lifting. Coincidentally these guys don't have back or hip injuries, although they do have shoulder injuries from benching! These guys are still lifting heavier than I can on things like chest press, shoulder press, pulldowns etc.

And then you have the runners, there is some evidence that people are actually get faster in their 60's than in middle age. I know at least one runner in this age category who is still running sub 18 minute 5k and sub 35 minute 10k, on three short training sessions a week.

Of course, this is not a random sample, it is my biased sample. And it will be interesting too see how todays younger generation look in their 40's and 50's after training in the current milieu.

Its not the age, its the responsibility.

Another thing I've noticed about the guys writing these over 40 resources, it seems to be much more a factor of having children than aging.

And I know where they are coming from (I have a 2 year old son).

For example, there is a big trend at the moment about the importance of sleep and how you should be getting 8 hours a night. Any new parent is laugh manically at such a suggestion.

I used to run ultras but then realised I didn't need to run 100 miles to experience sleep deprivation, a young baby will do the same for you.

Getting woken up every 2 hours by the sound of a crying baby, then having to get up and train, your pre-workout meal now consists of a biscuit you found on the floor and a cup of tea you are drinking out a bowl because you can't find any cups. You then go to work, stick your head in a vat of caffeine, then return home, look into your partners eyes which have developed the 1000 yard stare of Dien Bien Phu veteran and start all over again. Yes, its a combination of Guantanamo Bay and Special Forces training but with more nappy changes.

Suddenly your priorities change, you need to do more time efficient sessions. You need to get back home, you are not sure if one week you will be able to train 2 or 3 or 4 times. You can't go for a 7 hour run on a Sunday, and you don't want to.

You can't always hit it hard, as you are knackered and you are not going to get that precious recovery sleep that all those sanctimonious 20 something coaches keep going on about; at this point you are so tired you can't even figure out how to fit the coloured blocks into the right holes in that toy your baby has. And you start doing yoga purely for the 10 minute relaxation at the end, where you hope to catch a quick powernap.

(Of course, you wouldn't change it for the world, and you get to carry the baby around in a rucksack, basically doing weighted vest steady state cardio wherever you go).

'The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older'

At this point let me point out there is a difference between chronological age and training age.

Some people don't start lifting weights until their 50's. I know at least 2 women who are lifting heavy weights for the first time in their 50's. This means the accumulated trauma hasn't happened yet, I know one has recently been injured from lifting heavy (as in powerlifting world record for her age heavy). Same with some guys I know who started lifting weights in their 30's. They have a golden period of high volume training, lack of any periodisation or back off weeks until one day something snaps. If you started in your teens or 20's it just snaps earlier.

Same for running, the earlier you started, the more chance you didn't start by training intelligently and you've had more time to wear yourself down and amplify any movement impairments.

But do not despair..

"Too old to rock n roll: Too young to die"

We live in a time of unprecedented training information and modalities. Look at the evolution of mobility over the last 10 years or so.

This means you have more training options than ever before.

Do you need to train differently as you get older? In short no. Unless your circumstances and injury profile dictate you should.

But its probably time to accept a few home truths.

You are probably not going to crossfit regionals
You are not stepping into the MMA octagon for a world championship
Your are not going to win UTMB
You are not going to a club on a Friday to impress anyone with your biceps
You are not playing in the premiership (and you should probably give up football if you value your ACL's and dignity)

However, this does not mean you cannot train hard, it doesn't have to be darts and golf unless that's what you like.

Having said all that here are my top tips:

• Shorter more focused sessions.
• If you are unsure how many times a week you can train, go total body each session. If you know you can 3 or 4 times a week, you don't have to do this.
• Avoid too much spine compression, why are you heavy squatting, can you achieve the same in a different way?
• Technique is paramount
• Accept that some exercises are over for you. For example, due to an old injury I haven't done any dips for nearly 10 years. I still manage to work my triceps and chest without this exercise.
• I like rest pause sets and descending sets to maximise time efficiency and overload with the minimum number of sets. For example, with rest pause, 2 warm up sets, then one set where you get 6-8 reps, rest 10 seconds, get 1 or 2 reps more, if you are feeling good, rest another 10 seconds and get another 1-2 reps.
• You never need to do a 1 rep max
• Variety is your friend - dumbbells, kettlebells, bands, yoga, bodyweight, sprints.
• Meditate
• Warm up
• Mobilise, if pushed for time, pick 2 mobilisations for key areas you need to work on each session.
• Power, stop those sarcomeres withering, keep those fast twitch fibres. Sprints, and jumps (but warm up first!, build up sets and sprint speed).
• Strength, especially for endurance athletes do some strength work. 
• Run up hills.
• Probably stop drinking a gallon of milk a day.
• Probably stop eating like a teenager on holiday in Magaluf.
• Just keep going.
• Feel free to ignore all of the above, you're old enough to know your body by now.
• And if you are in your 70's enter Badwater or the Barkley Marathon, what've you got to lose?!

But most of all don't use age as an excuse, keep moving, keep learning.

(all things in quotes, songs, you can guess which ones, Springsteen, Pink Floyd, and even Jethro Tull for all the old heads).

Walk like a monster for glute activation.

Glute training is the de-jour training of the last few years.

If anything has defined the recent fitness zeitgeist its glutes.

There are now approximately 40 zillion glute exercise variation videos available on instagram. But are they all worth it and effective?

And what if you want to progress a client from bodyweight side lying clamshells? Which exercise is the next step? . Of course, there are a 1000 next steps, but the ones I like are the side mini band walk (aka sumo walk, x-band walk) and monster walk. (Also band resisted clamshells, but I will post them in a separate video/blog).

I do see quite a few people in the gym these days with their own mini bands (mainly women - thanks Insta coaches). Butt (see what I did there) nearly all of them places the band around the knees for doing band walks and various squat exercises.

Is this the best placement?

Well no, the research shows (see Cambridge et al 2012) that to get more glute medius activation and less Tensor fascia latae the band should be lower down around the ankles or feet.

And the most glute max activation is when the band is around the forefoot. I am assuming that most of the women in the gym (and guys) are looking for more glute max activation for either injury rehab purposes, athletic purposes or lets face it aesthetic reasons. Therefore the optimal placing of the band would be around the forefoot and then next best would be around the ankles.

Why do it?

• can help as part of a programme for lower back pain.
• can help as part of a hip programme (my hips always feel better after it).
• get more toned glutes!
• athletic purposes, in which case always go in different directions.
• warm up, activation and mobility either for a leg workout or sport.

In the 2 videos below my colleague Nick is demonstrating the side walk and monster walk. Now you may be asking why is the band around his ankles and not his forefoot, if forefoot is better? The answer is you can do both, but from a practical point of view the band around the foot can end up getting caught the floor depending on the surface you have, and the friction of the band on the floor can wear your band out quicker. But hey, try both.





Or the monster walk, I don't see too many people doing this one, but I find it hits the glutes just as much, all you have to do is pretend you are a zombie or Frankensteins monster!



  How to do it:

1. Place band around the ankles or foot!
2. Get into a quarter squat/ athletic position.
3. Don't step too narrow, you will lose tension on the band.
4. Don't step too wide, you will end up using your back and not your glutes. In fact, a common thing I see when looking at peoples lower backs while doing this, is their spine bending to the side and doing the movement and their hips are not really doing anything. Especially if someone is not used to using their glutes or activating them you will see this compensation.
5. To stop the above happening, get some light core bracing. Also, getting the client/patient to put their hand on their waist and lower back, try and breathe diaphragmatically into that whole core region and be cognizant of not moving through the lower back.
6. Also look out for the knees collapsing inwards, they don't have to be excessively forced out but you don't want to see knee collapse.
7. Keep a good neck and shoulder position too.
8. Top tip: a band around the ankle with bare skin can cause chaffing and pinching. Either wear longer socks or trousers/leggings. Or try the band around the foot position.

I like to do this exercise before a leg workout, just one or two sets of 10 in each direction. Or put it into your leg workout and superset with something like walking lunges or glutes thrusts.

For people with back pain, it might be one of the exercises you give them as part of their programme.

And as always, even though someone might be doing it on instagram there is no need to make this exercise more complicated by doing it sideways or backwards on an inclined treadmill or by jumping up the steps on a stairmill - yes I have seen people doing this in the gym!

If you want to feel a glute burn give these variations a go!

References:

Cambridge E, Sidorkewicz N, Ikeda D, McGill SM (2012). Progressive hip
rehabilitation: The effects of resistance band placement on gluteal activation during two
common exercises. Clin. Biomech. 27:719-724