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"
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| 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).
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