Some of my thoughts on training for the aging athlete. I have done a lot of athletic stuff in my life but was never amazing. Not even close. I've boxed, ran track; power lifted and did stuff like bike at a good clip for 500 miles in five days in 90 degree heat. Do I have any qualifications to give advices? Probably not. At 144lbs I've squatted 400lbs. My best at under 180lbs is 400lbs squat, 300lbs bench with no cheat shirt, 410 dead, 230lbs clean and jerk, 175lbs snatch. In my younger days I could string together sub 6 minute miles and ran a 51 quarter in a junior college track meet. I just bring up those non impressive stats to show I do train.
Here are some of my aging thoughts.
1. As you age in your 60's and beyond you will probably have joint issues. There are so many exercises in the weight room. Don't mourn any exercise you can't do anymore. Just find substitute. I have trouble with the flat bench, press behind the neck and squats bothers my shoulder grabbing the bar. I still sometimes do these movements but in short time they come back to bite me. Can't squat then use the leg press, squat machine, step up, dumbbell squat or many other movements. Can't bench anymore because your delts or elbow is shot then use dumbbells or a machine. You might find in time you like the substitute better.
2. You can't compare yourself to your younger self. If you do you will quit training. I just saw a video of a guy in his 60's who ran a sub 18 minute 5k time. Really amazing. Then he said in his 30's he was running sub 15 minutes. I wonder if he is pissed he's "only" running a sub 18, lol.
3. Don't be afraid of lighter weights. You can make a lighter weight heavy by slowing down the cadence of the rep and resting less between sets. I think it was on this site where a guy trained with the Pro Steve Davis. Watching him in the gym he thought he was using super light weights till he trained with him. Then doing 6 sets of 10 with very little rest between sets the light weight was suddenly very heavy.
Heard the same thing said about Dickerson. He would use 160lbs in the seated pulley lat row with a V handle. He was another guy at his peak that used 6 sets with little rest for an exercise. 160lbs can feel like a 1000 pounds training fast.
Last point was a story I read in Men's Health about a teacher that hurt his shoulder so bad he needed an operation. When he returned to the gym he only used light weights and high reps doing his reps slowly. Along with running he got into the best shape of his life.
3. Don't be hard on yourself. Having yourself as an enemy is a terrible way to go through life. If you take a day off when you are scheduled to train don't beat yourself up. If you have a work ethic and not just lazy just vow to have that workout tomorrow.
4. The heart is a muscle and the most important one. Train it like the girls can see into your chest on the beach. So many aging lifters can't keep up with a chubby soccer mom doing a slow jog in the park. It's good to know you can join young people for a run or a pick up two hand touch football game.
5. I'd write five and continue but the wife is saying it's time to float in the pool and to listen to some music.
