Training for Middle Age and Beyond

About two years ago, I was asked to comment on growing old gracefully. Or powerfully. I reread this and added a point or two and I still think it passes the test of time. I added a few points, but it is still worth the discussion.

A couple of quick suggestions: first, the role of hypertrophy needs to be addressed. One of things that starts to mellow out is the “passion” to train. Honestly, I don’t have the answer there, but a few years ago, DHEA was argued to be the answer here. So, whatever it takes to reignite the spark, do it. I suggest camps, workshops, seminars, or any kind of full leap back into whatever lights you up. Relearn everything. I think that might be part of the reason things like the RKC really got me going again. Call it immersion.

Now, health is the optimal interplay of the human organs, but you have had an effect on your health. On my list, the first eight are health related and the last two are what people want from me.
1. Don’t Smoke
2. Wear a seatbelt or a helmet
3. Learn to fall AND recover
4. Eat more protein
5. Eat more fiber
6. Take more fish oil
7. Drink more water
8. Floss your teeth
9. Build some muscle
10. Improve joint mobility


With that, the older person also needs to address specific hypertrophy issues. Now, be sure to look up tonic and phasic muscles and you really want to build up the deltoids, triceps, rhomboids, and glutes with explosive big movements. Doing stuff like Double KB Clean and Press or Double KB Clean and Front Squat will do a lot for you. At the same time, you need to do some flexibility work, but just what you need. I find stretching the pecs, the hammies, the hips psoas and the calves to be plenty. Absolutely, things like Bikram Yoga are great, but you can get by with much less.

Don’t be afraid to do workouts like my 2-3-5-10 press workout that emphasize one weight but you get 20 reps fast. Do that five times and you have 100 reps…good for hypertrophy, yet little damage to the system. Passion can come back through some hypertophy and a little fat loss. Take your Vitamin D, follow Atkins’s induction (see the recent books) and get in the sun. For supplements, do stuff like ALCAR and ALA and more fish oil than you think. Also, pound down the orange flavored sugar free metamucil. Drink your water. And….a big one…donate blood five times a year.

Honestly, that newer Atkins book, something like the companion or something, is a great thing to follow. Eat all you want of fish, eggs, meat, poultry…one cup of cooked veggies a day….3-4 cups of raw veggies and drink a lot of water. If you drink, buy the book, “Martinis and Whipped Cream.” Too bad locarbcris no longer has a site, she had great low carb drink recipes. Crystal Light and either rum, vodka or tequila is a pretty good little “how you doing.”

Sleep is huge. I take ZMA, Z-12, fish oil, Alpha Male and some metamucil before bed (about 45 minutes before bed) every night. I also invested in good shades, good pillows, and I worry about comfort in bed. It’s worth every nickel to invest in sleep. If you live in a dorm or in a busy city, buy ear plugs, eye shades and a CD or something that will teach you to relax and sleep. Underrated advice here…

Train in two week blocks. If you are doing Kenneth Jay’s VO2 max, that’s fine, do it like I did: an 8 minutes workout, a 12 and a 15. Do THAT five times every two weeks. So, week one is 8/12/15 then week two is 8/12 and week three is 15/8/12…you get the drift. Work over two weeks. If you do something like I just mentioned, week two might be three lifting sessions where weeks one and three are two. Also, you need to nail down this issue: do I do light days or off days. I can’t do light. I can only workout, so for me, an easy day is “off.”

Be sure to block out certain months where you are going to “Go for it.” That tends to be January and May for me now as it just works out perfectly for me and schedule. This is the time for “Kettlebell Fever” or Josh’s “21 Day Swing Challenge.” It could also be any kind of short term, “here you go, do this” program. The upside is that when you see the challenge approaching, you can prepare yourself (financial, nutritional, mental, or whatever needs) and be ready for the event. Also, as you bore of it, and you will, you will see the end in sight.

Don’t ignore these final two things: either do Farmer Bars and/or Sprints about twice a week. I call my sprints the “Great 8.” I start off slow and taper. I don’t measure the sprints and merely strive for 4 “Down and Backs.” The idea is to be smooth and get into a sprinting movement. Farmer Bars for distance is something you also need to do. I would argue these last two ideas tie into everything I have said (see tonic and phasic…explosive glute work…two week blocks, whatever), but many people will become addicted to the gym for their answers and the answer is probably outside.

Having said all of this, remember that part of the victory is simply playing longer than anybody else. I’m 52 (at the time of the original writing) and I’m already planning how to beat the crap out of college kids next year. In ten years, I would love to say that these guys will be competing but I have the sense that I will be in the kilt or the ring or the field and they will be discovering Scotch.

So, remember Buddha’s insight:
“What you are is what you have been,
what you will be is what you do now.”

I can’t say it better and no of few who can!

  • JP

    Youth
    by Samuel Ullman (1840–1924)
    http://www.bartleby.com/73/2099.html

    Youth is not a time of life—it is a state of mind. It is not a matter of red cheeks, red lips and supple knees. It is a temper of the will; a quality of the imagination; a vigor of the emotions; it is a freshness of the deep springs of life. Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over a life of ease. This often exists in a man of fifty, more than in a boy of twenty. Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years; people grow old by deserting their ideals.

    Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, doubt, self-distrust, fear and despair—these are the long, long years that bow the head and turn the growing spirit back to dust.

    Whether seventy or sixteen, there is in every being’s heart a love of wonder; the sweet amazement at the stars and starlike things and thoughts; the undaunted challenge of events, the unfailing childlike appetite for what comes next, and the joy in the game of life.

    You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear, as young as your hope, as old as your despair.

    In the central place of your heart there is a wireless station. So long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, grandeur, courage, and power from the earth, from men and from the Infinite—so long are you young. When the wires are all down and the central places of your heart are covered with the snows of pessimism and the ice of cynicism, then are you grown old, indeed!

  • Pete Douma

    Dan, I have been a long time fan and this post hit home. I’m 54 and work out regularly. The one thing that really seems to limit my work out is aerobics. Even when I lift. I run 3 miles every other day and do a tabata in between and lift. I know kids can get max heart rates over 190, but its tough for me to get it over 155. Back in the day my resting was heart rate was below 50, now about 70 seem to be the norm. Have you ever looked in how our heart rates change as we age?

  • Greg Smith

    Good stuff here for some of us older guys. But, judging from your past writings, I didn’t expect to see flossing so far down the list!

  • brian Mong

    coach, what are the benefits of Alpha Male

  • http://www.facebook.com/owen.brown76 Owen Brown

    Hey Dan,
    What benefits are there with giving blood?

  • http://danjohn.net Dan John

    Give Blood: lowers iron…read up on it.
    Alpha Male helps ME for a good reason, but it is Lyle McDonald’s work.

    My HR is really slow and drops quickly after exercise. My breathing sounds like a broken locomotive, no matter what I do…no insights, sorry

  • http://nada Craig Nelson

    I am not given to posting on the internet, as I hate typing, perhaps from my years as a software coder, but there is just too much in this blog post to not respond.

    Brief bio: I am 61, and make my living remodeling and building houses, so I have very high energy and recuperative demands from just paying the bills.

    On the list of ten: I am onboard on all quite well, tonight having had a recreational example of number three: twice I hit the sand in Golden Gate park of San Francisco when my beloved sparring partner and best friend knocked me to the ground with well placed punches, but I came up immediately, ready to attack.

    As for hypertrophy, I am finding that the forty day workout is giving me excellent and increasing muscle mass without any special attention.

    I do think that one day the two week block idea will apply, but I am currently getting great results from just doing my press, hinge and squat of the forty day workout from an oddball adaptation of Power to the People, wherein I do one leg deadlifts, side press, and one arm rows, plus a few swings and goblets before running my little hill, or carrying, or jumping rope.

    On Passion: around five days per week, immediately after breakfast, I pull my weights out of a small closet on the outside of my house, and have at it. Easy Strength has enabled me to have the joy of training far more days than not, to have gains again, and to have the body glow of “bring on the damned world” well into my day from all of about twenty minutes of moderate effort. What’s not to get excited about in that?

  • http://www.twitter.com/miikemcgee Mike

    Dan,

    How many of the Z-12 do you take? I currently take 3 ZMA. Do you take fish oil at other times of the day or just night? Thanks.

    Mike

  • http://www.excelsiorgroup.co.uk James Marshall

    Er,
    what counts as middle age nowadays?

  • Wes

    You sir are a genius. When are you going to give us geezers your version of Kubic’s Gray hair/Black iron?

  • http://www.practicalstrengthfortrainers.com Sara Fleming

    With my older clients, we call working in the gym “Preventative Maintenance”. At almost 40, I’m finally beginning to start to get it. I’m doing less now, but doing it smarter, and I’m demonstrably stronger and in better shape than I was in my 20′s. But, I still have miles to go and a lot to learn, thanks for sharing your wisdom.

  • Craig

    I’ve read that you had a hip replacement done last year. I imagine that has forced some changes in how you personally train. I wonder if that experience has also changed your view of how older folks (as a population) should train, or altered your thinking on risk versus reward when picking exercises?

    P.S. Just got done reading “Never Let Go”: very entertaining and informative!

  • http://www.kendallgiles.com Kendall Giles

    Hi Dan,

    As a member of your target audience for this post, I really enjoyed reading it.

    One thing I’ve added to my own strength and training routines that has taken me to the next level in terms of overall health and fitness: I started training in a martial art.

    I had done martial arts years ago, but stopped because of “life”. However, after about a year of Muay Thai training, in addition to my fitness training, I can say I’m in the best shape of my life. Martial arts hits your whole body and forces you to apply all the things you work on in the gym. It’s also one way to measure how well your fitness training is going–if you can’t perform on the floor, then something’s going wrong with the way you’re training in the gym.

    Anyway, really appreciate your articles. Thanks again,
    Kendall

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