There’s now way around it – we all get older. That doesn’t mean you have to stop working out, but it does mean you may need to change the focus and intensity of your workouts. For that reason, we created the Mature Athlete Workouts. We currently have forty weeks of free training available for you, with more being added every week.

Tom Kelso wrote these workouts. Tom is currently an Exercise Physiologist with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. He also trains clients through Pinnacle Personal & Performance Training in Chesterfield, Missouri. For 23 years he was in the collegiate strength and conditioning profession. He is a strong advocate of safe, practical, and time-efficient training.

Mature Athlete Workout: Cycle 1

The first cycle of the Mature Athlete workouts by Tom Kelso. Train progressively using basic exercises and training protocols to safely enhance fitness and strength.

Mature Athlete Workout: Cycle 2

Cycle 2 of the Mature Athlete workouts continues to build strength and endurance, with an added flexibility component.

Mature Athlete Workout: Cycle 3

The third cycle of the Mature Athlete workouts is another 12-week program with a variety of training options and modes. This cycle integrates challenge workouts to keep you competing with yourself.

Mature Athlete Workout: Cycle 4

Cycle Four of the Mature Athlete training incorporates a new training plan. The primary goal is to improve your performance in your sport or activity.

The post Over 40 Weeks of Free Mature Athlete Workouts appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The other death was that of Detroit weightlifter Norbert Schemansky at the age of 92. “Ski” was one of the most fabled lifters ever to compete for the USA. I will not go into great detail of his many accomplishments since they are well documented by many others. While the iron fraternity mourns his passing, I think it is very important to note the influence he has had on the sport as a whole.

All weightlifters have Norbert Schemansky to thank for the opportunity to compete in more rational classes. (Source: Precision CrossFit)

The “Old Professor”

Due to his receding hairline and horn-rimmed glasses, Ski picked up the nickname of “The Old Professor.” Adding to that impression was the fact that at 180cm (5’11”) and a body weight of about 90kg he certainly did not look like your typical weightlifter. He was the prototype of the muscle-less wonder. No one would guess that this thin, scholarly-looking man was one of the best weightlifters in the world. The thin part would change over the years, but his fame forever remained unheralded in his own country.

Ski was a veteran of WWII, where he fought in the storied Battle of the Bulge. Upon returning to civilian life, he immediately resumed training and soon made his presence felt on the national and international stage. Despite his lanky build, he soon built up a collection of silver medals at the world championships. John Davis, the man who always beat Ski, was also a small heavyweight, but was much shorter and therefore built like a more typical weightlifter.

It must be remembered that in the 1940s, the heaviest body weight category with a limit was the 82.5kg class; anyone heavier than that had to lift with the heavyweights. This put Norbert Schemansky at a disadvantage, as he always had difficulty gaining weight in those years. As the 1940s turned into the 1950s and the world started to recover from the effects of the war, more and more countries returned to or took up weightlifting. This led the IWF to re-examine its body weight categories. The result was that in 1951 the 90 kg category was adopted. This fit Schemansky perfectly. No longer would Ski have to compete at a disadvantage. He immediately dominated the new category, winning world and Olympic golds.

A Heavyweight Arms Race

However, by 1954 that weight limit was getting harder to make. Years of heavy training will eventually put meat on the bones of even a scrawny man. Aging also helps. Ski was then 30 years old, and we all know how much easier it is to gain weight when the birthdays pile up. By the time of the 1954 world championships, Norbert weighed around 102kg, all of it functional. This paid off as he easily won the heavyweight title with new world records.

Unfortunately, Ski was severely injured soon after. This kept him out of action for several years. At the same time, a 360lb monster named Paul Anderson arrived on the scene, and easily defeated Ski’s records even with coarse technique. This development set the stage for more debate about the body weight categories. People were amazed at the huge weights that Anderson was lifting, but still remembered the great performance of Schemansky in 1954. Now people were wondering how an athlete even as great as like Schemansky could compete against Anderson and other monsters now populating the heavyweight division.

This debate continued until 1968 without being resolved. In the intervening years, Ski made his storied comeback, claiming bronze at the 1960 and 1964 Olympics. By that time, he had gained even more weight. He was now very thick and best of all, most of it was functional and well-proportioned body weight. But even at 120kg he was still small compared to the 140kg Soviets.

By this time another Polish-American began his assault on the record books. Bob Bednarski (known as “Little Ski”) would do this weighing only 110kg or so. This renewed the demands for the inclusion of a 110kg category. Though Big Ski’s 1954 performances had started the debate, it was Little Ski’s performances that finally led to the addition of the 110kg class in 1969. This came a little late for Big Ski, even though he was still competing at a high level. He was now too heavy for the 110s but still not heavy enough for the supers.

More Classes and Masters Competition

As an aside, for political reasons, the IWF had to add a 52kg category. So even small lifters indirectly benefitted from Ski’s inspiration. In 1977 they also added a 100kg category. Would all this have occurred if a lanky man from Detroit had not become the first man to regularly hit 400lb jerks? Lifting fans today still like to speculate as to how many world titles Schemansky (and Davis) would have won if those categories had existed during their heydays. Probably many. The American team could have come home with three or four gold medals instead of just one.

In addition to these new body weight categories Norbert Schemansky was probably responsible for the advent of “Master” age categories in weightlifting. Ski won an Olympic medal at age 40 and continued to compete at a high national level for several years after that. When Bill Clark of Missouri organized his first Masters event back in the 1960s, he was undoubtedly inspired by the recent feats of Norbert Schemansky at an age well past normal athletic dotage.

So in addition to the many championships he won, Norbert Schemansky’s life must also be celebrated for both the rationalization of the body weight categories, and giving lifters the opportunity to continue their careers into old age. None of that existed before him.

Parity for Weightlifting Women

The IWF recently announced that it will institute the 90kg category for the second time in history. After much discussion, it was decided to add an eighth body weight category for women, thus achieving parity with the men. After more discussion, it was decided that the category’s upper limit would be at 90kg. The highest category with a limit had been 75kg. That limit had been controversial right from the start of separate categories for women. Most considered it too low. After all, men had 105 kg as their highest limited category. This situation harkened back to what Ski had to deal with in the 1950s. Women had to either weigh less than 75kg or else compete with athletes weighing 50kg more than them. At the same time, many medal winners were only a few kilos over the 75kg limit. In short, the category was just too wide.

It was not easy determining the best breaking point. Women are, on average, 5 inches shorter than men. Body composition differs as well. In smaller elite lifters, women often have twice the body fat levels of similar weighted men. So it is not simply a matter of taking the men’s categories and extrapolating, as was the practice in the early days of women’s lifting. Things get more complex when dealing with superheavyweights. Fat levels are often much higher, so a fair and appropriate increment for a new category is more difficult to determine.

Height is another matter. With shorter average heights, we find that only 2% or so of all women are over 175cm (5’9”). This is where most female supers should be, but the numbers are so small that a new category may not get enough competitors, especially good ones. But if any supers are much below that height, a lot will end up being surplus. So it is difficult finding the right balance. Future reassessments of the categories are quite possible.

Complexities and arguments aside, weightlifters in all classes and at any age have Norbert Schemansky to thank for the opportunity to compete in more rational classes. Now quit using your age and weight as excuses and get back in the gym.

More on women’s lifting:

Growth on the Platform: Female Olympic Talent

Coaches, for your athletes:

Weightlifting: Sport or Training Modality?

The post Thank Norbert Shemansky for Your Weightlifting Category appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Science has shown us that as we pass 35 the body slows down production of hormones beneficial to working out. Building muscle and staying lean are much easier when you have good amounts of these hormones coursing through your veins, so it’s no surprise that performance tends to drop as you age.

Working out gets tough as you get older. But it’s probably not for the reasons you’d think.

Science has shown us that as we pass 35 the body slows down production of hormones beneficial to working out. Building muscle and staying lean are much easier when you have good amounts of these hormones coursing through your veins, so it’s no surprise that performance tends to drop as you age.

But it’s often the hidden changes that make the most difference in the gym after forty. Kids, increased job stresses and responsibilities, an adult relationship that needs time spent on it, and all the other things that come from being a mature adult are often bigger roadblocks than the hormonal issues.

Staving Off Aging

Just recently I went and had some blood work done to see where I was at compared to fifteen years ago when I was 28. Two things from the results struck me:

1. I have the same testosterone levels as at 28. That’s pretty good for a 43-year-old guy and goes to show the power of clean eating and hard training. They really are as close as you can get to the fountain of youth.
2. It’s a little sad that at 28 I had no more juice in my body than I do now. It goes a long way to explaining the reasons behind me never seeming to be able to progress beyond a certain point with training – my body chemistry was just never designed for maximal strength.

Knowing this about myself and looking at my old training diaries, I see some remarkable footprints that help me figure out the best path forward for people looking to stave off aging.

Good Things Happen Early

Working as a personal trainer is both a blessing and a curse. On the bad side, it means because I have woken early for over twenty years now, I miss out on a lot of social events, as I need to get to sleep. On the bonus side, going to bed early is the single best thing you can for your body.

“You need to make a choice as to the type of life you want to lead. If you’ve made the decision that you want to live a healthy, fit life, then going to bed early is part of it.”

The hard part about this for maturing athletes is that job and family responsibilities may make getting to bed early difficult. You need to make a choice as to the type of life you want to lead. If you’ve made the decision that you want to live a healthy, fit life, then going to bed early is part of it. That will likely mean the end of midweek social events, skipping TV after dinner, and strict adherence to stopping work after 8:00pm.

The hidden bonus of going to sleep early isn’t just in how beneficial the sleep is for you, though. The real bonus is in waking early to train. After the age of forty, a strange thing starts to happen in the workplace. Suddenly you have a job with responsibility. Maybe you’re even in charge of a team or department. You have meetings, phone calls, video conferences, and all sorts of other appointments.

“The hidden bonus of going to sleep early isn’t just in how beneficial the sleep is for you, though. The real bonus is in waking early to train.”

But I’ll bet you it’s incredibly rare that someone wants to speak with you at 6:00am. The problem most people have with training early is that they go to sleep too late. But you’ve fixed that by deciding to live a healthy lifestyle and get enough sleep. Getting up at 5:00am for a 6:00am session won’t be an issue for you.

Training early has a few benefits:

• You train while testosterone is at its highest for the day, meaning your workout will be done in the most beneficial hormonal state.
• Because you’re likely to be able to train frequently and consistently, you’ll make better progress.
• It sounds counterproductive, but you are less likely to feel at your best strength-wise early in the day. This will limit the weights you can use, making the risk of injury less than if you trained later in the day.

Moderate the Use of Intensity

Judicious use of intensity in training will keep you performing as well as possible for as long as possible. But it’s a double-edged sword. The aging body simply can’t train hard every session, nor might it even be possible to train hard for the entire session.

A good way to split up the week is into days with different themes. For a three-day-per-week split have a day each of:

1. Max strength
2. General strength and hypertrophy
3. Power endurance

For four-days-per-week use:

1. Max strength
2. Mobility
3. General strength and hypertrophy
4. Power endurance

You may think you need more maximal strength work, but if you’ve been training consistently for a few decades, then your strength levels will be consistent. Maintaining strength is relatively easy and requires little work. Performing only one maximal strength session each week has the added benefit of not stressing the joints too much.

“You may think you need more maximal strength work, but if you’ve been training consistently for a few decades, then your strength levels will be consistent. Maintaining strength is relatively easy and requires little work.”

The hypertrophy training is an important booster both metabolically and muscularly. One of the determinants of aging is loss of skeletal muscle. Hypertrophy training tends to be at a lower intensity than maximal strength work. This means you still get extra strength training, but at deliberately moderate intensities. There’s a big difference to the body between lifting at 85+% like you need to for strength development and the approximate 70% needed for hypertrophy work.

There are also benefits from a hormonal standpoint. Typical hypertrophy training is done in a semi-rested state, meaning that lactic acid production is high during training. This stimulates growth hormone production, which helps to keep you young.

If you’re an endurance athlete, you’ll find that having a high ratio of easy sessions to every hard session will help keep you pain free and training long after most of your peers have retired. I’ll also add that if you’re a runner, make sure to use softer surfaces such as grass, dirt trails, and even treadmills to soften the forces of running. One of the ways I program runs for clients is to periodize both pace and the surfaces they run on to make sure no unnecessary damage is done in training.

Don’t Train Like a Twenty-Year-Old

These two things alone – the combination of going to bed early and training early, along with the smart use of intensity – will help stave off aging for as long as possible. Don’t try to train like a twenty-year-old. You’re simply not going to be able to reliably.

If you act your age in the gym, you’ll be able to play around outside like a younger athlete for a long time yet. But if you try the other approach and train all-out like a twenty-year old, you’ll find you spend the time away from the gym on the couch recovering. Wouldn’t it be better the other way around?

More Like This:

• Exercise Is Not a Final Destination: 3 Ways to Make Exercise Count
• Over 40 Weeks of Free Mature Athlete Workouts
• Live Long and Prosper: Fitness for Mature Athletes
• What’s New on Breaking Muscle Today

Photos courtesy of CrossFit Impulse.

The post You’re Not 20 Anymore: 2 Tips for Older Athletes appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

They provided a number of reasons why everyone should take part, no matter your age or experience.

I spoke with Lynn Schulman (left) and Bill Shipp (right) about their experiences competing as older athletes.

The Events

The CrossFit Open is an annual worldwide event that consists of five workouts over the course of five weeks. The events are not announced until the Thursday of each week and a score must be submitted by Monday. The athlete has to be prepared for any new challenge that might arise.

“Both of these events are relatively inexpensive (around $25.00) and you don’t have to be a member of a facility to participate. Even if you train in a garage gym, get out and experience a competition.”

The Tactical Strength Challenge occurs in the spring and fall of each year. The exercises are the same at each event and the athlete can compare scores from one competition to the next. It consists of the following three events that challenge the athlete across multiple domains:

1. Strict Pull Ups or Flexed Arm Hang – Absolute upper body strength
2. Deadlift – Absolute lower body strength
3. Snatch Test – As many reps as possible of kettlebell snatches. A test of work capacity.

Lynn Schulman: CrossFit Open (’14, ’15), Age 64

Lynn was urged to do the CrossFit Open by her coaches at her CrossFit in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She wasn’t exactly sure what she was signing up for, but she is always up for a new challenge. That said, when the time came for the workouts, she referred to herself as “scared out of my mind.”

Since no one knows the exercises involved in each week’s workout, Lynn often found herself having to quickly learn a new skill. One of her proudest accomplishments was that she had never before done a double under, but after an intensive session with her coaches, she was able to perform nineteen of them in the actual event. As she said, “It motivates you to do things you never thought you could do.”

Asked what advice she would give to someone thinking about signing up for the Open, she said:

I would tell them you are not be going to be on ESPN. You are among friends. It is a comfortable environment, but it takes you out of your comfort zone. Just have fun with it. A competition motivates you even more. I never saw myself as an athlete, but now I see myself differently.

Lynn’s last sentence struck me. I had the opportunity to see her participate in some of the events. She was an inspiration to all around her and not because of her age. She had a patience that comes with being a good athlete. She did not show frustration with the movements. Rather, she seemed to take each failure and use it as a learning experience.

Her approach reminded me of the early years of Tiger Woods. There was a certain calmness that existed even when he was not doing well. Lynn displayed that calmness in learning and achieving in last year’s Open.

“One of her proudest accomplishments was that she had never before done a double under, but after an intensive session with her coaches, she was able to perform nineteen of them in the actual event.”

Here is her last bit of advice for those thinking about doing it: “Everybody should do it. No matter what your age. It will only make you better.”

Bill Shipp: Tactical Strength Challenge (’14, ’15), Age 67

Bill Shipp had not worked out with weights until the age of 65. Last year, he pulled deadlifts of 300lb (April 2014 Tactical Strength Challenge) and then 315lb (Fall 2014 Tactical Strength Challenge). He also performed ten pull ups and 87 (then 88) snatches in five minutes. Those are some pretty impressive feats of strength for someone who recently starting weightlifting.

Bill had a background in the ranching industry, which helped his progression. However, as with Lynn, he sought out the challenges that made him successful. He began working out with Jason Marshall at Lone Star Kettlebell about a year and a half ago, after being prompted by his son.

Here is how Bill described entering his first Tactical Strength Challenge:

I hadn’t thought about doing it. I thought I hadn’t been doing stuff long enough. I watched people doing it, I thought that there was no way I could do it. With so much encouragement, from my son and coaches, I just had to give it a go.

The message of “just going for it” came throughout my conversation with Bill. With every step of his training, he seems to have a “just get after it” mindset. When he first started, he couldn’t even do a single pull up. He did ten at both last April’s and October’s competitions. This year he is aiming for more.

His training process is set up in a systematic fashion so he can always maximize recovery. As he puts it, “Train, not drain. I don’t want to be carried across the finish line. I want to be able to walk.”

“‘Train, not drain. I don’t want to be carried across the finish line. I want to be able to walk.'”

Bill indicated that his overall goal is much bigger than any competition, though. He wants to “stay fit and strong” as he gets older. “This is a machine that is ready to go. Maximize what you got and move forward with it.” Those are some powerful words.

Summary

In speaking with both Lynn and Bill, I found some commonalities in their approach to challenges that would be helpful for people of any age or ability:

• Put yourself into challenging situations and you might surprise yourself.
• Health is a lifelong goal. If you haven’t started toward that goal, you can start at any age.
• Don’t give up. Be persistent with new movements. Learning challenging movements brings about the greatest rewards.
• Find a good group of coaches and fellow athletes who motivate you toward your goals and challenge you along the way.

Both of these events are relatively inexpensive (around $25.00) and you don’t have to be a member of a facility to participate. Even if you train in a garage gym, get out and experience a competition.

For those of you who still don’t feel ready for the challenge, I urge you to seek out a facility and just go watch the next Tactical Strength Challenge or CrossFit Open. Maybe it will inspire you to participate next time.

If You Like This, You’ll Also Enjoy:

• Live Long and Prosper: Fitness for Mature Athletes
• Do Not Go Gently Into That Good Night (Or How to Grow Older Disgracefully)
• 5 Essential Tips for Coaching the 40-and-Over Crowd
• What’s New on Breaking Muscle Today

The post Two Over-60 Athletes Who Prove You Can Compete at Any Age appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Even if your training has been orthopedically-safe, there is regular wear-and-tear on your joints. It’s inevitable. Unfortunately, it’s going to happen if you do something as opposed to nothing. However, you can at least continue training provided you emphasize safe training modes.

Admit it. You’ve been training for years and have experienced aches and pains on occasion.

Even if your training has been orthopedically-safe, there is regular wear-and-tear on your joints. It’s inevitable. Unfortunately, it’s going to happen if you do something as opposed to nothing. However, you can at least continue training provided you emphasize safe training modes.

In my case, I still have that go-for-the-throat training mentality and often act like a 25-year-old, but my body says, “Hey! You’re over 50!”

Subsequent aches and tweaks are the wake up call not to be ignored unless I want to end up debilitated and walking on crutches.

If this sounds like your story, then it may be time to back off and enter a training segment that is joint-friendly, lower volume, yet effective. You still want to work relatively hard, but with different methods.

The goal of the program still parallels the on-going mission of the Mature Athlete Program:

• Increasing or maintaining muscle strength to counter Sarcopenia
• Improved cardio-vascular endurance
• Better functional ability via the above

This 12-week cycle is broken down over three training days per week:

• Training day one = body weight circuit + conditioning
• Training day two = strength training only
• Training day three = conditioning + strength training

The ultimate goal of this cycle is to progress your training with limited pounding on your joints. You’ve been around a while so you can surely use these joint-friendly exercise recommendations.

Please find weeks 1 – 6  at The Still Going Strong Past 50 Program

Cycle 10 of the Mature Athlete Program – Weeks 7 – 12

Simply download and print, then follow the training calendar. Just add effort!

Click to download the full 12-week Training Calendar excel file.

Click to download the full 12-week Bodyweight and Conditioning excel file

Click to download the Strength Training tracking sheet excel file.

The post The Still Going Strong Past 50 Program, Part 2 appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Even if your training has been orthopedically-safe, there is regular wear-and-tear on your joints. It’s inevitable. Unfortunately, it’s going to happen if you do something as opposed to nothing. However, you can at least continue training provided you emphasize safe training modes.

Admit it. You’ve been training for years and have experienced aches and pains on occasion.

Even if your training has been orthopedically-safe, there is regular wear-and-tear on your joints. It’s inevitable. Unfortunately, it’s going to happen if you do something as opposed to nothing. However, you can at least continue training provided you emphasize safe training modes.

In my case, I still have that go-for-the-throat training mentality and often act like a 25-year-old, but my body says, “Hey! You’re over 50!”

Subsequent aches and tweaks are the wake up call not to be ignored unless I want to end up debilitated and walking on crutches.

If this sounds like your story, then it may be time to back off and enter a training segment that is joint-friendly, lower volume, yet effective. You still want to work relatively hard, but with different methods.

The goal of the program still parallels the on-going mission of the Mature Athlete Program:

• Increasing or maintaining muscle strength to counter Sarcopenia
• Improved cardio-vascular endurance
• Better functional ability via the above

This 12-week cycle is broken down over three training days per week:

• Training day one = body weight circuit + conditioning
• Training day two = strength training only
• Training day three = conditioning + strength training

The ultimate goal of this cycle is to progress your training with limited pounding on your joints. You’ve been around a while so you can surely use these joint-friendly exercise recommendations.

Cycle 10 of the Mature Athlete Program – Weeks 1 – 6

Simply download and print, then follow the training calendar. Just add effort!

Click to download the full 12-week Training Calendar excel file.

Click to download the full 12-week Bodyweight and Conditioning excel file

Click to download the Strength Training tracking sheet excel file.

Click to download the full 12-week Training Calendar excel file.

Click to download the full 12-week Bodyweight and Conditioning excel file

Click to download the Strength Training tracking sheet excel file.

Continue with The Still Going Strong Past 50 Program, Part 2

The post The Still Going Strong Past 50 Program appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

In a recent Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research study, investigators compared blood flow restriction (BFR) methods to standard strength training methods in an older population.

What the research says:

• Muscle size in quads increased by 6.6% after BFR over a twelve-week period
• BFR only increased strength by 17%, compared to 54% after traditional training

What Is Blood Flow Restriction?

Training with blood flow restriction basically involves putting a tourniquet on yourself, typically around your upper thigh or upper arm. While the research has been mixed as to how tight the tourniquet needs to be, there is no confusion that BFR works, even if you only do it while you’re walking.

The researchers pointed out the advantages of BFR for older people. While a traditional heavy resistance training plan is effective for strength and size, it’s not always a great idea for older populations. The researchers proposed that because blood flow restriction training reduces the load needed to elicit good results from resistance training, it may be ideal for those who can’t lift heavy weights.

Study Design

23 participants, who were an average of 64 years old, were divided into three groups and completed a twelve-week program. The researchers measured the size of the subjects’ leg muscles, so that one group wouldn’t have more or less muscular mass than the others. The three groups performed the following protocols:

• The subjects in the control group didn’t do any exercise.
• The heavy-resistance training group performed a bodybuilding-style set-and-rep scheme of four sets of ten reps at 70-80% of their maximum.
• The blood flow restriction group performed four sets of fifteen to thirty reps with only 20-30% of their max.

The blood flow restriction group exercised with a tourniquet on, tightened to fifty percent of their arterial blood pressure. Both groups had the cross-sectional area of their quads and their leg press max measured, both before and after the program.

Results

As has been the case with younger populations studied using blood flow restriction, the older participants of this study experienced considerable size gain, which was comparable to the heavy-resistance group. The heavy-resistance group grew their quads by about 7.9%, whereas the blood flow restriction group measured in at 6.6% bigger quads than when they started.

The fact that these two programs yielded such similar gains in size is pretty shocking considering the loads used. In some cases, the heavy-resistance group was working with four times the weight used in the blood flow restriction group. However, the strength improvements between the three groups weren’t as close. With an increase in leg press strength of 54%, the heavy-resistance group realized some pretty big gains. The blood flow restriction group, by contrast, improved by a more modest 17%.

It seems BFR can help build bigger muscles with lighter weight. Perhaps those muscles have potential for strength development in the long run, but it still seems that for strength, nothing beats good old-fashioned hard work, no matter what your age.

References:

1. Laura Ortinau, et. al., “Comparisons between low-intensity resistance training with blood flow restriction and high-intensity resistance training on quadriceps muscle mass and strength in elderly,” The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research 2014, doi: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000000703

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post Science Tests Blood Flow Restriction Training on Elderly Clients appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

When examining the prior literature on the topic, the researchers in this study noticed that the smaller, more individual components of strength and size acclimations to exercise seemed inferior in older people. However, when a whole program was compared, the older people seemed to respond similarly to the younger people.

Study Design

Ten weeks of exercise were undertaken by 26 senior participants (averaging about 65 years old) and 23 younger participants (who averaged 29 years old). The workout plan was simple, consisting of two to four sets of eight to fourteen reps of various exercises. The amount of resistance progressed over the course of the program. The exercises chosen were typical gym lifts, such as the leg press, bench press, pulldown, and a variety of isolation exercises.

Before and after the program, the participants were tested for the following factors:

• Strength during the leg press and isometric leg extension
• Muscle mass in their legs and in a cross-section of their vastus lateralis
• Muscle activation levels

Results

• Strength: The training resulted in greater strength in both the younger and the older men. The leg press and isometric knee extension strength gains between the two groups were roughly the same. In fact, the older participants experienced slightly greater (although non-statistically significant) strength improvements during the leg press.

• Muscle Mass: Even more interestingly, only the younger men achieved a significant increase in muscle mass in their legs. Leg mass increased in the older men, and their vastus lateralis thickness significantly increased, but on the whole their muscle mass gains were much lower in the older group. However, the older men improved their strength by the same percentage as the younger men.

• Muscle Activation: The older men achieved a significantly greater increase in EMG activity while performing a voluntary activation, during which they flexed as hard as they could against no resistance. There was also greater activity during an amplitude test during exercise. This means the older men achieved a greater degree of muscle activation relative to the younger men. It also explains why both groups got stronger, but the younger men gained more muscle in their legs.

Conclusions

The human body pursues different strategies for dealing with resistance exercise as we age. The good news is, this study shows the capacity for developing strength is maintained at least into your sixties, so you can still maintain good health and build a stronger body.

References:

1. Simon Walker, et. al., “Similar increases in strength after short-term resistance training due to different neuromuscular adaptations in young and older men,” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, DOI: 10.1519 /JSC.0000000000000381

Photos courtesy of CrossFit Impulse.

The post New Study Shows How the Body Builds Strength As We Age appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

“Getting ‘old’ is a choice, until it’s not a choice anymore. I have always had the attitude that my body is my body, and I will make it do what I want it to do, not what my age ‘allows’ it to do. …I am going to rage against the dying of the light. Pick up the bar. Grab the rings. Squat heavy, and often. Look aging in the face and laugh. I will not go gentle into that dark night.”

– From Patrick McCarty‘s article, Do Not Go Gentle Into That Dark Night (Or How to Grow Older Disgracefully)

With these workouts from coach Tom Kelso (pictured below), aging can be an opportunity to get stronger and fitter than ever. Tom has written over 110 weeks of workouts for athletes who want to age with strength. That’s over two years of free workouts to keep you busy.

Meet the Coach

When it comes to strength and conditioning, Tom is a veteran. He received his Master’s Degree in Physical Education from Western Illinois University in 1984, and since then has worked in a variety of prominent positions in the strength and conditioning field. He served as Head Coach for Strength and Conditioning at Saint Louis University (2004-2008), the University of Illinois at Chicago (2001-2004), Southeast Missouri State University (1991-2001), and the University of Florida (1988-1990).

Currently, Tom works as an Exercise Physiologist with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and trains clients at Pinnacle Personal & Performance Training in Chesterfield, Missouri. Read all Tom’s articles here to learn more about his approach to strength and conditioning.

Tom has covered all the bases with these workouts. Whether you want to get stronger, swim in a Masters competition, or finish a 5K with your best times ever, you’ll find a cycle to meet your needs. And if you don’t, let us know what you’d like to see in the future!

Click the Cycle Names Below to See Each Program

Mature Athlete: Cycle One

Click Here to Start the Workouts!

Photo 2 courtesy of Jorge Huerta Photography.

The post Grow Older and Get Stronger With Our Mature Athlete Workouts appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

But like all fitness myths, it’s about time we shattered this one just like we busted those of spot reduction and the food pyramid. Fitness is task specific. If you wish to have good bike fitness, then you need to ride often. If you want good fitness for weightlifting, i.e. the ability to perform many reps at high percentages of your 1RM, then you need to condition the body for that, too.

The Focus on Performance

One of the things people always miss is that having it all comes at a cost. That cost is the loss of higher-level abilities in other competing qualities of fitness.

I know the athletes at the CrossFit Games have just demonstrated that you can be incredibly strong and fit at the same time, but the question remains: how much stronger could they be if they got rid of all the conditioning work needed for CrossFit competition?

The same could be said of an Ironman or ultra-running athlete who wanted to have it all and not just endurance capacity. How much better all-around could they be if they dropped some of the endurance work and lifted weights a few times per week?

The Benefits of Being Older

As we grow older we’re supposed to become wiser. Part of that has to do with a shift in thinking. I wrote last week about how I’ve changed our focus in training at my gym. It’s always a bit scary as a trainer to come in and make wholesale changes to what you’re doing with people, as it wouldn’t be unusual for many to walk out the door at that point. However, the changes have been well taken and I’ve had multiple comments about how much better everyone is feeling.

And that’s one of the things about being older – training is about health and wellbeing rather than just performance. It’s about being able to get down to the floor to play with kids or grandkids just as much as it is about being happy with how you look in a pair of jeans.

Weeding Out the Unnecessary

This is one of the many times that the term “functional fitness” doesn’t really cut it. If fitness is task specific, and what we’re after is being “fit for life,” then we need a training plan that reflects that. The problem is that when you look at all the many things you could train for the list seems almost endless.

Take strength as an example. There’s maximal strength – sure, we all know that – but what about explosive strength, speed strength, starting strength, relative strength, strength endurance, and absolute strength? Even looking at flexibility, there’s dynamic flexibility, and passive, and active flexibility.

If you were to try to program every facet of fitness into your training you’d either end up with workouts that last three hours each or you’d end up in the asylum. So you need to weed out the unnecessary and choose the fitness qualities that have the most carryover to everything else, as well as be realistic about what will have the greatest impact on your life.

I’m going to upset nearly everyone when I say this next bit…

You don’t need to do hard interval work. Oh, I know it’s all the rage and this study says that it’s better than long, slow distance training, and this other study says it’s better for fat loss, and blah, blah, blah. The reason you don’t need it is that not much of life is actually done at high speed for a few minutes at a time, and the bits that are – such as moving furniture or running up a train platform – can be prepared for just as well using different methods that don’t have such an enormous recovery cost.

High Intensity Work Is Like Binge Drinking

The thing about intensity is that a little bit goes along way. Take the notorious Tabata study. In it’s original, and barely ever correctly followed form, the main work set is a single four-minute block of intervals performed five times per week with one steady-state effort on the weekend. That’s a total of twenty minutes of hard interval work for the entire week. There are no results known for what happens when you do sixty minutes of hard intervals five days per week. (Although I can tell you what happens – burnout and/or injury.)

You can go back through any well-respected strength or endurance training tome and see 70% mentioned time and time again. That doesn’t mean you never train harder than 70%, it means that your average intensity is 70%. In other words, you can do a set at 60%, 70%, and then 80% and still have an average intensity of 70%.

The same holds true for endurance or cardiovascular training. An average intensity of 70% doesn’t mean you never run fast. What it means is that for every minute you spend above 70%, you spend an equal amount of time below it.

What you’ll find from this sensible approach is that you can train far more often than you can if you go all out every session. If fitness and health are to be a big part of your life as you age, then you need work at them daily. As Dan Gable said, “If it’s important, do it daily.” The modern trend of highly intense, thirty-minute sessions done infrequently during the week are the exercise equivalent of binge drinking. And we all know how healthy that is, right?

A Sample Training Week

So we know we need strength. We know we need some fitness work, both easy and short and hard. And we know we need flexibility and mobility work. How do we put all that together for a middle-aged, everyday athlete who wants to be able to physically cope with most of what life would throw at him?

Here’s a sample training week:

• Monday: 20 minutes mobility, strength (lower body, 5 sets of 3 as 60%, 65%, 70%, 75%, 80%), 10 minutes of intervals done as 60 seconds work/60 seconds rest (total of 5 minutes work).
• Tuesday: Metcon, 20 minutes mobility warm up, 21 minutes of intervals done as 90 seconds work/90 seconds rest (total of 7 minutes work), 20 minutes flexibility.
• Wednesday: 60 minutes easy aerobic, either walk or jog.
• Thursday: 20 minutes mobility, (upper body, 5 sets of 3 as for Monday), 10 minutes of intervals done as 30 seconds work/30 seconds rest (total 5 minutes work).
• Friday: 60 minutes easy aerobic, either walk or jog.
• Saturday: 60 minutes flexibility or yoga.
• Sunday:Game day or rest.

I’d urge everyone to try more moderate and easy sessions during the week before trying to add more hard ones. And the older you are and the less active you’ve been your whole life, I’d urge more time spent on range of motion than on strength or conditioning work.

After a certain age not being able to touch your toes is really going to catch up with you, like when you need to hire someone to help you get dressed or wash yourself. I can honestly say that I don’t believe there is a ceiling on how much flexibility and mobility work you can or should do. The more you move, the better you will be longer term.

I think shifting from a performance mindset to a function mindset is an important change for people to make. And it is one that will have the greatest payoff to your long-term health and fitness.

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post Function vs. Performance for the 40+ Athlete appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

I’ve got a few videos to share below, but my results were as follows:

Bench Press

• Opened with 235
• Second attempt 253
• Last attempt: 260

Deadlift:

• Opened with 403
• Second attempt: 507
• Passed on third attempt

Here’s my third bench attempt of 260:

Here’s my opening pull of 403:

And just for comparison’s sake, here’s a 405 pull I did in late March – watch how much slower this was!

And finally, my 507 pull. This video ends before I locked out, sorry for that:

That pull was a seven-pound meet personal record, and I was very pleased with it. I actually took an educated gamble going straight from 403 to 507, but historically, I’ve made my best pulls that way, and I really didn’t want anything less than 507 anyway, so I just decided to go straight to it. Glad I did.

The Dive Bomb Approach

This will be a brief entry, but one question I get asked a lot pertains to my setup in the pull. I do use what might be termed a “dive bomb” approach. Now, although I wouldn’t necessarily teach this method to anyone, it works for me, and I’m tickled to say that it also works for one of the world’s top pullers, Benedikt Magnusson. Watch this 1,015 pull of his for comparison:

Now, the downside of dive-bombing is that due to the speed involved, you risk the chance of grabbing the bar unevenly and/or initiating the pull while the bar is too far from your shins.

The upside, however, is that (at least for some of us), this rapid approach seems to maximize the stretch-shortening cycle, creating greater strength-generation potential. In fact, if I tried to spend any amount of time in the crouch, it would just sap my strength to a huge degree.

So that’s the story on my setup. Again, I wouldn’t necessarily teach this, and I’m not even quite sure how I ended up doing it, but it’s always worth continuously experimenting with your technique.

What’s Next?

Looking forward, I’ve got my eye on the AAU Powerlifting World Championships in Las Vegas in October. I’ve never competed for the AAU but everyone tells me that they run fun meets, so I’m looking forward to it. My goal for this meet is to finally hit a 1,200 total at 198lb, and that would break down into roughly a 401 squat, a 275 bench press, and a 525 pull.

Finally, I’m planning to use Matt Kroc’s seventeen-week pulling cycle for this meet. I’ll share details on that next week, but for now, keep training hard, and as always, please post your questions and comments below!

A big believer in practicing what he preaches, Charles Staley trains and competes just like his clients. Every Friday you can read what Charles has done this week in his workout sessions.

The post My Competition Results (Athlete Journal 94) appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

In other words, as long as you strongly fatigue the muscle, it doesn’t really matter a whole lot how many reps it took to accomplish that fatigue. You can watch this very interesting interview below:

This Week’s Training:

Everything still seems on track as of late for my June 8th competition. I haven’t hit any particularly stellar lifts as of late, but I’m healthy and everything’s been very consistent. Next week will be my last heavy week of training, which will be followed by a light back-off week.

Hope you’re training is treating you well, and as always, if you have questions or comments, there’s a place for that below!

Weekly Volume and Noteworthy Lifts

Volume: 38,319 lbs (Last Week: 42,973 lbs)

Cambered Bar Squat 275 (3×3)

Bench Press 255×1

Block Pull 455×1

Tuesday, May 20, 2014, 4:55 PM

Bodyweight: 202.2 lbs

Volume: 12,625 lbs

CAMBERED BAR SQUAT

Set 1: 65 lbs × 5

Set 2: 115 lbs × 5

Set 3: 155 lbs × 5

Set 4: 205 lbs × 3

Set 5: 245 lbs × 3

Set 6: 275 lbs × 3

Set 7: 275 lbs × 3

Set 8: 275 lbs × 3

Set 9: 245 lbs × 5

BACK EXTENSION

Set 1: 145 lbs × 10

Set 2: 145 lbs × 10

LEG EXTENSION

Set 1: 150 lbs × 10

Set 2: 150 lbs × 10

Wednesday, May 21, 2014, 3:15 PM

Bodyweight: 202.4 lbs

Volume: 10,610 lbs

BENCH PRESS

Set 1: 45 lbs × 5

Set 2: 95 lbs × 5

Set 3: 135 lbs × 3

Set 4: 185 lbs × 3

Set 5: 205 lbs × 1

Set 6: 225 lbs × 1

Set 7: 235 lbs × 1

Set 8: 245 lbs × 2

Set 9: 255 lbs × 1

CHEST-SUPPORTED ROW

Set 1: 100 lbs × 8

Set 2: 100 lbs × 8

Set 3: 100 lbs × 8

LYING TRICEPS (EZ CURL BAR)

Set 1: 55 lbs × 10

Set 2: 75 lbs × 8

Set 3: 75 lbs × 8

Set 4: 75 lbs × 8

BICEP CURL (DUMBBELL)

Set 1: 70 lbs × 10

Set 2: 80 lbs × 8

Set 3: 90 lbs × 5

Set 4: 50 lbs × 20

Friday, May 23, 2014, 5:40 PM

Bodyweight: 200.8 lbs

Volume: 6,865 lbs

4″ BLOCK PULL

Set 1: 135 lbs × 3

Set 2: 135 lbs × 3

Set 3: 135 lbs × 3

Set 4: 225 lbs × 3

Set 5: 275 lbs × 3

Set 6: 315 lbs × 1

Set 7: 365 lbs × 1

Set 8: 405 lbs × 1

Set 9: 455 lbs × 1

HIGH BAR SQUAT

Set 1: 45 lbs × 5

Set 2: 95 lbs × 5

Set 3: 135 lbs × 3

Set 4: 185 lbs × 3

Set 5: 225 lbs × 3

Set 6: 275 lbs × 1

Saturday, May 24, 2014, 8:31 AM

Bodyweight: 202 lbs

Volume: 8,219 lbs

BENCH PRESS

Set 1: 45 lbs × 5

Set 2: 95 lbs × 5

Set 3: 135 lbs × 3

Set 4: 185 lbs × 1

Set 5: 205 lbs × 1

Set 6: 215 lbs × 1

Set 7: 225 lbs × 1

Set 8: 225 lbs × 1

Set 9: 225 lbs × 1

Set 10: 225 lbs × 1

Set 11: 225 lbs × 1

CHIN UP

Set 1: 10 reps

Set 2: 7 reps

TRICEP PUSHDOWN

Set 1: 65 lbs × 10

Set 2: 65 lbs × 10

Set 3: 65 lbs × 10

A big believer in practicing what he preaches, Charles Staley trains and competes just like his clients. Every Friday you can read what Charles has done this week in his workout sessions.

The post It’s the Effort That Counts (Athlete Journal 92) appeared first on Breaking Muscle.