Can I improve my both my health and strength at age 56?

[Yonason Herschlag]

Right now I’m at an estimated 24% body-fat, BMI over 37. I just pulled 230kg last Friday. I haven’t pulled more than 220kg since my PR of 235kg 22 months ago when my body composition was similar to today's. I had gotten weaker after having successfully gotten under 23% body fat (six months ago), and I even had a couple missed attempts at 220kg.
Everyone is familiar with body-builders and other athletes attempts to cycle between getting stronger and getting leaner, but is there any potential for someone my age to get stronger and leaner via cycling between strength gaining and cutting?
I feel I have gained nothing from that cutting cycle, as my body composition is not better than it was 22 months ago. On the other hand I’m not significantly weaker than I was two years ago, which perhaps is something for me to appreciate at my age.
Any advice regarding my future strategy for health and strength?

[muntz]

Right now I’m at an estimated 24% body-fat, BMI over 37. I just pulled 230kg last Friday. I haven’t pulled more than 220kg since my PR of 235kg 22 months ago when my body composition was similar to today's. I had gotten weaker after having successfully gotten under 23% body fat (six months ago), and I even had a couple missed attempts at 220kg.
Everyone is familiar with body-builders and other athletes attempts to cycle between getting stronger and getting leaner, but is there any potential for someone my age to get stronger and leaner via cycling between strength gaining and cutting?
I feel I have gained nothing from that cutting cycle, as my body composition is not better than it was 22 months ago. On the other hand I’m not significantly weaker than I was two years ago, which perhaps is something for me to appreciate at my age.
Any advice regarding my future strategy for health and strength?

So, you are saying when you lost weight you got weaker and when you gained it back you got stronger again? I'm thinking that's how it goes. Maybe hire Robert Santana to look at your diet? Are you consuming a ton of protein? Also, 24% Bf isn't really that bad for old farts like us.

[Yonason Herschlag]

So, you are saying when you lost weight you got weaker and when you gained it back you got stronger again? I'm thinking that's how it goes. Maybe hire Robert Santana to look at your diet? Are you consuming a ton of protein? Also, 24% Bf isn't really that bad for old farts like us.

Proper cutting is done with a 500cal/day deficit, low carb, high protein diet. Recovery from intense workouts of heavy lifting is not possible on a deficit. So workouts are done with lighter weights and with a volume that doesn't lead to the breakdown of muscle. The goals of the workouts are to Que the body to maintain strength, while also burning up all the carbs stored in the muscle. The goal of cutting is to maximize fat loss while minimizing muscle loss.

For younger guys cycles of cutting causes less muscle loss than is regained in the next cycle of strength training, thus leading to an improved body composition of more muscle and less fat. The question is if that is possible at my age and condition. Personally my condition is that I am so close to my strength potential, that without constant intense training I get weaker. I've been dedicated to the gym for the last seven years with only one break of seven weeks (that I regretted).

With six months of moderate cutting, I reduced my waistline by two inches, and bf% by at least 1%. That was a reduction of nearly 3kg of body fat, however I also lost about 2kg of muscle.

Putting that muscle back on came at the price of gaining back all the fat I lost.

On the one hand I enjoy feeling strong and being able to lift heavy, and I enjoy not having to starve myself. On the other hand it's probably better for my heart health to be a bit lighter, and focus more on flexibility and aerobics.

So that's why I'm asking experienced experts for advice. Mark Rippetoe is older than me and way more experienced than just about any coach alive. So I'm sure he'd have some words of wisdom on this subject that he could share.

[John Watson]

I’m sure you know that bodybuilders take steroids for their cutting/bulking cycles, and natural bodybuilders get very small and weak when cutting.
I’m 57 and have more fat on me than I’d like, but without supraphysiological levels of exogenous testosterone I don’t think it’s going to go away to the degree that I might like.
Even if I were able to cut to low levels of fat, what would I do with my physique?
Nobody wants to see a shirtless old guy, and women don’t give a shit, unless they’re teenage girls looking at teenage boys.
If I cared enough I’d try and get my fat intake lower, or try not to have unhealthy levels of fat, whatever that actually is.

[Robert Santana]

Proper cutting is done with a 500cal/day deficit, low carb, high protein diet.

If you are sedentary or training on anabolic steroids sure. If you care about minimizing strength loss the low fat/high carb/high protein approach is the way to go until you can no longer lose fat and then everything gets low. At that point, it's no longer about strength though.

[Yonason Herschlag]

If you are sedentary or training on anabolic steroids sure. If you care about minimizing strength loss the low fat/high carb/high protein approach is the way to go until you can no longer lose fat and then everything gets low. At that point, it's no longer about strength though.

Actually I didn't catch it the first time I read it, that you recommend low fat and high carbs/protein to maintain strength while cutting. It makes sense that you need the carbs to fuel the workouts and for recovery.

I'm still interested in advice on programming. Should I cut slower and long term rather than cycle between cutting and strength-building? How should I balance aerobics with strength training? Is a ten minute walk as a warm up 3X/wk sufficient, or should I be doing 15-20 minutes interval training (walk/run uphill) every day?
THANKS!

[Robert Santana]

1) I'd cycle, it's more productive. You'll do it naturally anyways if you go "gradual"

2) Do light aerobic work after training or on separate days

3) 20-30 minutes of HIIT, continuous, or a mix of the two is sufficient. 3 times per week works well too. Stay active outside of your workout times regardless. Find reasons to move.

[Yonason Herschlag]

1) I'd cycle, it's more productive. You'll do it naturally anyways if you go "gradual"

2) Do light aerobic work after training or on separate days

3) 20-30 minutes of HIIT, continuous, or a mix of the two is sufficient. 3 times per week works well too. Stay active outside of your workout times regardless. Find reasons to move.

Comparing young novice to advanced senior
A novice gets stronger with the most minimal stress compared to an advanced trainee who just to maintain strength needs intensive stressful workouts. More stress requires more food and rest for recovery. So a fat novice can actually get stronger while losing weight, whereas for an advanced trainee that would be impossible – just the reverse – he can only gain strength and recover from workouts by eating enough to actually get fatter.
A twenty year old couch potato can maintain strength by doing nothing. But a fifty year old by nature is going to get weaker with age, whether he’s a novice or advanced lifter.
When you combine advanced lifter with being old, maintaining strength becomes a tremendous struggle. The nature of the advanced trainee or the senior is to get weaker unless they train hard, but combining the two, advanced+senior, doubles the struggle.
I started training at age 49 (seven years ago). As a novice, I was able to cut fat and get a little stronger, but when I had knee surgery for a torn meniscus and stopped running, I started to make real progress on my lifts… and gained a lot of weight (and fat) as well. Then I discovered that the less I trained the faster I gained strength – I had not allowed enough recovery time for someone my age due to my overenthusiasm to train hard.
So at age 54 I hit a PR of 235kg deadlift. Thereafter I spent several months cutting, which weakened my lifts such that I failed a couple times at attempts to lift 220kg.
Last Friday I pulled 220kg for a double, which I had never even attempted before. I feel like in another few weeks I may set a new PR at 240kg, at age 56.
My question is how should someone at my age and advanced level of lifting train differently than younger less advanced trainees?
I know I need more recovery time and to utilize light days to enhance recovery. But how exactly should I incorporate cycles of cutting (if at all)?

[Robert Santana]

Fine numbers for a man of any age, even finer at your age.

This is going to sound rather simple but advanced training for a young lifter is very similar to that of an older lifter. If both are equally strong and are of the same body composition then the older guy is going to take longer to recover than the younger guy. If you doubled 220 kg twenty years ago you would have likely been able to double 225 kg in a fraction of the time that it would take you today. So if it's taking you a month to overload now, it may have taken you two weeks back then. I wouldn't cut for more than 6 weeks at at time instead of my general 12 week recommendation if you are that sensitive to strength loss. Same deal applies: A young guy can cut for 12-16 weeks and keep most of his strength or muscle mass whereas the old guy may be spiraling down after 4-8 weeks. You'll have to pay attention to this but that's my general answer without following your progress over a long period of time.

[Yonason Herschlag]

Fine numbers for a man of any age, even finer at your age.

Yes, I'm happy with my DL, but my other lifts are humbling. My PR squatting is 170kg, and I probably didn't reach parallel, and my PR bench is 120kgX3. Right now I'm only benching 100kg, nursing tendinitis in the right shoulder. But thank G-d I can enjoy getting my rocks off deadlifting.

I wouldn't cut for more than 6 weeks at at time instead of my general 12 week recommendation if you are that sensitive to strength loss.

I really appreciate this helpful advice. I never would have thought of this. And it makes sense; very solid.