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"Old Guy" Aches & Pains
Rip, you're an old guy*, I have a question.
You're about my Dad's age and whereas you made lifting weights your hobby (and ultimately your career), Dad got really good at tennis and still plays 3 nights per week.
My question is, what effect do you think heavy weight training over decades has had on your body (besides simply making you stronger)? You and he have obviously pursued different fitness-related endeavors - yours the more taxing physically. My Dad has what he calls "old guy" aches and pains - creaky knees and shoulders, arthritis-style achy hands...stuff like that. It's not because of tennis but it affects his tennis.
Do you have these? If so, are they better or worse than they might have been had you not gotten strong?
*No disrespect intended; quite the opposite.
TMPHBITEU
I'm the creakiest old guy on the board. But this is because of many injuries I've had outside the gym. Many accidents, the consequence of doing stupid shit for fun. As you age, you are going to accumulate injuries if you push very hard. The pushing is determined by your ideas about how things should be done while you're alive. The question is: do you want to be creaky and weak, or creaky and strong?
Member
I am an old geezer with similar aches and pains but once i began to seriously train for strength, all those aches and pains have slowly melted away. In nature, and this applies to post puberty humans as well...there is only growth or decay...there is no holding pattern, or homeostasis or in between. if you are not growing, you are decaying, so take you pick. Decay is constant and always lurking in the background, like the tide waiting to wash you up on the rocks for the gulls to pick your bones. It shows itself through inflammation i.e. arthritis, and a host of other maladies. The SS method is perfect because the process of tearing down your muscles through training forces them to grow and get stronger. Once you hit 50 training is no longer optional. I choose growth and to hell with decay.
✓ Member
ud2o, you have clearly never looked at my log if you have to ask this question. OF COURSE you hurt when you get older. Especially if you keep challenging yourself physically.
I don't have Rip's track record of injuries, but I have a bunch. At some time or other they make me miserable for a while. So I self medicate with ДlЬєгтςοn’ς СЧєaρ aςς Щοdжa and ibuprofen. And sleep.
✓ Member
Here. This is a good example. Especially James Garner's comment at the end.
✓ Member
Im old, I guess, so people feel they can ask me questions as if I know something. In the gym they often ask me how i can do full depth squats? How can my knees handle it? Their knees are all messed up. Their Dr. or PT told them that squats are bad for their knees. I always respond with, "Your knees are fucked up because you DON'T do full depth squats"... usually they stop bothering me after that.
Member
When you train as an older person, what is the goal to which you aim for in training?Originally Posted by keelkemper
Im assuming here that Rip and others who have already strength trained for a long time can no longer add weight to the bar each week so in that case, what is the goal of training and how do you measure it?
I'm aware the answer to this question, if there is an easy one, would depend on how long one has been training and the level they reached, but clearly there will be a point in everyone's life (as late as possible we hope) when lifts start to go backwards. How do you programme in that situation?
Member
Grow or Decay.
Sounds like another SS t-shirt needs to be made.
Member
When I started SS, I had long-standing lower back pain from one collapsed, and one bulging disk (according to an MRI my doc had done). Also, having been a bartender for fifteen years (no worse job for the lower back) took its toll as well.
As I gradually added weight, the pain lessened. By the time I was deadlifting over 200, and squatting close to it, most of the pain had vanished. After taking a hiatus of four months or so, the back pain returned. I also think the 20 pounds I added, mostly to my belly, had an effect, so I'm trying to work that off as well.
Anyway, I'm hoping that as I reach my previous strength levels, the pain will go away again.
✓ Member
I have been lifting since high school on and off and never really stopped for more than a few months at a time during the many job changes and frequent TDY's some of those jobs required. But I didn't lift with good form and followed the wrong muscle comics to have diamond shaped calves, coconut deltoids, abz, gunz, and a tear drop shaped vastus medialus. If some of those phrases sound odd, it's because they were the stock nonsense of the Weider magazines. So I didn't achieve a lot of strength as a result because, gotta have cuts, baby, CUTS! My best DL was 405 around 40 along with a 20 rep set of 315 in the squat. Both with form that constantly racked my back. My best bench press, also around 40 was 275 with a wide grip, a little bounce off the chest and shoulders that hurt a lot too. And that was just from my bad lifting. It didn't help my dislocated shoulder and the tear in my meniscus both at age 19-20 from judo.
My goals later became getting stronger and maintaining what I had. After around 40 I quit benching, squatting, and deadlifting until 60 because of my back and shoulders resulting from my bad form. Then I discovered SS and gleaned some from Rip when this board was still on Strengthmill. I bought the books and got a little smarter. After the 2012 seminar at age 62, I managed 425 DL in the gym some months thereafter from Rip and Company fixing my form issues. I had long before quit that body building nonsense.
Once I looked at my lifts then, I decided I wouldn't humiliate myself on the platform if I started powerlifting competitively. To date, my best total has been 970 lbs. in my first meet. I haven't done so well since then, but I am determined to get a 1000 total in a judged meet. So that is my current goal.
Point being, your goals can change over time.
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