SS / Strength Training for a 61 Year-Old Man Who's 8yrs Post-Double-Bypass Surgery?

[logjammin]

Hi SS Coaches,

Questions

- Given reasonable programming adjustments for older age, how safe is strength training (e.g. SS) for a fairly active 61-year-old man who had preventive double bypass surgery eight years ago? My little review of the SS Forums literature gives me a tentative “safe!”, but I’d like to hear if you guys have any specific experience with it.
- Beyond your own experience, is there anything in the research literature that’d support your answer?

Background

The guy in question is my father. Knowing full well how futile it is to try and make someone do anything (much less enjoy it), I nonetheless think a lot about suggesting a program of squats, deadlifts, and presses to him so that he can enjoy getting older. SS has helped me immensely over the course of the past year and I like it so much that I wanna share it with people I care about - especially those I think might benefit most if they really took to it.

When I say he’s fairly active, I mean that he does longish walk/runs (5-6 miles) around our neighborhood 3-4x/week, and goes to the gym and flops around on nautilus machines 2-3x/week. He’s on statins and watches his blood pressure very closely. He watches everything quite closely, actually. Doesn’t smoke, but drinks a glass of wine or two a night.

SS Forums Search

Before posting this, I searched the forums. I found this post from a guy asking J. Sullivan about his own dad, who’d had a heart attack, bypass surgery, *and* COPD. Dr. Sullivan summed it up like so:

“Here's my advice: let him do anything that involves movement and resistance that he can tolerate, and show him that if he does it again in 3 days he can do just a little more. Sneak up on him with it. Small moves. Baby steps. They add up. I started with a woman in February who couldn't stand up out of a chair and only came to me because her husband dragged her in. She squatted 45 lbs the other day. Not to parallel. Not particularly well. But for her it is a major triumph, and we did it one painfully slow and careful workout at a time. I snuck up on her, and she snuck up on herself. “

I think my own dad could do this, too - even start with the bar squatting, actually. There’s another post about congenital heart disease, but it’s a way more extreme case than my father. I also found Rip’s PJ Media post from a couple of years ago making the case for strength training as an older person, but it includes this caveat:

“Assuming you are not a heart patient, strength training provides enough cardiovascular work to serve the purpose, and produces an increase in strength that endurance exercise cannot provide.”

However, in that post’s comments someone asks Rip:

“"Assuming you are not a heart patient..."
Ok but I am...one mild attack and one stint 2 years ago.
I like what you say but how does it apply to me from this point forward?”

To which Rip responds:
“You should train for strength, as well as do some small amount of LSD as your doctor recommends. There is no reason to be a weak heart patient.”

I might have guessed that Rip’d respond like this - which is awesome! But I guess I’m looking for more voices on the topic.

Conclusion

All told, my hunch is that he'd probably be okay starting low and slow on SS. However, my concern is that my dad’s gonna write strength training off with something like “my cardiologist would never let me do that.” He’s also obsessed with his weight, and it’s a very sore subject for him (he was fat as a kid). It’s just as likely that he'll ask “do I have to gain any weight?”, and when I reply in the affirmative, he'll stop listening.

As I reread this for typos and clarity, it kinda looks like I may be describing a psychological case as much as a physical one. If you think so, don’t hesitate to tell me he needs a shrink for his weight obsession more than he needs a cardiologist.

I’ve read the ReadMe/Sticky, and I think I’m in the clear as far as this subforum’s rules are, but if I’ve missed something, let me know!

Thanks in advance for any time you’d be able to take to enlighten me a bit.


-logjammin

[Tom Campitelli]

Dear Logjammin,

I think you have mostly answered your own questions here. Your dad can probably train, albeit cautiously. Will he want to train? That is the problem. You cannot save someone from themselves. I don't really have any answers for you here, although others may chime in. He would probably benefit from working with a Starting Strength Coach. That's all I got.

[logjammin]

Dear Logjammin,

I think you have mostly answered your own questions here. Your dad can probably train, albeit cautiously. Will he want to train? That is the problem. You cannot save someone from themselves. I don't really have any answers for you here, although others may chime in. He would probably benefit from working with a Starting Strength Coach. That's all I got.

Let me get this out of the way: you honor me with that superb screenshot. Well played.

Thanks for the reply, Tom. Yeah, I'd surmised that at least 80% of this will be in his head, but I wanted to confirm my hunch about the other 20% - namely that he could indeed train (cautiously). I wanna see if any of the other coaches pop by this post with a related anecdote or experience, or even a study, to add to any evidence I may present my dad with when / if I suggest he take up strength training. But lacking that I'll just sit him down and give him the best case for it that I can.

He doesn't have any SSCs anywhere near him, but I just saw a post about online coaching coming soon ...

Thanks again! (And sorry about my attempt to double-post - completely accidental!)


L

[cutlet#]

The story is ludicrous

[Tom Campitelli]

What an incredible movie.