Too old for big weights?

[davidM]

Hi to all!
Have you ever consider to change drastically your training?
We all like training hard with basic exercises and low reps but I sometimes wonder how could possibly be my training once I’ve reached some (or all) of the goals I planned or a certain age.
I make myself clear: I’m training more or less like I did when I was 25-30, I pay more attention to the body signals and to my warm-up sets and recovery, but I keep on with squats, deads, bench, Press, chins like 10-15 years ago after all.
I’m still on a TM way of training, I can’t Squat yet so it’s not Texas anymore but I use the same template with a volume/recovery and intensity day. I’d like to hit my goals especially in the Press and in the Deadlift but I’m not so sure I could keep on training like I’m doing now when I ‘ll be between 45-50.
There’s a Bill Starr quote in his last article about Jack Lalanne that hit me. He says there’s a point in life when “lifting heavy weights was more harm than good”. That’s what I’ve been thinking about for some time and not only because I’ve a quads tendonitis (the result of pushing my 5x5 to the limit) that prevents me from squatting even at bw without pain.
Do you ever think that?
How can we change our training? Sometimes I think that I couldn’t even change it because it’s such a long time that I train like that and, to me, that is the only training I know. I know you got my point.
Dropping the squat is just hard itself…
Anyway, I don’t want to stay hooked to something because I can’t change. Life is changing then I want to train until I can.
So, what are your thoughts on this? What will you do after you hit 50’s or more? Or after you hit your best PR ever at that age?
Don’t tell me I think too much maybe it’s my middle age passage so forgive me.

[hbriem]

Well, I'm 48 and I still make fairly decent progress, albeit slowly (not right now as I'm nursing a broken leg, drat!).

However, I only starting lifting at 41, so in "training years" (or at least "lifting years"), I'm much younger than you. You've been training for what, 20 years? I've been training for just over 7. I can't really imagine what my training will be like when I'm over 60 although I hope I'll still be able to train and at least maintain my strength at a decent level.

When I started, I thought I'd be completely satisfied when I benched 100kg, squatted 150 and deadlifted 200kg, weighing 85kg at 10% fat. But I got those goals in a year and a half and of course I wanted more. And I still do. And as long as the PRs keep coming occasionally, I keep training because I enjoy it a lot. Everyone has to have a hobby, right?

[Mark E. Hurling]

Funny, I had some of the same thoughts when I read that yesterday too. It could be at 60 that my best deadlift, squat, bench press are in my rear view mirror but we'll see because I seem to be making OK progress on them again after a long hiatus with all 3. My overhead press is closing in on a 200 single, something I never would have thought possible. I think what Starr was talking about in the article was his acceptance of the toll his pursuit of excellence had taken on his body and that at that season of his life more PR's were past unless he wanted to really court serious injury and disaster. Few, if any of us here, are performing in the rarified atmosphere of Bill Starr in his lifting prime. As such, we haven't accumulated the wear and tear and rehab he did. So we can press on (so to speak) for marginally better performance by increments. Even at 50. Maybe even at 60. Of course if you feel that sort of chronic hurt becoming entrenched, it's time to re-evaluate your objectives in light of your body's current capabilities and limitations rather than your ego's desire for bigger, faster, stronger. We've all got that battle going on in our heads and I am no exception. At some point we should all have firmly in our mind the answer to the question "How strong do I have to be, want to be, or (most importantly) need to be?" I thought I was pretty much there 2 years ago and would be on the road to maintenance training, coasting, and trying to hold on to what I had. I was wrong then but I know I'll be facing it sooner rather than later at this point. Then I'll return to what I had been doing, which was very similar to Starr's workout with Lalanne, higher reps with little to no rest.

[davidM]

Nice post Mark...
I'm still making gains and I'm stronger than in my 30's to tell the truth.
I have this thought going on in my head and sometimes I hope that I'm not asking too much to myself. Maybe it's just fear I admit it. I don't know. maybe this quads injury that occured just when I was doing good with my squat really put me down so I'm here talking about age and all of this stuff. But I really would like to have a, say, "B-Plan" when I won't be able to work with high loads.
Sometimes I also think that if I'd go to the gym to just workout, doing pecs-triceps and deltoids one day, biceps and back the other day and legs alone the third day, without programming so much it'll be fun. But, I never did it! To me it's a strange way to train. I need to focus on the athletic performance not the muscles but the exercises.
Higher reps with no rest uhm....

[Mark E. Hurling]

Concern about this is perfectly normal. It haunts me all the time. But like I said in the earlier stages of my log; think Beowulf, not Achilles. Grendel caught his lunch early on from the Wulfster, you still can have dragons to slay for later in your life.

[Les Hahn]

I'm not 50+, but one of my mentors is, and he still continues to compete in Powerlifting competitions. He squatted 800 in competition @ 50 years old. I don't know how long he plans on doing it, but either way he is a strong guy. He was real big on recovery. He would only squat 1 heavy day per week. The other squat day was a speed day, and even then, sometimes he would skip that day if he didn't feel fully recovered. He did the same thing for bench, and probably only DL'ed once every other week.

There are other master level PL'ers that do pretty well too. So there is hope for anyone that wants to continue to train as they get older.

[hbriem]

There's no question that people can continue to lift big weights past 70 and even improve well into their 50s and even 60s. I know very many. One was a seriously sick weakling at 58, diabetic, riddled with heart disease and hardly able to shift his own weight. He went on to set numerous powerlifting records in his 60s and remains pretty healthy today although I believe he's had some back problems and doesn't squat or dead regularly any more.

However, individual experiences may vary. Injuries and lack of recovery can stop you in your tracks at any age. That said, I don't really think there's anything about being 45 per se that stops you squatting and deadlifting at a high level. I know dozens of lifters in their 40s and 50s who still squat and dead over 200kg (440#) and bench over 150 (330#).

For myself, for some strange reason, I find I recover best from low reps (1-3) and find it much harder to recover from higher reps. Many of my geezer peers say the same. One Icelandic PL guru says no one over 40 should "ever" do more than 5 reps. So again, YMMV.

[thefinalsql]

The number of years you have been lifting along with age could be a factor. I will be 45 next week, been lifting for 1.5 years, still trying to find the end of linear progression.

The longer you lift the more injuries you are likely to accrue over time.

I have pondered your exact question though. I'm sure "that" age is different for everybody and not quite sure what to do once you find it.

[Mark E. Hurling]

I didn't start linear progression until about your age myself. It was under a slightly different protocol of single progression with microloading of 1 lb. for upper body lifts and 2 1/2 lbs. for the lower body lifts while keeping the reps the same. I rambled along with it for nearly 10 years just fine. I am convinced it laid a (late) foundation for the gains I am making now.

[tennisgod]

I think we need to concentrate on recovery and make sure that we listen/feel our bodies. We need to adjust our training continuously based on the state of our bodies. I am still doing 5x5 volume squat days and was getting a sore back so I stopped for a week. Had I been 30 yo, I probably would have tried to tough-it-out. Rippetoe, in his Strong Enough book, mentions that it's Ok for mature lifters to take a day/week/month off.
But recovery will always be an issue with us if we lift heavy since a) we don't sleep well, b) we are unwilling to eat everything in sight, and c) we are running on hormonal fumes, and d) we're old.

Having said all this, I think it is important to push the body at our ages since the natural tendency of our bodies is very entropic. The body 'wants' to lose 1% muscle mass per year so we are battling against mother nature far more than a younger person.
As long as the body allows us to do the heavy basic lifts, then we should.