I Taught a 64-yo Woman to Squat, Deadlift and Press Today

[Jonathon Sullivan]

Progress to date:

peg051212.JPG

(Hadn't incorporated the clean into the "increases" bar yet. She's cleaning 35x3x5 now.)

[Kyle Schuant]

Target of double bodyweight deadlift, and bodyweight bench... are those her targets, your suggested targets, or just a leftover from wherever you got the sheet?

I train a 64yo woman once a week, her most major physical issue is a previously slipped disc, L4/L5, which affected her sciatic nerve, this last flared up before Easter 2011. (Yes, we're in consultation with doctor and physiotherapist, as well her daughter is a physiotherapist and former gym member I've trained so she keeps tabs on us!) Since then she'd swum a lot for it, I'd given her basic programmes with machines etc to start her off, then bodyweight and dumbbell stuff, a couple of months back she started PT with me, we build her up slowly. She's happily doing kettlebell deadlifts with 16kg, and goblet squats and swings with 12kg, so I feel confident in moving her into the power rack next week, not for squats but rack pulls.

My gym lacks bumper plates, so pulling anything less than 60kg from the floor would require great flexibility and control. So I begin most people in the rack, the lowest safety is usually mid to high shin level. They start with the empty bar, and in the first session almost everyone can do 40kg for sets of 5, though if the person has one or more of - over 50, history of back issues, is under 50kg - then I'm happy if they manage 30kg the first time. Once people can pull 70-75kg from the rack they can pull 60kg from the floor, the extra 10cm or so is basically equal to 10-15kg, depending on the person and their leverages.

I'd be very very happy if my 64yo could pull 60kg from the floor by the end of this year. This would be around her bodyweight. A bodyweight deadlift I consider to be the minimum for a healthy adult to have a good quality of life day-to-day. If that can be achieved by someone over 50 with one or two health issues, I think that's pretty good. My experience is that if they achieve that then a lot of joint, postural etc issues are greatly reduced as problems.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

Target of double bodyweight deadlift, and bodyweight bench... are those her targets, your suggested targets, or just a leftover from wherever you got the sheet?

It's a partial leftover. Oops. I made the sheet in Excel, it's undergoing constant revision. I'm in the processing of creating a master sheet for any other clients who happen to wander my way. I think I got started revising her targets (ie, .74 BW press) and then got distracted... Thanks for pointing it out.

I appreciate your perspective. I think I lucked out with this first client. She's in fairly good health (a few health issues, nothing too serious), she's highly motivated, and seems to have aptitude. I couldn't have asked for a better index case. The next one will be tougher, I'm sure.

[Kyle Schuant]

I find that everyone over the age of 30 has got some previous injury or health condition which might affect their exercise. The active ones have torn ACLs or dislocated shoulders or supraspinatus impingements or 5 previous ankle sprains (all on the same ankle, of course) and so on. The sedentary ones have herniated discs or type II diabetes or sore knees or generalised back pain, etc.

The previous injuries are always tricky, because they may not be medically significant - never causes pain, etc - but will often still affect exercise. For example, multiple ankle sprains, you might find the person's ankle is really unstable, pronates madly - do you really want to put 100kg on their back through that? So you have to be creative and have a good library of exercises in your head, as well of course as consulting with medical people who can actually help them.

We should probably ask Rip what are realistic targets for people of various ages, assuming they're basically healthy. My experience so far is that age does not much affect what the person can achieve physically, only how quickly they can achieve it. Their background in physical activity is very very important. Someone in their 50s who's always been active will be deadlifting their bodyweight in a couple of months, if they've been sedentary for 30 years, very different proposition.

Physical issues are never as important as the mental ones, though. Most people of whatever age simply won't push themselves. As they get older, they get a natural phobia of injury. They become afraid to exercise in case they hurt themselves; they prefer low function to even the chance of zero function. I find you have to be careful in the progressions, more for the sake of their minds than their bodies. Sully will have a great advantage in this over some idiot like me, he can say, "I'm a doctor, trust me."

[Jonathon Sullivan]

She took 10 days for travel and illness. Came back today and PR'd easily on every lift. She astonishes me.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

Another followup:

She's learning the clean and doing very well. Squat is now 110, bench 70, deadlift 150x3.

Oh, and her doctor has now discontinued one of her blood pressure medicines, and switched her from high-dose beta blocker to low-dose lisinopril.

That is progress. I don't know which one of us is happier.

[DPMuller]

Another followup:

She's learning the clean and doing very well. Squat is now 110, bench 70, deadlift 150x3.

Oh, and her doctor has now discontinued one of her blood pressure medicines, and switched her from high-dose beta blocker to low-dose lisinopril.

So are you implying she's on the way to being stronger than me unless I keep improving AND that strength training actually is good for you? Hmmm...

Seriously - sometimes, stars just line up and great things happen. Congratulations to her and to you.

[Skander]

That's great. My mom started a strength program at age 60, and she's since broken records in her powerlifting federation (WABDL - she deadlifted 315, and probably could do more but she plays it safe). She was actually pretty detrained before she started, and I think in a weird way not having done that much exercise meant that she doesn't have nagging injuries, which might have helped speed her progress. She says she hasn't felt better in years, and really enjoys lifting more than she has any other physical activity. It helps that her coach mixes things up for her a lot - I think she'd grow impatient with a more boring program, so he gives her interesting accessory work, a good amount of conditioning, etc.

Anyway, I think it all goes to show that it's never too late to start strength training.

[Skander]

Oh, and my sister was the original person who started training her, based on a starting-strength-like template. She found it was really helpful to relate the lifts to every day tasks - my mom understood the overhead press better when she started thinking of it like opening a garage door, and she like to think of dumbbell rows as pulling a lawn mower cord.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

070912-PgMor.JPG