Fitness in middle age and beyond

aziz_n1

Found this article again. Thought I would share it here. Being a regular squash player myself, I would recommend racquet sports.

https://www.facebook.com/100003659766114/posts/1750821648383144/?d=n

sijomial

You might find the book I'm currently reading (Fast after 50 - Joe Friel) interesting too.

It's mostly aimed at endurance athletes but there's lots of thought provoking research around the benefits of exercise for aging athletes. There's a big difference between gentle exercise (still much better than no exercise) and hard/competitve exercise which squash definitely is.

MikePfirrman

I got involved in indoor rowing several years ago, then got involved in doing Indoor "Regattas". Kind of a silly niche sport that not many even know about except Cross Fitters and former college crew rowers. Anyway, it's allowed me to network, either in person or online, with many of the fittest people at my age, not only in just the rowing community, but the world. We have an online training group (and Facebook group) where we post our training plans, numbers up and so forth. All I have to say is I'm absolutely blown away by some of the physical achievements the body can do over 50 and even 60. Not just men either. I'm fairly fit compared to the average general population, but some of these folks make me look very soft!

I think what it comes down to is find something you like, included some harder sessions along with lots of steady state and muscle development as long as you can train hard. The harder the training load (building up to it) the better. It does have to be gradual/incremental and use common sense.

The hardest thing with being over 50 is the injuries. I was fast approaching a 7:00 2K time two years ago. At 55, that would have made me very competitive nationally (nothing world class, just where I wouldn't embarrass myself racing against top rowers). Then, I injured my back and I spent 9 months rehabbing and just doing what I could and lost most of my strength. I'm back at rowing a lot but I'm slow -- very slow right now. It will likely take me a year or even two to get back to where I was, if I ever do. But I'll certainly keep trying. The end result of the training is more important than my racing times.

What I've noticed, just observationally, having spent like 5 years on the Concept2 forums and being very active in the Indoor rowing community, is that the ability to handle training load (to me) seems to be directly tied to how much cardio and training you've done over the course of your life and how much you've stayed in shape over the years. The better you've taken care of your body, the greater the ability to train. Unfortunately, for me, I abused my body for 15 or so years. I normally reach a training load of around 8 full hours a week and can't do more than that. More than that and I tend to break down. I've also found I can only do two hard sessions a week (and 3 for short duration periods like 5 weeks).

Just find a sport you love or a training type you love and go for it. Don't forget to train hard once or twice a week. Polarized training is where it's at.

lorrpb

The link takes me to FB but not an article. At 64 I’m in the best fitness shape of my life. It’s more a reflection on how deficient I was most of my life than any recited setting accomplishments now, but I’m having a blast!

Djproulx

MikePfirrman wrote: »

All I have to say is I'm absolutely blown away by some of the physical achievements the body can do over 50 and even 60.........

I think what it comes down to is find something you like, included some harder sessions along with lots of steady state and muscle development as long as you can train hard. The harder the training load (building up to it) the better.....

The hardest thing with being over 50 is the injuries.........

Just find a sport you love or a training type you love and go for it. Don't forget to train hard once or twice a week. Polarized training is where it's at.

@MikePfirrman - ^Nailed it.

Squash, rowing, cycling, swimming, tennis, etc.... the mode almost doesn't matter.

Just need to PUSH HARD as a regular component of training and be very focused on recovery to avoid injury.

dewd2

Check out this thread.

I haven't changed anything since I turned 50 (and I don't intend to change). It may require an extra day or 2 per month for recovery but there's nothing I can't do now that I couldn't do when I was younger. Sure, I lost a step or 2 but it doesn't prevent me from giving the same effort.

AnnPT77

lorrpb wrote: »

The link takes me to FB but not an article. At 64 I’m in the best fitness shape of my life. It’s more a reflection on how deficient I was most of my life than any recited setting accomplishments now, but I’m having a blast!

Actual article link is https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3984566/Squash-tennis-best-way-stay-fit-middle-age-Racquet-sports-reduce-risk-death-nearly-half-compared-doing-nothing.html , if anybody cares.

I'm ultra-happy rowing regularly (on-water when I can, machine when I must) as my motivating exercise**, at age 64. (I started at about 46, FWIW, before which I was pretty sedentary.) Health and fitness seem to be decent-ish.

I personally wouldn't choose squash or tennis, because (1) it would dramatically accelerate my expected-someday knee replacements, and I want to put that off as long as reasonably practical, and (2) they don't sound all that fun, to me personally, compared to rowing (not saying others can't feel differently).

** By which I mean, it's not the only thing I do, but the reasons I do other things like spinning, strength training, swimming or whatever, often have something to do with rowing.

NorthCascades

Watch a movie called Dirtbag. Very inspiring.



Fred Beckey was still climbing in his 90s.

AliNouveau

MikePfirrman wrote: »

I think what it comes down to is find something you like, included some harder sessions along with lots of steady state and muscle development as long as you can train hard. The harder the training load (building up to it) the better. It does have to be gradual/incremental and use common sense.


Just find a sport you love or a training type you love and go for it. Don't forget to train hard once or twice a week. Polarized training is where it's at.

What he said!!!

I figure skate and skate with lots of 70+ year olds who have new hips and knees yet keep plugging away. I took up curling and last year joined the league lots of seniors play in. There are many in their 80s

The trick is finding what you love to do and hope it's active. Staying active is really the fountain of youth

lporter229

sijomial wrote: »

You might find the book I'm currently reading (Fast after 50 - Joe Friel) interesting too.

It's mostly aimed at endurance athletes but there's lots of thought provoking research around the benefits of exercise for aging athletes. There's a big difference between gentle exercise (still much better than no exercise) and hard/competitve exercise which squash definitely is.

I need to check this out. I am 48 and a long time distance runner. I am finding it harder and harder to recover form speed workouts and am wondering if I have reached a point where I should stop trying to improve my speed, but I am a very goal-oriented person, so this bothers me. Do you think this book would be helpful?

MikePfirrman

lporter229 wrote: »

sijomial wrote: »

You might find the book I'm currently reading (Fast after 50 - Joe Friel) interesting too.

It's mostly aimed at endurance athletes but there's lots of thought provoking research around the benefits of exercise for aging athletes. There's a big difference between gentle exercise (still much better than no exercise) and hard/competitve exercise which squash definitely is.

I need to check this out. I am 48 and a long time distance runner. I am finding it harder and harder to recover form speed workouts and am wondering if I have reached a point where I should stop trying to improve my speed, but I am a very goal-oriented person, so this bothers me. Do you think this book would be helpful?

I haven't read the book yet, but I've read a lot of Joe Friel's information (and Maffetone's and Matt Fitzgerald). Yes, I think you're not too old, by far, to improve. Rowing isn't that different from running and I know rowers that did their personal bests in their 60s. I started Indoor Rowing at 47 and set my PBs at 53.

I know a lot of Friel's plans do two easy aerobic days followed by hard day -- that pattern -- two easy, one hard. That schedule is hard for some but it maximizes hard days for people. He also talks a lot about keeping it easy on the easy days and hard on the hard days. That's the biggest mistake any experienced endurance athlete (including me) makes all the time. Easy days should feel like you have a lot more to give, which is incredibly, mind-numbingly boring. I'd say one out of three of my Steady State sessions is "proper" -- meaning I don't get carried away and blow my HR through the roof.

Most rowers, runners, bikers all make the same mistakes -- going off, nearly everyday, around the same pace. Your plan needs to be Polarized. Also, around every 12 to 14 weeks, you need to change it up as well (Periodized).

I do know that Friel talks a lot about physiology aging too (like telomeres). Telomeres are (in very laymen's terms) protective layers over your DNA that disappears over time. What they've found in research is that both HIIT (real HIIT, hard HIIT, like you want to quit HIIT) and long steady-state sessions are the two things that protect your telomeres from shortening, thus aging.

Friel feels like older runners tend to gravitate away from really hard sessions and just do everything in the middle -- medium pace. All the research points to Polarized being much better in order to improve both VO2 Max and Anaerobic Threshold. But to do it, you have to protect your recovery -- he also talks a lot about nutrition (like drinking something sugary right after a workout w/ protein, like Chocolate Milk) and hormones -- protecting hormones with rest, etc.

I do think it would help you or anyone. The older we get, the more important it is to protect muscle mass, really pay attention to paces on slower days and listen to our bodies. But on days we prep to work hard, work as hard as you can within reason, knowing your paces.

One word of caution (and something else Friel mentions) is prep work. I know that you're an experienced endurance athlete from your posts, but hard work isn't something for a newbie. You have to be able to build a base first and know you can speed up without injury in order to do interval or AT work.

sijomial

lporter229 wrote: »

sijomial wrote: »

You might find the book I'm currently reading (Fast after 50 - Joe Friel) interesting too.

It's mostly aimed at endurance athletes but there's lots of thought provoking research around the benefits of exercise for aging athletes. There's a big difference between gentle exercise (still much better than no exercise) and hard/competitve exercise which squash definitely is.

I need to check this out. I am 48 and a long time distance runner. I am finding it harder and harder to recover form speed workouts and am wondering if I have reached a point where I should stop trying to improve my speed, but I am a very goal-oriented person, so this bothers me. Do you think this book would be helpful?

@lporter229

Yes I think it would be very helpful and thought provoking.

No I don't think you should stop trying to get faster or work at high intensity and I think you would come to the same conclusion after reading about all the studies that show the relative rate of decline between those that continue to train seriously for performance and those that ease down because they think they "should" due to age alone.

What you might need to do is improve how you approach recovery and maybe how you schedule your overall program?

BrianSharpe

I love the hyperbole in headlines....."A study has found racquet sports reduce the risk of dying by 47 per cent".....the risk of death for all of us is 100% can't be reduced until someone figures out immortality.

Seriously though, I suspect that any regular activity reduces the likelihood of premature death and I suspect that the racquet sports stood out as most older players have been playing for a lifetime. As a former squash and tennis player I wouldn't recommend them to anyone who did not enjoy a reasonable level of fitness as the high intensity, short bursts are not great for the untrained unless undertaken very cautiously.

Interesting that they didn't have a big enough sample of runners over 50.....

Djproulx

sijomial wrote: »

[quote="lporter229;c-44604611"

What you might need to do is improve how you approach recovery and maybe how you schedule your overall program?

Thinking about this, as well as @MikePfirrman's comments about periodization made me think of another book that I found just as useful as Friel's Fast after 50. It is Bob Seebohar's "Nutrition Periodization for Endurance Athletes".

Seebohar is a dietician and endurance coach. In the book, he goes into detail around the concept of periodization, risks of overtraining and injury, then describes the six essential nutrients and how periodization and nutrition planning can be linked. He also talks about nutrition supplements and special considerations for the endurance athlete, such as dehydration, heat cramps, hyponatremia, etc.

This may be interesting to anyone considering a review of their training program.

AliNouveau

BrianSharpe wrote: »

I love the hyperbole in headlines....."A study has found racquet sports reduce the risk of dying by 47 per cent".....the risk of death for all of us is 100% can't be reduced until someone figures out immortality.

Seriously though, I suspect that any regular activity reduces the likelihood of premature death and I suspect that the racquet sports stood out as most older players have been playing for a lifetime. As a former squash and tennis player I wouldn't recommend them to anyone who did not enjoy a reasonable level of fitness as the high intensity, short bursts are not great for the untrained unless undertaken very cautiously.

Interesting that they didn't have a big enough sample of runners over 50.....

Maybe the racquet scares away the grim Reaper? Ever think of that???

Haha I suppose the article was written for racquets sports players and I think activity period keeps you youthful longer

kimber0607

NorthCascades wrote: »

Watch a movie called Dirtbag. Very inspiring.



Fred Beckey was still climbing in his 90s.

Holy crap! Watched free solo and loved it..will check it out