How to STAY ATHLETIC as you get older!

Welcome to this week’s newsletter!

Today we are going to dive into the importance of maintaining strength and power as you get older.

And of course HOW you can do this safely.

Have you ever noticed how an ageing athlete starts to slow down and begins to lose some of their athletic prowess?

Perhaps you have even noticed this in yourself if you’re above a certain age and have played sports your entire life.

While we could just call this “getting older”, there’s actually a real reason this happens…

Decline of fast twitch muscle fibres…

Think of your muscles as having two main types of fibres.

Fast twitch and slow twitch.

One type is like a hybrid car - better for endurance and efficiency (these are your slow-twitch fibres).

The other type is like a sports car - powerful and explosive, but uses more energy and fatigues quicker (these are your fast-twitch fibres).

These fast-twitch fibres are what help you sprint, jump, and react quickly in sports for example.

Unfortunately we tend to lose fast-twitch muscle fibres faster than slow-twitch ones the older we get.

This is why you might still be able to go for long walks or bikes rides, but find it harder to sprint or quickly change direction during a tennis match.

What about for life in general?

This loss of fast-twitch fibres affects more than just sports performance. Think about:

• Catching yourself when you trip.

• Quickly stepping off a curb.

• Getting up from the ground.

• Chasing after kids or grandkids.

These all require those more powerful, explosive muscle fibres.

The good news? We can maintain and even rebuild these fibres through resistance training.

The key as always is knowing how to do this SAFELY.

And for the record, it doesn’t require you to perform olympic lifting or attempt super heavy (and potentially injurious) “one rep maxes” for that matter.

How to safely train for strength and power:

Simply put there are two ways in which we can build strength and explosiveness:

1. Lifting heavier loads.

2. Performing fast or “explosive” exercises.

When lifting heavier you would normally use more multi joint exercises such as squats, deadlifts, presses and so on.

These work better simply as more muscle mass is used along with a larger recruitment of fast twitch muscle fibres.

There can be an extra risk in lifting heavier so here’s some modifications and tweaks for the older athlete that wishes to reduce injury risk as much as possible:

• Leave 1 or 2 reps in reserve - No need to go to failure, for example lift a weight that’s a hard 3-4 reps but do sets of 5-6 reps instead with good form on every one.

• Don’t go too low on reps - Find a sweet spot between lifting something challenging enough without needing to resort to heavy sets of 1 or 2. Sets of 4-6 can be good place to start…

• Use controlled acceleration - Lower the weight using a SLOW and controlled tempo and accelerate with CONTROL on the way up to manage joint forces.

• Pick exercises SAFEST for you - I say it all the time but use what exercises are safer for you, if that’s a chest press machine, seated leg press, trap bar deadlift then go for it.

Still go for more multi joint exercises as you can use more resistance, just don’t feel you have to use classic strength exercises like squats or deadlifts if old injuries or issues restrict you.

A quick note on “explosive/power exercises”:

Here I am mostly referring to more “dynamic” exercises such as jumping and throwing.

Jumping exercises can be a little more stressful on your joints especially if you go to fatigue AND do lots of reps, so be careful.

QUALITY IS THE NAME OF THE GAME NOT HOW MANY YOU DO.

If you are much older or have any joint problems then these are not 100% needed.

The box jump (see below) tends to be the safest jump exercise as is a bit easier on the knees and hips, plus the boxes these days are also a bit softer which also helps

ALWAYS seek some guidance if you need it first and don’t start on a box too high!

Keep your reps lower, around 2-4 and take plenty of rest. Remember QUALITY.

Lying medicine ball throws (see below) can also be a safe and effective upper body exercise to develop some power (just don’t drop the ball on your face!).

Same rules apply regarding reps and rest obviously…

To wrap up….

Remember that you must build the foundations and prepare your body BEFORE adding in strength and power training.

This is especially important when you’re over 40, if you’re getting back into sports again and/or have any old injury issues you need to be wary of.

Last week’s newsletter covered how to use resistance training to safeguard your body to play sports long-term.

The link to it is just below if you feel you need to build your foundations first.

If you want to know more about how I can help you set up an exercise program that is suitable for you.

Please feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn, or email me on [email protected].

For now thanks for reading today, and stay tuned for the next edition of Train For Life next Saturday!

Daryl