Aging - A Longitudinal Study
I am fascinated by aging. As I am writing this blog I am aging, as you read this blog you are aging. I have joked over the last few years that I am doing a personal aging study. I have really ramped up the study in the last month with the revival of the breakfast club. Working out with two athletes thirty years younger than me has really tested my limits. The results of the study probably will not appear in a peer reviewed journal, but here are some preliminary conclusions:
Ø Aging is unforgiving and relentless
Ø A good part of aging is a state of mind. If you think you are old and act old you will be older.
Ø Once an athlete, always an athlete, so train like one, do not become a jogger.
Ø As you get older you need more recovery between hard workouts.
Ø Aches and pains are slow disappearing. A niggling knee pain in your thirties will put you out of commission for several weeks in your fifties.
Ø Wear and tear is cumulative, just as training is cumulative.
Ø Soreness persists
Ø Often the mind is willing, but the body is not always able.
Ø Lifestyle and diet are even more important if you want to keep training.
Ø Strength training assumes more important both from a muscular strength perspective but also from a endocrine/hormonal perspective.
Ø Training is cumulative, your body does not forget. Unfortunately it remember s the good and the bad. The old injuries are still there.
I would be very interested in others reactions and comments. I also recommend two books by John Jerome – Staying With It – On Becoming An Athlete and On Turning Sixty–Five. He is one of my favorite nonfiction authors. Staying With It chronicles his training as a masters swimmer returning to competition in his fifties. The later On Turning Sixty –Five is in some ways a follow-up toe see the effects fifteen years later. More up dates to follow, hopefully for the next twenty or thirty years
posted by Vern Gambetta @ 8/08/2006 08:09:00 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
"Strength training assumes more important both from a muscular strength perspective but also from a endocrine/hormonal perspective"- RIGHT! When you hit about 45, forget about cosmetic training. The male is fighting an uphill battle against decreasing testosterone and GH. Total body movements even become more important.
"Aches and pains are slow disappearing."- You can get injured even when you do everything right, and it takes months & months to heal.
I would also add that warmup & active recovery are more important than ever. Some days, thank God for Cellebrex.
A few questions.
-Over 40 testing of free Testosterone & Growth hormone is increasing in popularity. Your thoughts on that and testosterone supplementation.
-Your thoughts on glucosamine supplementation.
Great Topic!
Hello Vern,
When en where you'll visiting Holland ? Do you give a presentation ?
Greetings,
a dutch functional training fan !
Coach,
This is off the subject. I found your blog in the Outside Mag. article. The article said you prescribe light weights to minimize injury. But do you think there is room for maximum effort lifting? What about the 5x5 workouts that are popular?
Thanks.
Gus
As we age the phrases "If you do not use it, you lose it" and "Our bodies do what we train them to do" become even more true I feel. Folks mistake work/chore activity for exercise, especially in the rural farm area I live. Men just do not seem to understand how they could have gotten no-ass-at-all disease when they go to bed tired every night. I do not remember the author of a study on older runners but it was found that while older runners do have more degenerative changes at the knee on x-ray than non-runners they have less pain and less restricted daily activities than their counterparts. We can not stop. We just have to work smarter. I am quite proud that within6 months of my 40th birthday at 6'3" and with a 20% spondylo/3 wearing out discs I dunked a basketball, biked 15 miles at 20+ mph, ran a sub 3 minute 1/2 mile and swam 1/2 mile in sub 18 minutes. I did not do all of that in 1 day like it seems some folks have tried doing their videos but all with in a few months. Following Vern and Gary Gray has certainly helped me professionaly but likely most importantly personally.
Mark Day D.C., CSCS, DACBSP
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