Time is catching up on me.
In the last five live courses I’ve taken I’ve been among the top 2-3 oldest people in the room. I used to think that being the oldest person in the gym wasn’t the worst vague goal a person could have. I’ve since changed that to being the oldest capable person in the gym.
FACT: Whining and complaining about our advancing age will not stop the aging process. We all eventually lose in our fight against time.
Three things we know about time…
1. Our muscle mass starts to decline.
2. Th brain cells responsible for controlling movement reduce in number.
3. Our tissues begin to stiffen and dehydrate.
In light of 1-3, our functional skills and abilities are on a decreasing slope…unless we choose to do something about it.
Resistance training slows the decrease of muscle mass, and even non-previously trained elderly populations can grow muscle. The major problem is not having a balanced approach in training.
Varying movement patterns can help increase our neural cells. Moving in multiple planes of motion, at various intensities and velocities is what we are designed to do.
Flexibility, Mobility, Stability and Balance. There are different things and don’t simply mean being able to touch your toes or scratch your own back. This means becoming more limber and being able to control ranges of motion.
Recovery becomes more serious as we age, and as low level as it sounds, the simple act of drinking water can be a difference maker in your life.
A tale of two-capabilities…At one time I had two older clients, one male and one female that were less than a year apart in age. On any given day either could have been the oldest person in the gym.
That ends the similarities, in training they were polar opposites of each other.
The lady looked a conservative decade younger than she was. She could engage the ground for Yoga postures and control free weights in space. She was a joy to train and I looked forward to our next session together. You couldn’t ask for a better client.
The male on the other hand looked like someone exceptional at beer drinking, chili-dog eating and remote control using. He seemed to hate training and wouldn’t follow instructions…or he just hated me.
I removed exercises from his program due to his inability to answer if something hurt or not. I take a direct approach with pain, if I ask if something causes pain and the answer isn’t a No, then it’s a Yes.
By any set of measurements he needed to lose weight and admitted so himself. I am well-aware that people can be stuck in their ways of eating unless there is a serious medical intervention beyond my scope of practice.
Anticipating the two-pronged difficulty, I set the bar low…but high enough to since achieving consistency was a need. I asked that he start walking 10 minutes a day in his non-hilly neighborhood, and drink 33% of his bodyweight in water daily for a week. Previous to this he reported only minimally walked around the house and didn’t drink much water. In hindsight I might have set the bar too high.
“For two weeks I ask they (the client) only do two things: Park the car further away from the store and drink two glasses of water a day. At 9:00pm I will call and ask if you’ve done both. I know when it takes a number of rings that they are getting in that glass of water. ” Dan John.
A week later I asked how the daily walks and water drinking went. He stated he did both, but not without giving me an eye roll and insolent tone. I swear it was like talking to the worlds oldest looking teenager.
Hearing about this success, I asked if he could up his walk time to 12 minutes and water intake to 50% Bodyweight. I would have taken the 12 minutes broken into two 6 minute rounds but the conversation never got that far. My motivation exceeded his, and I was told “No” with a look that I’ll describe as an “FU Smirk.”
I relieved myself as his trainer the following week, I know when I can’t help someone.
Balance these similar aged people against the three things we know about aging and imagine how they might stack up in just a few years.
My Trainer Chris 