Creaky Days: How to Adjust Training as You Get Older

Father Time waits for no man or woman. He's a cold and unforgiving prick.

To say it in plain terms, getting old sucks. But the wonderful and possible redeeming quality of Father Time is that it's an incredible teacher.

With time, things get broken down. It's normal wear and tear and when you do the things we do for "fun" breakdown is expected. But what has to happen as you get older, is that the intensity has to be maintained so you can continue to make gains in muscle and strength.

Seeing as I turn 39 this year and celebrate my second anniversary of my 20th birthday in 2019, I've picked up a few things as I transition to an "older" lifter that I'd like to share. Trust me, this isn't an exhaustive list.

1: Load is not as important as it once was

When you're in your 20's and early 30's, I'll make this controversial statement....LOAD IS KING. Heavy as you can go in correct form will put plenty of size. But as you get up there in age, the ability to handle heavy poundage gets diminished a bit. Elbows get hurt, knees get a little sore and you don't recover as fast as you once did. So what to do?

2: Use more intensity techniques

While you can't pile on negatives, drop sets and giant sets all the time. However, if they are used intelligently, you can stress the muscle and not have to put unnecessary stress on the joints. They should be used sparingly

3: Watch your recovery 

As you move up there in age, recovery won't be the same. The day after heavy sets of compound movements will hit you a bit harder. Soreness will linger around a bit longer as well. A few ways to keep you plugging along is making sure your diet is in check. Another thing to look at is intra-workout nutrition (for the purposes of this blog, I won't go into super detail about this) and just make sure you're getting enough rest.

4: Adjust training volume

This is an up and down thing that can be adjusted.  Some older guys need more volume in certain spots. Some need less. This goes back to how much can you recover from and not be in a huge deficit. I'm a believer that the body goes through cycles of how much it can take. Generally for me, it's seasonal. I can take more work in the summer/early fall months while the sun is out. For the winter/early spring, things generally get scaled down. But again, it can be cyclical.

5: Limit stimulant use 

In today's world of super duper pre-workout mixtures, it's best to not use those that carry a ton of caffeine. Too much stim use, especially in one dose, can rob you of strength and make you tired. With that being said, there are some great products out there. I recommend Arc Reactor by Granite Supplments, Impact Igniter by Allmax and Rhino Black by MuscleSport. All have a decent amount of caffeine without killing you. They also have ingredients that help with focus such as alpha-gpc and Lion's Mane.


6: Just be smart

If you ever heard the words "listen to your body"? They ring true as you get older in actual age (note I didn't say training age, which is a totally different argument).

Like my friend Ryan Doris say's......don't be a dingus. Training is a piece of a holistic puzzle that needs to be adjusted and looked at from time to time. Especially as we approach AARP age.