Cheers!
I first met this fellow while in college studying librarianship years ago. Wonderful guy . . . and I highly recommend this book. It deals with the inner stuff, not what miracle food to stuff down your hole, how to bloody sleep "correctly" and which flashy-smiled white-coat a-hole to see about fecking TRT therapy for frightened adult male children clutching at chemical straws en route to the inevitable. Aw, the poor things.
For some time now we have received a steady stream of letters with requests for more information about training for the man who has passed his twenties and even up into his fifties. It is evident that a large majority of our readers will come in this classification. Some of these are the young supermen of 10 years ago who have gone into business and have been forced because of pressure of business to drop their training for a time. Now they want to get back in shape again but find themselves at a loss as to just what procedure to follow. Others are men who have been busily engaged in making a living and caring for a family and many of them have never heard of a barbell until recently. All of them are interested in barbell training.
We feel that this large army of readers deserve more attention than they have received in the past. We are therefore starting a series of articles aimed at helping them solve whatever problems they might have.
Some of you young fellows might feel that these articles are not for you but such is far from the truth. In the first place you are going to be in this same classification all too soon and will feel the need of guidance yourself. In the second place much of the information we will give to these older fellows will also be of supreme value to you. So although this series is aimed at the older fellow, it embraces every reader of Iron Man.
Before we delve into what the older fellows seem to think their problems, let us decide why we need such instructions and at just what age will a man feel that he is needing help. Some of you who have kept in shape from the time of your twenties will find that if you have allowed no letup in your training that you are just about as good a man at 35 as you were at 25. Some of you will be better. It is our contention that a man can continue to improve in strength until he is around 45 to 50. Of course, this will vary and will be partially determined by your inherited vigor and life length. And we know that the length of your life can be extended by special care of the body and its health. So likewise will your length of years of gaining be lengthened. Some men will find themselves able to gain strength until their sixties
while others may be through at 45.
Now note especially that we indicated gains in strength only. This does not hold true in gains in speed. When we talk of gains in strength, we refer to tests of pure strength such as the presses, curls, squats, dead lifts (although we do not recommend dead lift tests for older men), and other such power lifts where speed, timing, flexibility or endurance are required.
Then we come to such lifts as the snatch, clean & jerk, and other similar lifts requiring speed. Recognizing certain exceptions, we feel that most men will not gain much in speed after the age of 35. A few, very few, will continue to hold their youthful speed at about 40. Speed is a quality that comes from spontaneous, explosive bursts of energy that are the mark of youth. It is found that at the highest degree in young, vigorous men around the age of 20 to 25. You will find that most of our champion lifters (when their interest continues high) continue to improve well into their thirties on the press and even on the jerk but that their snatch and clean will become static or even drop back in the later thirties. This is because they are no longer quite as fast as they once were but they are much stronger. Some change in their style is often necessary so that they can utilize their added strength in place of some of their lost speed. This will work out better in the snatch than it will in the clean so we usually see the clean drop first. We seldom see demonstration of this technique as very few fellows will maintain a "hot" competitive interest into their forties.
Many of our readers will remember the old champion . . .
Josef Strassberger of Germany
(on the right)
. . . who when he was 52 years old was still improving in the press. As we recall, he was at that time pressing 286 in international championships, this being the highest press made. His snatch and clean were low tho his jerk was still high.
If you will investigate the careers of other lifters you will find similar changes in the ratio of their lifts. In the past year the great Tony Terlazzo did not have the explosive speed that he did when he lifted a few years ago as the great champion. We have often watched him lift and found that he moved so fast it was difficult to follow his movements. Altho his press comes up well now and would soon reach or exceed his old records, his snatch and clean gave him trouble.
We feel that the Egyptian lifters are SPEED lifters rather than POWER lifters and that their lifting careers are shorter than those of Americans who rely on power as well as speed.
Personally, the author was at his best at 32 in both speed and strength. The war then interrupted further training for competition and too many years intervened for us to determine how much longer we could have improved had we been able to maintain top condition and training. We suspect that we would have noticed a slight drop at about 34 or 35. There would probably have been a little slowing up tho our added strength should have maintained or increased our lifting poundages to perhaps 38.
We would judge that most barbell men find a very slight decline in lifting speed at around 35. However, this often does not show up too much in their poundages because of increased strength, but you may sometimes see the press creeping ahead of their snatch. Some comment has been heard that . . .
John Davis
. . . is slower than he used to be. This is probably true but it is mostly due to about 40 pounds added bodyweight. You will observe that his press has come up ahead of his other lifts however. You may recall his pre-war snatch of 317 and press of 322 compared with his recent press of 342 and snatch of 314 indicates some change in the proportions of his respective lifts. There has also been some change in his lifting style. At the present time Johnny pulls on the weight all the weight making every effort to pull it as high as possible before going under. He seems to rely on his power to pull the bell high rather than terrific speed in getting under a weight of less height.
Among boxers and track athletes but especially boxers, speed usually begins to decline in the late twenties. Of course there may be exceptions to these rules. Perhaps the fact that lifters seem to preserve their overall physical ability longer than any other athlete is the biggest recommendation for weights as the perfect physical training medium for all ages and sexes.
Flexibility is another subject in which most fellows are interested. They all know that stiffness is a sure sign of advanced age. Most barbell men are quite flexible. It is a proven fact that a man becomes more flexible from barbell exercise even tho he might not practice special flexibility exercises. The fine tone and condition of his muscles endows them with a youthful flexibility. This condition is one that none of you need loose until a very advanced age. In fact you should with reasonable care retain your flexibility until the last days of your life.
Certainly the bent press is a lift requiring extreme flexibility but we have instances of some men practicing this lift to an advanced age. Roy. L. Smith . . .
. . . now living in Texas, who started to train with barbells after he was 35 and made world records when in his 40's is still practicing the bent press with good-sized poundages tho he must be around 70 years of age.
Here is a bio of Mr. Smith, The King of the Amateurs:
Roy is another who continued to gain strength as the years went by. Not being interested in feats requiring speed he was able to make records when most fellows feel they are through. So fellows, don't feel that you have to become stiff as the years creep up. With proper training you can make most youngsters look silly until you reach advanced age.
Note: that's a rare, open and almost-light tone for Peary Rader and his royal "We" and I like it. "Make most youngsters look silly . . ." Nicely put.
Endurance is another factor that is of very great importance to the older man tho the young man's training and mode of living have much to do with how long they maintain the endurance of youth. Barbell men often neglect this important subject . . . ENDURANCE. Their eyes are turned to the knobs of muscle or great power. Ambitions along this line are justifiable but neglect of endurance may be regretted later on. Young fellows always seem to have ample endurance, yet a little work directed towards this vital quality would at least double their endurance.
The more endurance we develop when young the more we are likely to have as we grow older. We remember years ago of Mark Berry telling of the all night sessions of lifting that Harry Paschall used to enjoy when a bunch of iron men got together.
Harry Paschall, bent pressing 115 pounds, age 17, 1915.
He never seemed to tire of lifting. The author can remember not many years ago when he enjoyed lifting most of the night. We would go through a contest of sometimes the three lifts and sometimes five and on other occasions more. After that we would lift on every lift or stunt any of the boys could think of for several hours more. We always seemed to have the energy for one more lift.
The development of added endurance is a simple matter and has none of the complicated problems that the development of added muscle sometimes presents. Of course endurance isn't so showy or spectacular as great strength or muscular development and this is probably one of the reasons that many fellows have neglected it. We have to feed our vanity with the big muscles. Endurance is a quality that can drop very low in either young or old people if its cultivation is long neglected. We soon become soft, easily winded and quickly tired from any unaccustomed exertion. We therefore find many young fellows lack the endurance you would expect of them. However, we find that a young man can develop endurance faster than an old man. On the other hand we sometimes find an older man with far more endurance in certain respects than the younger fellow.
It is our observation however that a man's endurance starts to diminish at a little later age than does his speed. Also by careful living and training he can preserve his endurance much longer than he can his speed. We have often heard of long distance runners who were up at the top at over 40 years of age. Likewise with the long distance walkers, many who have preserved amazing endurance to an advanced age. We find the same condition to exist among swimmers and various other athletics which we might classify as light endurance athletics. In lifting and bodybuilding movements we believe that possibly a man's endurance might begin to lessen at a slightly earlier age due to the heavy nature of the work. That is if a man reaches a maximum of 10 repetitions of the press or jerk with 200 pounds at 35 years of age it is less likely that he can still press this 200 pounds when he is 50 than it is for a man to run 10 miles at the same speed at 50 than does at 35 or that he will walk 20 miles at the same speed an in the same time at 50 that he did at 35 years. However this is just an opinion as there hasn't been enough investigation made to determine the actual facts or near-facts. It may be a long time before anything is proved concerning this because very few men will stay in hard training on repetition pressing or jerking until they are 50 while many men have lived spartan lives for this time while walking or running in reasonably hard training -- especially is this true regarding walking. [this gentleman needs a typewriter with punctuation keys, please].
Therefore let us assume from the information of past experiences that a man can maintain a very high degree of endurance as he grows older. Let us never minimalize the importance and value of developing and maintaining what we shall call enduring STRENGTH (a combination of great strength and endurance) for the purpose of maintaining a youthful body combined with the advantages of maturity.
You will notice that we say advantages of maturity. (see book above, blue cover with sun/sky/cloud on it, ya can't miss it. Take a right at the next paragraph, go up Smithy Street to Dipshit Avenue, take a left and there it is. Ya can't miss it.). You older fellows do have certain advantages over the younger fellows. Your judgements are more mature. You are better able to solve your problems with a better ability of reasoning. You have greater patience. You are not laboring under illusions regarding your possibilities or future. You are not blinded to the major values of health, vigor, vitality, strength, endurance and flexibility by your worship of huge lumps of muscle as many young fellows understandable are (you and I were this way when young) and we would not have it otherwise, either now or then.
In addition to these things you have seen how you can add to your strength until you are perhaps 50 or older if you so desire. Yes you have these advantages and many others we haven't mentioned.
In summarizing our thought of this installment we must come to the following conclusions. First, that a man probably reaches (re-aches . . . do those who believe in reincarnation with some form of soul's progress often use the term re-aches?) his prime at about the age of 40 if he has taken good care of himself and some unwarranted illness falling from a fourth floor window onto him like a piano in a cartoon doesn't occur out of the blue known as sky). He may have lost slightly in speed but very little in endurance. His flexibility should be as great as ever if he has given proper attention to his strength considerably greater.
Now notice we say, "he should be in his prime." Many of us "give it the works" until we are about 25 when along comes marriage and children with responsibilities which prevent us from training properly if at all. We may slip a little. Cares and worries take their toll. One day we wake up to the fact that we are not feeling like we should. No pep, energy or vitality. Perhaps our wind on both ends is poor, the lower wind passing much less majestically now. We try a press and find it is about half what it used to be. Our waistline is a little soft and a lot too large. We may find ourselves living in a shotgun shack when 35-40 years old. Our thoughts are not so pleasant and we may tell ourselves this is not my beautiful house, this is not my beautiful wife. Such is life. Boy Howdy ain't that the truth.
We realize that we have almost lost our most valuable earthly possession not including money, bright shiny things to show off, old rare crap to collect and clean and worthless endlessly regurgitated memories that give us meaning and prevent us from seeing what is real and happening now. Our thoughts are not so pleasant if we allow them to be, right Soul Soldier? Our most valuable earthly possession, our health. Oh-oh.
So what do we do? Yes, what is we gonna do? We reason, we can't be too bad off. We were far above the average in health and strength as well as strength and health. So we grab the old weights (new ones work too) and tear into a heavy session as of yore. The next day we are too sore to get up and go back to work. Perhaps we have strained our back or pulled a muscle. In short, we find that we are not the men we used to be but our ego won't let us admit that we have slipped so much. We refuse to go back to light weights; we rage, rage against the aging of Dylan Thomas and its onset and often become so discouraged that we give up and decide that we must be satisfied with our present condition, letting the days go by, water flowing underground, into the blue again.
We decide that something is wrong, and often become so discouraged that we wonder . . . well, how did I get here. Or perhaps we have neglected learning a few things during our youth about correct training. We decide that perhaps if there is a chance for us some expert help will put us on the right track again. So we write to the editor of Iron Man for help with our problems.
This is not fiction, fellows. We do get letters all the time from our older readers asking for help in planning their programs and asking how much can they expect to gain at a certain age and how long can they maintain top condition.
We have come to the conclusion that there is a vast need for this advice.
Continued in "Once in a Lifetime, Part Twice."
Enjoy Your Lifting!
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