"Why should I fear death? If I am, death is not. If death is, I am not.
Why should I fear that which cannot exist when I do?"
- Epicurus
"So much fuss and fretting over the end and disposal of a dead mammal."
- giveitaname
And here's a Carl Jung quote easily misinterpreted to reflect PR increases:
"What you resist not only persists, but will grow in size."
Ba dum sssss. Let's Live.
In Part One we closed with a discussion of men who had reached the age of 50. We had decided that a man should keep most of his endurance to the age of 40 at least and that he often could gain added strength to the age of 50. That his speed may start to decline first and and at near the age of 35.
However, it was our general opinion that most men who kept in condition could maintain most of their physical abilities to around 50 with little noticeable decline. This conclusion of course was reached concerning men who had trained and kept themselves in shape most of their life. We often notice how wrestlers maintain championship form to the age of 50 and sometimes far beyond.
Now, we realize that many of our readers are new to the barbell game and health and body culture and that they would like to know what can be done for them. Most of them are interested in just simply, good health while a few of the fellows of 35 or so wonder if they can acquire a fine physique and great strength. We classify men under 35 as young men, and they are able to profit by the regular programs commonly used by young men.
So, we will talk about you fellows between 35 and 50 who have had little experience in physical training and who are constantly in rather soft condition. Chances are that you are rather weak. You may be fat or you may be thin. You are no longer as flexible as you once were. You may be afflicted with a few aches and pains and you may ask yourself, how do I work this? And you may tell yourself, this is not my beautiful house, no, this is not my beautiful wife with a rimshot at the ready for my every joke. You are the ones who NEED barbell training. You're the ones who can benefit most. Your progress will be most rapid and remarkable at first. Much of your speed will return. You can become more flexible than you have ever been. You can acquire energy and abounding health that you never dreamed possible. You can trim down that "bay window" or add solid meat to your bones.
To those of this group who entertain ambitions of winning medals for your physique, let me say that you must realize that you are starting training a little late in life. We can't promise you that you will become a world champion or a Mr. America but we do know of fellows who started training when well along in years who have won renown for their fine development and often district and state lifting titles. So you need not feel that you are too much out of the game of competition if your interests turn in this direction.
We know that some of you are wondering what possibilities the man over 50 and say on up to 70 has. We very much doubt whether a man of that age will care too much for competition or not. We would not recommend that he enter lifting contests altho if he is a barbell man of many years training he is probably in good condition and a try at lifting once in a while will do you no harm tho we wouldn't recommend heavy endurance lifting. That is, working up in high repetitions with maximum poundages.
You will probably find that you have a slight decline in speed, endurance and strength as the years go by tho this should not be rapid in fact it should be hardly noticeable if you care for yourself properly to the age of 70. Of course it will come but it will be so gradual that you will hardly know it.
We all know about Otto Arco who at the age of around 70 or more is as frisky as a young kid. He still retains a fine physique even tho it can not compare with what it was at 20 or 30. Massimo still looks like he was about 40 tho he is well along in his 60's. Macfadden who has lived a rather full and busy life in every way is still amazingly active at over 80 years. All these men and hundreds more we could name, have taken care of themselves as far as exercise is concerned and have been well repaid. We remember when we went through Columbus, Ohio some time back Harry Paschall was nearing his 50th birthday and was training hard to make some new lifetime lifting records.
The man of 50 to 70 who has never trained has broad fields for improvement. Many men write in and ask if they are too old for improvement. We are glad to say that weight resistance offers the old man the fountain of youth. They can make remarkable improvement.
We have had some teachers tell us that the older man new to barbells can gain just as fast and in some cases faster than the young fellow. Whether this is true or not we do know that the fellow between 50 and 70 can expect to make very good gains in strength, development, energy and general health if he follows a properly arranged course.
Every day hundreds and perhaps thousands of men and women of advanced age are keeping fit and youthful with barbells. Only the other day the author outlined a course for a local minister who is interested in developing better health and condition that he might be better able to convince his congregation of the validity of what he is selling. He is proud of his new Aristocrat barbell and uses it regularly. A day or so later another preacher (stop teasing me with these easy setups, Peary!) indicated his intention for obtaining a barbell set for the improvement of his health. The first mentioned man is in his 60's while the other is a young man (a former barbell man who years ago clean & jerked 250 as a featherweight) but had allowed himself to get soft and now realizes the real value of the health he has almost let slip from his grasp. I am pleased to report that he is once again hard, hairy and happy.
DIET FOR THE OLDER MAN
Unless you have some specific difficulty that requires a special diet it is not usually necessary for you to follow any different diet than the young fellows do except we do not recommend that you eat as heavily as they do.
If you are trying to gain weight of course you will want to eat more than if you were trying to lose or just maintain your present bodyweight. In this case you will find the same diet will help you as that which the younger men (still in the shallow end of the pool) will use. It is quite wise, sigh, for the older feller, er, oh, fellow, still left flexing his word sounds now to include plenty of fruit juices in his diet throughout the day -- especially orange juice. Grapefruit juice rules too.
Milk is a great aid in weight gaining.
In fact, it is one of the most important factors. While some young fellows attempt to drink as much as four quarts a day with hopes of assimilating and utilizing two before the rest heads down the pisser, we recommend that one or two quarts will be ample for the older man without a urination fetish.
You will also find that thick soups rich with vegetables of all kinds as well as lean meat are helpful. We don't recommend an excess of sugar as the younger men such as Sam Sulek sometimes use for gaining nor do we recommend a large amount of salt to create thirst.
What the? Eat plenty of salt, get thirsty, drink more milk. What are ya, nuts?
You should include lots of fruits and green vegetables. Lean meat and potatoes prepared a la Schemansky are very good for weight and strength gaining. Plenty of bread and butter will help too.
The older fellow is usually more interested in losing weight than in gaining. This is a simple matter. All he has to do is cut down on starches, such as potatoes, bread and similar foods containing a great amount of starch as well as reducing the fats and sugars such as candy, sugar, sweets and all joyful and highly dangerous food-based elation derived from these sinful processed concoctions.
By doing this he can bring his weight down safely and gradually to any figure he desires (within reason). If he does this while working out with barbells and maintains it there for a time with his diet and exercise until it is stabilized (usually two or three months) he will find that he will not gain it back unless he again eats excessively of weight gaining foods.
SLEEP AND REST
Most of you fellows who have passed 50 find that you require less sleep than you did when young. However, you need a little more rest. Especially is this so if you are working out with barbells. If you have just started barbell exercise you'll probably find it necessary to sleep a little longer than you did before you started. Whatever you find necessary in your own case, but be sure you don't shortchange yourself on sleep and rest. Whatever it takes to look like a fool to the vast majority of people and then die young. No. Wait. This ain't 2025.
EXERCISE PROGRAM FOR OLDER MEN
Now, I know
Now, I know
Now I know
he chose to go with
Now I know from your letters that you are not greatly concerned about diet or sleep or rest. I also know that you are greatly concerned with the exercises and workout programs that you should follow. Therefore we have given but little space to the former subjects but will discuss the latter at some length.
If you are under 50 your problems will not be so great if you have always kept in shape. Your physical condition will be almost as good at 50 as it was many years earlier. Therefore your training program can be much as it was before. Most barbell men who have been training for 10 or 20 years need very little help as they are already thoroughly familiar with training methods and their own need.
The fellow who has only recently started however is more or less at sea as far as to what to do or the fellow who used to work out but has dropped it a few years until he is quite soft and often wonders if he can make it back and how.
Since in both cases the man is quite soft it is necessary that he start with very light weights and that he progress slowly. He will find it easy to attain muscles and it may take a long time to get over it. So progress in the adding of weight slowly. Where the young fellow adds 10 lbs. to the weight of the bar you should add but 5. In most of the exercises you can start with 20 or 30 lbs. until your initial break-in period is over (very sore muscles are more discouraging to the older feller than to the young bodybuilder). Then add weight to the bell gradually as you become accustomed to the exercise.
NUMBER OF REPETITIONS (a.k.a. "reps")
It has been our experience that the older fellow does not require as many repetitions for an adequate workout or for the promotion of muscle growth as the young fellow.
8 repetitions for the upper body and 12-15 for legs and back. Often 8-10 reps, with 2 or 3 sets is more desirable for the older man in the squat, whereas the young man may go to 20 or 30 for several sets. We don't believe high reps with a heavy weight is desirable for the older man but he may if he wishes to work for more endurance work up to higher reps with light weight. In other words the high reps with heavy weight require the bodybuilder to force himself to his extreme limit and that is a young man's method and is not for the older fellow.
You can actually increase the sets if you wish to specialize but we think that 3 sets is plenty for the older fellows. And many of them will find it too much. More than one set is not necessary unless you are specializing on a certain muscle or group of muscles or on the squat for gaining weight.
NUMBER OF EXERCISES
tHE, oops, The older man will not need or use so many exercises. Some of the young fellows use ten or fifteen exercises and perhaps 3-6 sets of each exercise and require 3 hours to do a workout. The older man will do well to cut his exercises to about 6 or 8. If he wishes to specialize on a certain part of his body he should specialize on that part only by using several sets for it, but don't try to do several sets of all your exercises. The same with a lift. If you want to increase your ability in that lift just specialize on it alone. In other words don't try to work like two horses. Conserve your precious bodily fluids. Don't wear yourself out and run out of energy midway en route to what it is you desire. In specializing on one body part or one lift at a time you can give it a terrific workout and still not deplete your energy. In other words if you wish bigger arms you can give them a heavy workout and they may really ache but you will feel fine otherwise.
You should try and have a well balanced program but place a little extra emphasis on the back and legs as you will loose out here first so maintain the back and legs in top condition at all times. Deep breathing with all exercises and especially the squat is VERY important, close to very important.
You will find it helpful to rest between each exercise.
Don't wear yourself out.
FREQUENCY OF WORKOUTS
You will find that you will have to govern yourself by your recuperative ability in this matter. Generally however you will find it best to work out three times per week tho in some cases of low energy or slow recuperation two sessions per week may be enough.
Always be sure you are rested before you work out again.
SUGGESTED PROGRAM
We suggest a good standard program as follows.
Press behind neck, 8 repetitions
Two arm curl, 8 reps
Supine press on bench, 10
Military press, 8
Rowing exercise, 10
Deep knee bend, 2 sets of 10 reps
with 3-6 deep breaths between each rep.
Two arm pullover on bench with light weight, 20 reps, deep breathing going both ways of the pullover for a greater forced oxygen intake
Two hand straight-legged deadlift, 10 reps and work up to 2 sets on this.
This will make you a fine general program. If you want just good health you will not need to force yourself to heavy weights. If you are ambitious for bigger muscular measurements and lifting records however you will have to specialize a bit and use heavier weights. For instance if you want bigger arms you would work up to about 3 sets of curls and 3 sets of supine presses with good sized weight and at different repetitions from 5 to 8 or 10 reps. Leave the rest of your program as it is.
If you find yourself becoming stale, tired and lifeless, TRT therapy may be for you. The earth desperately needs more old bozos amped up on energy drinks and TRT in its face. Leather jacket, leaker pad underpants, red convertible, cruising the high schools with one absurd bloated arm hanging out the window. Carnivore diet recommended to top off the whole thing. Constipation, loud noisy farts and a strong sense of patriotism within the confines of a failing civilization suits these soldiers in the war on modernity nicely.
If you find yourself becoming stale, tired and lifeless then lay off a week and be a little more judicious when you return to your training.
Men who are beyond 50 should use weights for health training generally and leave heavy lifting for the younger fellows. [Of course, once you reach your seventh decade or so pretty much any lame-ass weight on the bar will be a challenge, but don't worry about that now and simply keep razin' them PRs while you still can. Yes, razing them PRs, har har].
We know that at times there have been [natural] contests for men over 50 that prove to be rather revolting to view, much less judge. This may eventually prove to be fine in some cases once PED use among our elder lifters becomes rampant.
If you are new to the weights and around 60 or 70 you can follow the program we have given but take it a little more slowly and concentrate on regularity of workouts and slow steady progress for your health's sake only. A man of this age who is starting weight exercise can improve his health and appearance greatly.
Enjoy Your Lifting!
No comments:
Post a Comment