One of my readers, Dan Hobbs, asked a question on my "Strong People Are Hard To Kill” post that I answered briefly there. As I thought about it, I wanted to answer the question more fully. It’s very core to how we stay strong and healthy as long as we can in life.
Dan specifically said:
Eric, your words resonate. Been having some of those thoughts, but I am 80 not 57. My return to my former self has been measured and unsure. Any thought for someone like me?
I think I’d make several points and a few recommendations for Dan and anyone else that qualifies as a Masters/Senior athlete/trainee.
Before we get to that, one critical thing to say. If you are over 60 OR you have a significant health condition, you absolutely need to consult with your physician before starting strength training.
Strength Training Is Critical For Seniors
First and foremost, seniors (generally age 60 and older) should absolutely be doing strength training. As we age, our bodies produce less of the hormones that enabled us to grow strong muscles and bones. And that means that we begin to lose muscle and bone mass over time. However, research shows that we can counter this with proper nutrition AND lifting heavy things.
According to the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research
Current research has demonstrated that countering muscle disuse through resistance training is a powerful intervention to combat muscle strength loss, muscle mass loss (sarcopenia), physiological vulnerability (frailty), and their debilitating consequences on physical functioning, mobility, independence, chronic disease management, psychological well-being, and quality of life.
That’s powerful stuff. Basically, resistance training (weight lifting) can undo many of the things we associate with old age. We don’t have to be weak and frail sitting in our rocking chair and waiting for the inevitable. We can be strong, healthy, active and still enjoying life.
From the National Institute of Health
It is now recommended that healthy old people should train 3 or 4 times weekly for the best results; persons with poor performance at the outset can achieve improvement even with less frequent training. Side effects are rare.
You read that right. Seniors should train 3 to 4 times weekly. So, get to the gym and lift some weights.
Good Strength Program For Seniors
There’s a local physical therapy clinic called Pacific Northwest Sports Institute that has an awesome t-shirt that their trainers wear. It says, on the back, “The Best Exercise Is The One You Do”. My first piece of advice is to do something. If you get some light dumbbells and use them to exercise at home, that is better than no exercise.
But there are better programs, of course. And programmed training is going to be better for you than random moving of weights. If you go back to the research I link to above and study it further, you find that a combination of resistance training and moderate cardio training on a regular basis is the best outcome. Doing a bit of research, it turns out that some of the same programs that non Senior athletes should use for strength are also appropriate for Seniors. With some modifications, potentially.
Starting Strength may well be the best choice for you, especially if you can find a Starting Strength coach or gym in your area. Starting Strength is easy to learn, it only requires 3 days per week for about an hour, and it covers all the big compound weight lifts that address your entire body. This compound lifts are ones that improve strength and mobility for natural movement, so they are the critical things to do.
What are these big compound lifts? All of them use a barbell, not dumbbells (although you can simulate them with dumbbells). The lifts are the Squat, Deadlift, Bench Press, and Overhead (or Military) Press.
Alternatively, you could go to your local gym and see if they have strength training programs for Seniors. But be careful here that they aren’t going to have you using light dumbbells and doing low to moderate levels of exercise that will have very little benefit.
What we want is a program that, when combined with good nutrition, will enable you to build new muscle and maintain bone density. And that means lifting heavy things. Make this clear with your physician and your trainer: your goal is to build muscle, maintain bone mass and density, and improve mobility.
A testimonial from a “young lady” who started training with Starting Strength coaches.
Starting Strength with Earlene
Nutrition Is Also Important
I mentioned nutrition a couple of times. Because it is really crucial. With appropriate strength training, you can build muscle and maintain bone mass. But not without the right nutrition. If you are eating less calories than your body needs, if you are not eating enough protein, you are not going to achieve those things.
The biggest thing is to make sure you are getting enough protein. Many of us, as we get older and have less muscle and more fat, have changed our eating to try and lose weight. This actually has hurt us unintentionally. Muscle and bone require protein. Hormone production requires fat (but good fat, not margarine). Being active requires energy, which we primarily get from carbohydrates.
If you are losing muscle and bone mass, you are less inclined to be active. Add to that eating less calories than we need for daily maintenance and activity, plus not enough protein (highly likely with most modern diet recommendations for seniors) and you are not going to want to move and be healthy.
I can tell you how I program my nutrition at age 57 and it is working for me. Beyond that, I recommend that you consult your physician, a nutritionist, or a trainer that specializes in Senior’s nutrition and training.
Here’s the easy basics. Eat enough calories to meet your body’s requirements. There are some good tools out there that can help you with this. My Fitness Pal is a good one and it’s easy to use. You can put it on your phone or use it in a browser on your computer. It will tell you, based on age, weight, gender, activity level, how many calories a day you need to break even on weight, to gain weight, or to lose weight. You can enter the food you eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. You can tell it your activity levels (walking, weight lifting, gardening, etc). The application takes all that and figures out if you are eating enough or too much and gives you feedback.
My own guidelines for me are to eat 4-6 oz of lean protein 5 times a day plus roughly 1/2 to 3/4 cup of a carbohydrate, such as potatoes, rice, pasta and a green veggie. You could make that 3 or 4 times a day. And scale the amounts for your body weight and gender. I’m a 200 lb man and need different quantities than a 120 lb woman and so forth. Those amounts are based on my desire to return to weighing 180 lbs, so I’m basically eating at the level that would maintain 180 lbs of weight. You will need to tune this a bit for you.
Some Great Resources
There’s a ton of great resources out there.
One that I strongly recommend for Seniors is Dr. Jonathon Sullivan and Grey Steel. Jonathon Sullivan MD, PhD, FACEP, SSC is an emergency physician, physiologist, and Starting Strength Coach. Sully is the owner-operator of Greysteel Strength and Conditioning, a coaching practice dedicated to improving the strength and fitness of adults from their forties to their nineties.
Grey Steel is his YouTube channel and The Barbell Prescription is an excellent book by the good Doctor.
Another recommendation is Mark Rippetoe, the creator of Starting Strength. He is definitely not for the faint of heart, but he is living in that Senior world and thriving. As he says “I'm at the point where I'm training to not be dead.” This is critical! His book, Starting Strength, is an excellent introduction to strength training for the beginner.
One final recommendation I can’t not bring up is Dr. Mike Israetel. Dr. Mike is funny, smart, and able to bring the most complex topics to you in a simple and understandable form. Dr. Mike Israetel holds a PhD in Sport Physiology and was a professor of Exercise and Sport Science in the School of Public Health at Temple University. Dr. Mike has worked as a consultant on sports nutrition to the U.S. Olympic Training Site in Johnson City, TN. He is the co-founder of Renaissance Periodization.
Renaissance Periodization is both the company he works for and his YouTube channel. On YouTube, he passes out a ton of great information, advice, tips, and knowledge that is all free. You can learn everything you need about nutrition programming from him without paying one penny to anyone for it. His book, The Renaissance Diet 2.0, is excellent.
Here’s two great videos from Dr. Mike on training and aging