Can you still gain significant strength at 40?

[10000 Days]

I'll be turning 39 next year. As mentioned in one of the threads here before, I'm more into powerlifting, but one of the items on my bucket list is to finish a marathon, and I usually run 6 miles, or 10K max (I ran a half marathon once without training for it, and I thought I could run a full mary; but that was 7 years ago). I'm training for a full marathon, to be held 6 months from now, and I'm paranoid that I might lose significant upper body strength and muscle mass after the marathon.

Anybody who are in to both lifting and running? Should I be concerned about gaining full strength that might take longer? I'm currently 185 lbs, and wondering how much weight I'll lose after the marathon.

I know strength would be the last to go, but if it will take me a long time to regain the strength I have at this age, I might not join the marathon anymore.

 

[deadshot138]

Go on TRT

 

[ROcknrollracing]

you cant ride two horses with one ass OP. Endurance athletes dont really need to lift much at all really. For a recreational lifter/runner you will gain some muscle but it going to a painfully slow process trying to do both.

 

[Oblivian]

It depends at where you are starting.

 

[aus101]

If you wanna run marathons run marathons. Will it affect your strength/muscle mass yes, but who cares about that? Not people who would rather run a marathon.

I'd rather not run a marathon and keep intense cardio to under 20 mins and light cardio to at most a couple hours (say walking the dog), and lift 4+ times a week.

 

[pliftkl]

I'll be turning 39 next year. As mentioned in one of the threads here before, I'm more into powerlifting, but one of the items on my bucket list is to finish a marathon, and I usually run 6 miles, or 10K max (I ran a half marathon once without training for it, and I thought I could run a full mary; but that was 7 years ago). I'm training for a full marathon, to be held 6 months from now, and I'm paranoid that I might lose significant upper body strength and muscle mass after the marathon.

Anybody who are in to both lifting and running? Should I be concerned about gaining full strength that might take longer? I'm currently 185 lbs, and wondering how much weight I'll lose after the marathon.

I know strength would be the last to go, but if it will take me a long time to regain the strength I have at this age, I might not join the marathon anymore.

I don't think you're necessarily going to lose a lot of strength in the training process, and I'd be even less worried about upper body strength.

The marathon itself is going to be damaging, but nothing that a couple months of work isn't going to repair. A couple months feels like a short period of time in the grand scheme of things if you want to run a marathon.

(FWIW, I'm 10 years older than you, and considering a spring marathon)

 

[10000 Days]

you cant ride two horses with one ass OP. Endurance athletes dont really need to lift much at all really. For a recreational lifter/runner you will gain some muscle but it going to a painfully slow process trying to do both.

Like I said in the OP, I am aware that I should focus less on lifting (which has been my lifelong hobby) while training for a marathon (which I will be doing just this one time). Thus the question. If gaining strength after 40 will be difficult, especially after the marathon, then I might not go through that training anymore, and just get back to lifting.

 

[10000 Days]

I don't think you're necessarily going to lose a lot of strength in the training process, and I'd be even less worried about upper body strength.

The marathon itself is going to be damaging, but nothing that a couple months of work isn't going to repair. A couple months feels like a short period of time in the grand scheme of things if you want to run a marathon.

(FWIW, I'm 10 years older than you, and considering a spring marathon)

Well being ten years younger, you're giving me the hope I guess I'll be pushing through with the marathon plan

 

[selfcritical]

Have you taken a look at the Hybrid Athlete? Running a marathon while powerlifting is one of the goals addressed directly in the book, with programming discussion.

 

[ROcknrollracing]

Alex Viada is full of it.

 

[10000 Days]

Have you taken a look at the Hybrid Athlete? Running a marathon while powerlifting is one of the goals addressed directly in the book, with programming discussion.

Will take a look

 

[selfcritical]

Alex Viada is full of it.

He has athletes that do the things he advertises his training for using methods very similar to what's in his published material, and all the recommendations have good grounding in basic exercises science and primary literature. I'm aware that shit he himself has done is under question, but I don't really care for the purpose of informing my own training.

 

[Sano]

He has athletes that do the things he advertises his training for using methods very similar to what's in his published material, and all the recommendations have good grounding in basic exercises science and primary literature. I'm aware that shit he himself has done is under question, but I don't really care for the purpose of informing my own training.

Strength training + LISS, isn't that basicly what he promotes?

I haven't looked into the specifics of what he offers because I have a hard time taking him seriously with the personal claims he's made.

 

[NurseKnuckles]

Strength training + LISS, isn't that basicly what he promotes?

I haven't looked into the specifics of what he offers because I have a hard time taking him seriously with the personal claims he's made.

Yes, basically its what he's advocating but packages it with what he says he's accomplished.

 

[Sano]

Yes, basically its what he's advocating but packages it with what he says he's accomplished.

That's what I've gathered as well. It would be cool if everyone could deadlift 800lbs and run a marathon at an elite pace or whatever.

I'd like to be proven wrong on my idea of him though!

 

[selfcritical]

Strength training + LISS, isn't that basicly what he promotes?

I haven't looked into the specifics of what he offers because I have a hard time taking him seriously with the personal claims he's made.

Concurrent periodization that is polarized and undulating over the training week, with a high priority placed on fatigue management, breaking out the individual elements of a quality into distinct workouts/stressors, and trying to find minimum effective doses when developing multiple qualities at once.

I still think a block periodized approach is probably the best in the long term, but his approach seems to work well for actually doing wildly divergent activities concurrently.

 

[pliftkl]

That's what I've gathered as well. It would be cool if everyone could deadlift 800lbs and run a marathon at an elite pace or whatever.

I'll be ecstatically happy if I can run a marathon at any pace that is still considered "running" and maintain a deadlift that is a lot less than that.

I think the pool of marathon finishers who can deadlift or squat 400+ is probably pretty small. Not tiny numbers, but I'm guessing well under 5%.

 

[Sano]

Concurrent periodization that is polarized and undulating over the training week, with a high priority placed on fatigue management, breaking out the individual elements of a quality into distinct workouts/stressors, and trying to find minimum effective doses when developing multiple qualities at once.

I still think a block periodized approach is probably the best in the long term, but his approach seems to work well for actually doing wildly divergent activities concurrently.

Yeah that might be where he really shines. Figuring out the right periodization schedule for the individual. I'm sure planning out the when and how is not easy, especially with two "opposing" goals like that.

 

[IndyCovaHart]

Screw running bro just do curls in the squat rack

U wanna look like an ethiopeen endurance runner or a swole sprinter

da choice is urs

 

[Fedorgasm]

So you're not really talking about gaining strength after 40, you're talking about re-gaining strength after 40. I've always heard that re-gaining muscle is much easier than gaining it the first time.

Add the fact that we're talking about strength that you're only going to lose for like 6 months or so. It's not like you're going to train for the olympic marathon for years and then attempt to get your strength back.