Lifting in late thirties

ngarauru

nga ariki o nga kahui maunga
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Has anyone seen the Rocky flick where he talks about increasing power because he's too old to be fast?

I just wanted to start a thread to get some of your experiences around lifting, especially those of you knocking on 40.
I plan on putting on a few kg of useful muscle over the next year.
Generally I will be doing this while trying to: improve explosive power, not fuck my joints, maintain my athleticism.

I lifted very little at Uni and have really only done the calisthenics that are a part of a regular Thai boxing session.
Ideally I'd like to have a minimum of 2-3 Thai boxing sessions per week.
I know strenuous lifting plus lots of boxing may be difficult as I don't have adequate time to rest and have a family etc, so I will do more of one and forego the other.

How have you older guys found lifting while martial arting? how often have you trained and what have you done to prevent injuries etc?
I plan on three days: push, pull and press, I hope to get some Oly lifts in as well to get the fast twitches working.
Should I forego strength exercises in favor of Oly only? If someone could point me in the right direction I'd muchly appreciate it.
 
I'm 35 so not quite as old but I still fit in a lot of different activities, boxing/Muay Thai, lifng, only lifting, running. And during certain times of the year I'll back off on something to make room for something else like xc skiing in the winter, mountain biking in the fall when there's a local series to compete in.

For me, i pretty much force myself to sleep early every night, and keep the diet pretty clean and that seems to help with recovery but most importantly backing off on certain things when you have other priorities. Boxing 3 days a week and lifting 3 days a week is very doable. I've been working on lifting and only lifting lately so not much boxing for me. Pretty much no boxing lately actually, just weights and my morning run.

I'm also lucky that massages are dirt cheap here as well as acupuncture and stuff like that and I have access to an ice bag and other stuff like that.

I have been taking my recovery much more seriously these past 4-5 years and I feel great.
 
I still do whatever I want, except muay thai and basketball. Too many fucking injuries.
 
I am 51 and I workout 5-6 days a week. I lift twice and typically play Tennis and Bike the other four times. Sometimes, the legs get a little tired. I find that if you eat well, sleep enough that you can still recover.

If I don't feel it one day, I will simply do something less demanding or skip it. Not worth an injury.
 
I'm starting to back off kickboxing, my right ankle is going to be an issue if I keep hitting people with it. My club has such a hardcore work ethic that it's not really possible to go once a week without always playing catch up.

I am lifting 3-4 nights a week, it doesn't injure me or get in the way of family time. I need the strength for work and love the power.

I am playing American football but that will probably have to stop in a year or two.

Its all kinda annoying because contact is what I live for.
 
I did, and do, all of the things I have always done to avoid injury.

1. Carefully assess where I am at in my training and how to best meet my goals.
2. Assess any injuries I may have and figure out how to deal with them before doing anything else. Nothing compromises this point.
3. Figure out what is the least I need to do to achieve point number one without compromising point #2.
4. Recovery methods: Meditation, baths (I cannot do an ice bath due to implanted metal holding parts of me together, so I use an epsoms salts bath and replace the water I lose), massage (deep tissue), foam rolling, extra stretching and flexibility work, light cardio for active recovery, light band work for active recovery.
5. Diet is critical. I ensure I get enough quality nutrients.
6. Supplementation (nothing major, protein, creatine, fish oil and ALA.)


FWIW, I managed to run a Sheiko MS program while striking five times a week and rolling twice (I was only able to grapple on one non-lifting day, which meant that on one particularly shitty day, I trained three times, which pretty much sucked an entire roomful of dick). Managed this at 45 years of age. And no, no chemical assistance at the time.
 
Thanks for your input thus far gents, good to see how many old dogs there are on this forum as well.
I think the best starting point for me now is to regiment my diet and what I put in.
 
I think it's short sighted to de-emphasis anything as we age because we lose strength, mass and speed. Strength and muscle mass at a slower rate than speed but when they're gone they're gone. I'm a lot weaker than I once was and there are some more variables to that than just my age but unless something changes I ain't going to be no Jack Lelane when I'm that old.
 
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Well I am not a high level athlete but lifting is forever ...it can be done and if you are naturally more powerful than fast you can prolong more you career for calling it like that..
 
i know a 50 plus year old man who runs up and down the basketball court and plays nearly every day. I work as a mailman and walk 8 miles a day in 120 degree heat index all day. Needless to say I tried lifting and basketball with all of that walking in the heat and All ive got to say is FUCK that Shit!
 
At 36 i am faster then i was at 26. But thats probably because of smarter training, better technique, better diet, ect..
 
CT Fletcher is pushing 60 and looks better than he did in his prime.
 
I'm 41 and I don't plan on slowing down when it comes to strength training. One thing I strive for is training smarter. I pay particular attention to my form. It's not that I haven't always done so, but to a greater degree than I did when younger. I'd rather do everything I can to avoid even minor injuries because the time to recover is not nearly as rapid as it once was. So pulling the plug when I feel things breaking down is something I'm very cognizant of now. I still train with a significant amount of volume and don't see any adverse affects from it. A lot of it may just be due to being smarter over time as well. I do have issues such as joint degradation, but nothing that sidelines me. Granted, my whole outlook could change any time. But I hope it does not.
 
I'm 41 and I don't plan on slowing down when it comes to strength training. One thing I strive for is training smarter. I pay particular attention to my form. It's not that I haven't always done so, but to a greater degree than I did when younger. I'd rather do everything I can to avoid even minor injuries because the time to recover is not nearly as rapid as it once was. So pulling the plug when I feel things breaking down is something I'm very cognizant of now. I still train with a significant amount of volume and don't see any adverse affects from it. A lot of it may just be due to being smarter over time as well. I do have issues such as joint degradation, but nothing that sidelines me. Granted, my whole outlook could change any time. But I hope it does not.

This is a very good point. 35 here and I've become very aware and proactive of paying mind to the little preinjury tweaks and twinges that usually foreshadow something more serious. I'd much rather cut a workout short or take a few days off than squeeze out another mile or finish a set and turn it into a 3 week setback.

Definitely lost a touch of that bombproof feeling I had up until about 31ish.
 
Has anyone seen the Rocky flick where he talks about increasing power because he's too old to be fast?

I just wanted to start a thread to get some of your experiences around lifting, especially those of you knocking on 40.
I plan on putting on a few kg of useful muscle over the next year.
Generally I will be doing this while trying to: improve explosive power, not fuck my joints, maintain my athleticism.

I lifted very little at Uni and have really only done the calisthenics that are a part of a regular Thai boxing session.
Ideally I'd like to have a minimum of 2-3 Thai boxing sessions per week.
I know strenuous lifting plus lots of boxing may be difficult as I don't have adequate time to rest and have a family etc, so I will do more of one and forego the other.

How have you older guys found lifting while martial arting? how often have you trained and what have you done to prevent injuries etc?
I plan on three days: push, pull and press, I hope to get some Oly lifts in as well to get the fast twitches working.
Should I forego strength exercises in favor of Oly only? If someone could point me in the right direction I'd muchly appreciate it.

I'm about to turn 42 and stopped judo in late 2014 due to a plethora of injuries (lingering concussion issues, torn calf, neck and back issues). Basically I was a physical wreck. I had a car accident in 2001 and my body hasn't been the same since. I actually began judo in 2007 and I know my rehab doctor for my post concussion syndrome never would have given approval for it.

I preferred to do a full body workout either with weights or bodyweight training a couple of times a week in addition to my two judo classes, which were quite grueling. The level of intensity of my strength workouts varied depending on my energy level, how rough judo was on me that week, but primarily boiled down to intuitiveness of what my body required. Weight work was no longer than 45 minutes max.

Ask yourself these questions:

1) Why am I doing this?
2) What are my goals (ties into why you are doing this) ?

I could be wrong, but from the tone of your post it sounds like you are afraid of growing "old." We are all going to wear down at some point; some sooner than others. Having the desire to up your workload between lifting and martial arts as you approach 40 doesn't make a lot of sense to me personally. It almost sounds like some early mid-life crisis.

If I were in your position, I would be doing plyometrics over Olympic lifting as ego tends to get the best of people and you are at an age where your body is more likely to break down. For myself a lot of my more severe athletic injuries happened in my late 30's.

I tore my rotator cuff at 37, my right calf at 39 and my left calf mildly at 41. The rotator cuff was a result of a botched technique in judo by my training partner (I get hurt over his screw up. Funny how that works??). The right calf was when I was just getting back into sports after the rotator cuff injury and tore it playing softball at the start of the season. The left calf I didn't even know I tore it because I have so many other aches and pains I didn't realize it was torn until after I called it quits with judo.

Do you see the pattern?

The body doesn't do what you want it to do in your 20's and early 30's. At a time when you want to ramp up your workload, you need to be lessening the stress on your body.

I talked to a paramedic about my torn calf and he said that it is very common injury for guys that are pushing 40. You even see it in MLB among players who have severely strained or torn the muscle. Basically, pro athletes suffer the same injuries as your recreational athletes, no matter what precautions/training they undertake.
 
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Thanks for the experiences thunderlips.
I guess the reason I wrote the post was to get experience from people my age who are able to do the lifts, how they manage and what if any detrimental effects it's had on them. From what I've read and seen the Oly lifts increase both strength and explosiveness.
I research before I attempt anything, I'm an academic that way, and I've found shared experience invaluable in most endeavor I've undertaken.
I'm a muay thai practioner and, outside of the days I practice tech, would like to gain some size (as I've always been skinny) and enhance my tech by being more explosive.
After getting some input from guys in their late thirties, forties and fifties my overall goals are to gain 5 to 7kg of density, be stronger and more explosive and keep my current tech by this time next year. I'm going to learn clean and jerk this year and try and integrate it into a strength routine comprised of declination deadlifts, military press and and a few assistance exercises which I will do twice per week.

Bigger, faster, stronger, will fuck you up
 
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