Time stands still for no one. We all age. As we age, there should be an adjustment to how you train. This adjustment should take into consideration an improved skill level as you become more skilled in the exercises you can do. I thought this subject would interest people because I find myself having to adjust my personal workouts to maintain good health as I age. At times, I can be my worst pupil. In this post, I’ll break up the age categories into training in your twenties, training in your forties, and training in your sixties.
The three parts of an overall strengthening and fat burning workout can be put into three buckets. Bucket one is the warm-up. This is where your tissue work lives. That can consist of foam rolling and trigger point work. I start everyone with foam rolling on what I call the Big 3 areas- the gluteal area or glutes, the hamstrings, and the thoracic spine or t-spine (upper back). The goal here is to increase blood flow to the area and to change the tissue quality. We want our muscle tissue to glide and stretch as we use it. It should respond like taffy on a hot summer day, not like beef jerky. In our twenties, the Big 3 areas should be suffice, 5 minutes in total time. As you age, you will start to spend more time here. In our forties, we’ll add the quadriceps, IT band area, and possibly, the latissimus dorsi. If we spent too much time working our chest and not enough time on our lats when we were younger and sitting at a desk for eight hours a day, we may have tight pecs needing some additional work, extending our tissue time to 10 minutes. Once we get into our sixties, we have more water under the bridge along with a few overuse injuries we may have experienced. It is not uncommon for me to recommend 12-15 minutes of rolling for someone in their sixties. The research states that you need to spend 1 ½ to 2 minutes of foam rolling in a specific area at a minimum to create a change in tissue quality. Just do the math:
Glutes- 2 minutes each side (4 minutes total)
Hamstrings 1 ½ minutes each leg (3 minutes total)
T-spine 2 minutes
IT band and quads 1 ½ minutes each leg (3 minutes total)
Pec minor 1 ½ minutes each side (3 minutes total)
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16 Minutes total for someone in their sixties
After the tissue work, a few mobility drills will complete the warm-up. This is generally some type of active hamstring drill, hip, and upper back mobility. At the studio, we have an exercise where we combine the latter two into a single exercise. This should take 3-4 minutes at most to complete. If you have a history of ankle issues (sprains, strains, or breaks) we may add an ankle mobility exercise here. If you have ever had back issues or have a job where you sit throughout the day, this is a good place to add a core activation exercise such as a dead-bugs or birddogs. If you started training later in life, after forty, I also like to recommend the core drills. The core should fire reflexively. If you have spent more than half of your life not engaging these muscles heavily, it makes sense to add them to your warm-up as an insurance policy. I have observed people experience a “back tweak” when performing a squat or swing because those muscles of the core did not start firing right away. To summarize the time spent warming up:
Person in their twenties 5- 7 minutes
Person in their forties 12- 15 minutes
Person in their sixties 15- 20 minutes
Next up are the auxiliary exercises. These are all the exercises that are not considered a big lift. What classifies a big lift? Exercises that use multiple joints, cover a large range of motion, and have speed and tempo as a component. Squats, deadlift, and presses are big lifts. Leg curls, bicep curls, and core work are not. Metabolic conditioning exercises such as pushing the sled or intervals on the Assault bike would be considered a big lift. In an average routine, you may complete nine exercises in total. Four to five of your exercises may be considered auxiliary exercises. I consider these the exercises that act as the glue for the other exercises. These exercises are also the movements that will make the other main exercises better. Performing 3 sets of single leg bridges or the Cook lift on each leg is going to allow you to execute a better kettlebell swing or clean with a sandbag. Core drills allow you to press more efficiently overhead. Consider the rock, pebble, and sand in a jar analogy. You grab an empty mason jar. You put in your big rocks first. Those are the big lifts. You may fit three to four rocks. Then you add the pebbles. This is the auxiliary movements. Then you finish filling the jar with sand. That is your warm-up.
As you age, you will make your hay here. If you’ve built a foundation of strength earlier in life, you will spend half of your training time performing exercises in this group. A break down of time spent on auxiliary exercises as we age is as follows:
Person in their twenties 10- 12 minutes
Person in their forties 12- 15 minutes
Person in their sixties 15- 20 minutes
The final and last stage of the workout are your big lifts. This is where you get strong. These are exercises that provide a big bang for the buck, in regards to strength. These are also the exercises that ramp the heart rate up. These exercises will require more recovery time between sets. If I’m starting out with a person in their twenties, they may have four- five exercises in this group. My objective is to build a base, and they will recover quickly. Someone in their forties will complete three to four. The person in their sixties will do three. A breakdown of time spent on the “Big lifts” as we age is as follows:
Person in their twenties 20- 30 minutes
Person in their forties 15- 20 minutes
Person in their sixties 10- 15 minutes
That’s an overall breakdown of how I recommend adjusting your workouts as you age. You should experience the ratio of time shift as you get older. Are their exceptions? Yes. That’s where I must be a coach and know where to ramp up or down in a particular section, but this breakdown provides me some type of blueprint of where to start. Without a plan, I think you’re just guessing, and that is a recipe for disaster. I hope you found this informative.
I’ll see you at the studio.