How Old Is Too Old To Train Athletically??

What do you think? What are your own beliefs, thoughts, and experiences that give you the expectations that you have?

I think as we get older it becomes more important to train a wide range of fitness qualities, make gradual improvements for as long as we can, and then seek to maintain as much of our capacity in to old age as we can.

A few years back i remember being asked by one of the older participants in my circuit class how long it was safe to keep doing circuit training. My answer was as long as posssible. Training strength, speed, power and co-ordination are still very important, as is a good level of intensity. This may be worked less or at lower levels over time, but it should still be trained.

There is an interesting study i came across recently. It looked at the effects of training explosive, heavy resistance training in healthy women in their 60's and 80's. The decline in muscle power associated with ageing and the problems associated with that are extremely significant.

12 weeks of this type of training demonstrated that it was safe and well tolerated and and elicits adaptive neuromuscular changes in selected physiological variables that are commonly associated with the risk of falls and disability in aged individuals.

The benefits of resistance training into older age are already well documented and are promoted by the major fitness organisations around the world. This study certainly takes this a little further!

While i'm on this subject, we should be seeking to improve a wide range of attributes for the time we spend training. Therefore older adults and kids at the other end of the scale, should be doing things that improve balance, co-ordination, reaction etc, as well as srength, endurance etc.

Personally i don't believe either of these groups should be stuck on machines because it is supposedly safer (which is not true). This takes out the need to develop core strength, balance, and co-ordinated whole body awareness and movement - just what these 2 groups (and all of us) should be seeking to improve.

So, watch out for those people and places that try to get you on machines at a certain age, and get you to slow down long before you are really ready to!

Training athletically to me, means doing what it takes to stay fully physically 'alive' for life. It's not just for the young at all, we all need it and physical aliveness and energy should be a daily experience and habit!

Cheers,

Steve
www.sussexbootcamps.co.uk
www.everydayathletes.co.uk