Amazing. 73 years old and squatting that much, when we have so many 25 year olds complaining about their health who hate taking the stairs.
It’s always good to hear about those oldsters kicking the hell out of the weights, running marathons, etc.
First real post so bare with me, I’m 42 and have gained 12+ lbs of LBM in a 3 month period. This was a friendly contest among fellow bodybuilders, one of them in their late 20s if I remember correctly. That was last September. I won the contest.
If you train smart, and I’ve been doing this since I was 10 and had an iffy time in my 30s, on and off and got serious again in 2001 you’ll make great gains at any age.
I forget I’m 42 and have to remember sometimes because I just don’t feel it.
Oh yeah, I trained the same style as I did in my 20s and that is when I made my biggest gains, so being this age and working out this long has it’s advantages amongst those just starting out.
Eat right, train hard, rest good and share the knowledge, we all win.
Great post by the way guys!
[quote]Kablooey wrote:
Amazing. 73 years old and squatting that much, [/quote]
He’s a really friendly guy, too. Speaks to everyone, strangers, young and old alike. I think the youngsters just reply out of politeness. Then, when they see him load up the plates, it’s funny to watch their jaws drop.
A friend of mine says he’s been lifting for decades, though. Maybe he only started coming my gym a few years ago (ie he misunderstood my question and told me how long he’d been coming to this gym for, not how long he’d been training for).
Still, to be able to keep it up into that age is fantastic. Deadlifts close to 500, too, btw.
Great thread!
THANKS A LOT to you guys that have posted your experiences!
It’s helping subdue some fears in this 39 year old. I have had my best size gains since puberty after my 39th (40 this Jan).
I’ve always noticed that many top powerlifters are in their mid to late 30’s or early 40’s.
Do we actually hit our prime after 35 if our lifestyle is in check?
You guys have made me believe we can!
To all other over 40 &near 40 lifters… I can’t tell you how much it warms my heart to read this thread. I think that as older weight trainers we have to work smart as well as hard. Reading in this site, stuff by Poliquin,King,Staley, Chek, Waterbury,Simmons, and others lets us piggy back their experience onto our own.
12 years ago, after a spinal infection,I thought my heavy lifting days were over, but with some smarter planning, I still can go heavier than many of the “youngins” in the gym I’m at.(They also think I do odd lifts like Snatch Grip squats just to be good at stuff not many people try,their loss).
I think,as has been mentioned a few times in this thread, changing workouts every 4-8 weeks keeps things fresh and balances out any strength/flexibility imbalances. Stay strong and keep lifting long!!
I’m about to turn 53 and almost as strong as I have ever been. I wrestled in high school and had gentle hobbies like motocross racing and ski racing while working as a rough carpenter for the first twenty two years of my working life so I once knew something about being physical on an ongoing basis. Surfed a lot until age 35 or so, and if you don’t think surfing is exercise try dragging your body through the water, nonstop, for 20 minutes while paddling out through 12 foot waves using only your arms! No wonder rope climbs and chins were always easy. The only time I seriously lifted was during high school wrestling, and then I was always trying to make weight so I never ate well or got big, and specifically for ski racing and that meant very sport specific training, almost legs only workouts.
Anyway, more to the point, for most of the last 15 years I sat on my ass and got fat. 5’-11" and 220 pounds and my best guess is about 33% body fat. For the last two years I was completely dumbfounded and surprised to find that if I ate well and trained hard I could still get stronger, leaner, and bigger, even though I’m over 50. I’m down to 180 pounds and 11-12% body fat judging by appearance and my calipers. I seriously never for a second thought it would be possible to reduce my body fat while maintaining lean body mass at my age. I didn’t have any role models to compare and most of the older athletes I know are tri-athletes or serious distance runners. You know the type, great endurance, but they consider muscle to be dead weight that must be carried for whatever the race distance might be. Scrawny guys. My motivation was to get fit but not look like a scrawny runner when I was done. I mean no disrespect to runners. I know runners who are kick ass strong at running and determined, scary determined. One of my friends is an ultra-marathoner at the age of 65 or so. The guy can RUN 50 miles, up hill, at altitude! But I don’t want to look like that.
Some of you young guys may not know what I’m talking about yet, but my range of motion was very limited, some of my joints ratcheted through what range of motion they did have. I thought it was the result of too many years of abuse while framing houses. I thought my body was literally worn out. I was wrong. It was all due to disuse. A few months after starting to lift I realized that my joints no longer ratcheted through their range of motion. They moved smooth again. My back didn’t hurt any more. My arms got bigger while losing the fat on them. My legs got bigger. All of me except my belly and hips got bigger. No one will ever mistake me for a body builder, but I was able to far surpass my original goals. I had originally hoped to get to maybe 15% body fat while trying not to look like a scrawny runner from weight loss. I thought that if I lifted and added a bit of muscle I would burn more calories and it would be easier to lose the fat. My doctor practically laughed at me when I told him of my approach.
I found that I do have to work out carefully and smarter in a way that I didn’t when younger. Eat well before and after workouts. Plenty of rest and recovery time. And work hard. My workouts are probably not what most on this site are looking for. I work out 5 days a week. Cardio three days, lift twice a week, 2 sets as heavy as I can, almost always to failure, and sometimes I do eccentrics with the help of a spotter after I can’t lift any more. My sense is that if I lift more than twice a week I don’t have enough recovery time.
The cardio is closer to training than recreational jogging. The runs follow the lifting. Typically I’ll lift on a given night, then the next day I do a run at lunch time. One day I do a mile or so of warm-up on the sand at the beach and then run 15 minutes of intervals on the sand, with a run up and down a steep trail at the beginning and end of the session. That is my hardest workout. It doesn’t feel like it while doing it but the intervals totally kick my butt. On the second run day I run a very fast 3 miles on the sand at the beach, again with a steep trail at the beginning and end of the session, and finally, on the weekend I run between 6 and 10 miles at a very easy relaxed pace.
The point? Yea, it can be done if you are over age 50. I can do more chins than most of the 30-year-old rock climbers I know. And yes, I’m proud of that. (Of course they don’t actually work out. They just climb like maniacs. Its kinda like jogging next to a mother who is pushing a stroller and beating her up a hill. Did you win a race if the other party didn’t know they were racing, and you’ve been training for years for this big event??? 
) My lean body mass is at least as much as it was in my twenties and thirties when I was a rough framer. I wish I had known that was possible, but I had no role models. The best part is that now I can take my kids surfing or play soccer with them without huffing and puffing like the old man I was.
Very nice story. Congrats on your success!
[quote]Bolx wrote:
At 43, i am lifting more and have more LBM than ever before. Dont worry about age, it is just a number…everybody is different. I do not compete, and have no desire to, but i compete against myself every single workout, and funnily enough I always seem to win.
Enjoy life and give it your best shot, I (and my wife) am/are hoping for many, many more good years of lifting and making gains.
The only thing i have noticed is i need more sleep than i used to. [/quote]
Ditto, especially the part about the sleep…well, shoot…ditto all of it!
I am 59…will be 60 in January…6’1" 242#…competitive powerlifter…
multi-time USPF National Masters champion…
Squat 550…
D/l 630…
Bench 425…
arms 20.5" flexed…
50" chest…
gaining muscle is not only possible …it’s not all that hard, if you want it.
Food…Rest…Work…that’s the formula. There is a lot more discomfort now than when I was younger…but gettin’ old ain’t for sissies!!!
I’m new to this website, so forgive me if I do this wrong…
I am female, over 50 ~ and a personal trainer!
Yes, I agree that every person is individual in their results…
What I can contribute to this thread is that we can always increase our strength and lean muscle mass, male or female, no matter how old we become. It may take longer as we age, but we still have those muscle fibers and muscle memory from our younger years!
I was into Body Building about 15 years ago, then I recently went into Power Lifting. I was amazed that I quadrupled my strength, and my muscle definition is fantastic!
I work with clients whom I encourage to go for the strength and definition that they had at a younger age. They can do it ~ it may take longer and the process may be more intense, but it is doable!
I am 51 and still enjoy Bb and weights as much if not more than I did 10 years ago.
I am constantly told l look 41/42, someone at work a few weeks back said they thought l was 35.
I always try and push as much weight as l can every workout and am still gaining size albeit slowly.
I have been training for over 20 years and hope to train for another 20 years.
I hope this message has some meaning.
I’m 57…been lifting for 25+ years. I asked my doctor back when I was 30 something if I could still gain muscle mass. He said you never loose the ability to add muscle…it just becomes harder as you age due to metabolism…ect…
I work out 4x a week and I’m bigger than I’ve ever been. I lift with some power lifters and they motivate me…I’m 5’6" 187# and bench max is around 265/270. I look good and feel good…I’ve had doctors tell me to stop lifting heavy weights because of my age…to them I say BS…I’ll lift till I simply can’t…
willie2
The thing is, “when you can’t” is going to come around a lot sooner precisely when you stop lifting!
As we get older and start naturally losing bone mass and flexibility, I think working out becomes more important, not less. Most young people don’t really need to work out much at all to stay in reasonable health – they’re not going to break an arm or a hip because of osteroporosis. But for older people, working out isn’t just about getting ahead – it’s essential even to just break even!
That makes two of us since I started lifting again its alomst like a drug I cant get enough of it.I turned 40 this year and I am in the best condition and strongest of my life.
[quote]rainjack wrote:
And all of it has been after my 39th birthday.[/quote]
f*ckin’ a you are old
[quote]blackbear wrote:
I’m new to this website, so forgive me if I do this wrong…
I am female, over 50 ~ and a personal trainer!
Yes, I agree that every person is individual in their results…
What I can contribute to this thread is that we can always increase our strength and lean muscle mass, male or female, no matter how old we become. It may take longer as we age, but we still have those muscle fibers and muscle memory from our younger years!
I was into Body Building about 15 years ago, then I recently went into Power Lifting. I was amazed that I quadrupled my strength, and my muscle definition is fantastic!
I work with clients whom I encourage to go for the strength and definition that they had at a younger age. They can do it ~ it may take longer and the process may be more intense, but it is doable!
[/quote]
It’s especially gratifying to hear from a woman over the age of 50 on this thread. Thanks!!
[quote]assbuster wrote:
I believe in the KISS principal. Try what I’m telling you and let me know how you’re doing after about 6 to 8 weeks.
[/quote]
I just had to chime in on this. assbuster could not be more correct. Simple compound movements are the way to go. If you want to see the opposite of this statement watch the trainers at 24hr Fatness. They do the strangest, most complicated looking exercises you’ve ever seen. That’s why you never see the people they are training in the gym by themselves. They see no results, so they don’t come back.
RB
[quote]rubberbubba wrote:
assbuster wrote:
I believe in the KISS principal. Try what I’m telling you and let me know how you’re doing after about 6 to 8 weeks.
I just had to chime in on this. assbuster could not be more correct. Simple compound movements are the way to go. If you want to see the opposite of this statement watch the trainers at 24hr Fatness. They do the strangest, most complicated looking exercises you’ve ever seen. …
RB[/quote]
Why, oh why, oh why did I not learn this years ago???
(I caught a case of Steve Holmanitis - a complicated disease)
Live and learn!
I am 61 and still gaining muscle and strength-- Been working out about 13 years…My testosterone count was 630 about twice most men my age.But now I am using test. cream and hgh injections and weights are getting lighter…Never give up…