I think it is an individualistic thing. I made great gains when in my 50s but now over 60 things have slowed down. I am more into maintainence and flexibility. However, recently my brother who is 64 used some MAG-10 and really trained hard and eat well and made great gains back to what he was pushing in his 20s.
The important thing is not to stop training, eat properly and get enough sleep to recover,it’s a lifetime thing.
correct me if I am wrong vroom, but you are relatively new to lifting?
if so i am not sure my advice has much to offer you.
me being 39 with 245 years of serious nonstop training, the biggest difference i see from when i was young is:
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it takes less frequent training sessions to “maintain” that is i can do 1-2 full body workouts each week and not lose anything in the way of size, and in fact, my very best training cycle of about a year ago i trained upper body once and low body once a week and got strong as heck(for me)
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i need longer recovery periods
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if i hurt something it never completely heals, it might get a lot better, but i will feel it from then on to various degrees.
[quote]heavythrower wrote:
correct me if I am wrong vroom, but you are relatively new to lifting?
if so i am not sure my advice has much to offer you.
me being 39 with 245 years of serious nonstop training, the biggest difference i see from when i was young is:
-
it takes less frequent training sessions to “maintain” that is i can do 1-2 full body workouts each week and not lose anything in the way of size, and in fact, my very best training cycle of about a year ago i trained upper body once and low body once a week and got strong as heck(for me)
-
i need longer recovery periods
-
if i hurt something it never completely heals, it might get a lot better, but i will feel it from then on to various degrees. [/quote]
I’ve heard similar from guys I used to train at the same gym with who were over 35. They claimed to train only 3 times a week but both of them looked like they could be ready for competition with a couple of months or less (these were the guys I used to look up to).
They were basically maintaining at that point, however. I see them from time to time when I go home and they are still in greart shape. They just don’t seem to gain much more muscle doing that.
I started to make gains once I wrapped my mind around that I will not break, I will not get injured because of age. I hesitated to push the boundaries, people telling me that I’m over 40 so I have to be careful, then when I did push myself, BOOM! I haven’t looked back. I see the same guys that told me to be careful (They’re in their 30s) in the same shape as before now telling me I look huge (I ain’t huge).
I know that I may not be Mr Olympia, however it does not mean I can’t train like I want to be. The fun is in the journey and discovering what you are capable of, you’d be surprised to see what happens when you push the envelope now and then. If you’re healthy, go for it no matter what age! I have made a gain of 13 lbs of LBM one year in a 3 month period because I focused on it, it was tough, it took a lot out of me, it took dicipline and I enjoyed it. To me it was as though I won the Superbowl! I’m happy with the gains I’ve made over the years. I was once 202 lbs of blub (in my eyes) at 5’ 8", being naturally thick I carried it well, however I am now 220 lbs, still with some work to do and looking forward to discover how I may change in the next few years. I’m 43. The keys to progress for me were diet (given), receovery (needed an extra day from when I was in my 30s) and rest (under 7 hours I make no gains).
My training needs to change after 4 weeks, when I gained my 13 lbs I stayed with the same program for 3 months (HIT) and even then I made slight changes every 4 weeks to keep it going (expected changes) and then take a full 10 days off and start something completely new. Right now I’m doing POF training and X-reps, 3rd week in.
[quote]vroom wrote:
Okay, I’m tired of looking in this section and having it make me feel like a geriatric. For those of us over 35 and NOT on HRT or AAS, what type of gains are you making and how are you going about achieving them?[/quote]
I hadn’t had any significant gains or PRs since my early 20s (I’m 38 now) until I started eating more. I had no idea about how much protein/calories I needed until I started reading T-Nation a couple of years ago. I don’t nitpick the diet, but just try and keep it simple and get at least 200g of protein a day, and more veggies.
Gains still come slowly, but at least there is some measureable progress, as long as I can avoid injuries. Last week I did a 10x3 BB bench and finished the last 4x3 sets with a 20lb PR.
I’m also learning to take better care of my shoulders, and doing more external/internal rotation work and other recommendations from Eric Cressey’s shoulder series.
LJ