Athletic performance in your 40s?

[J. Barron DeJong]

https://hubermanlab.com/dr-andy-galp...-your-fitness/

6 parts?! No 30 second synopsis? (Kidding)

Thanks, I’ll take a listen.

[bennymac]

I’ve only listened to one episode and was slow getting to it as it was 2+ hours - but it was great and didn’t feel like a slog at all. Looking forward to the rest

[Dantheman]

6 parts?! No 30 second synopsis? (Kidding)

Thanks, I’ll take a listen.

You can forgo 2-6 if you want. Part 1 specifically covers your question about benchmarks in exquisite detail. It also includes a detailed discussion about all 9 types of exercise-induced adaptations and why it's important to train all of them.

[californiagrown]

It also includes a detailed discussion about all 9 types of exercise-induced adaptations and why it's important to train all of them.

My personal hot-take in regards to fitness/health/workout/nutrition is that all too often unrealistically high expectations are included in the protocols/methods/programs from leading experts. There is sooooo much great information out there on how to optimize your health , but when it comes down to it a lot of people simply do not have the time to follow the optimal protocols put forth by experts. IMO, there needs to be more emphasis on bang-for-buck. Personally, i am fully booked from 6am-8pm every day with work or family. The 5-6am window is when i workout and shit/shower/shave. The 8-9pm window is when i get my breakfast/snacks/lunch ready for the next day and take care of leftover chores/errands. My available time to devote to personal care has shrunk tremendously from when i was single and my physique shows it (im about 10-15lbs lighter with crappier mobility). I know exactly what i should be doing to get back into incredible shape and health... but i simply lack the time and have had to compromise. IMO, the fitness/diet/health gurus out there need to put out more information about the most efficient methods, and not just focus on optimal methods. It seems that the folks who focus on efficiency and shortcuts are the hacks which means its up to me to parse together what i feel are the most important things to be consistent with, while dropping things i dont think are as important.

[Dantheman]

That's a lot of words for a guy that's booked solid 6am-8pm every day. When another question comes up that has been perfectly answered by a premiere expert in the field I'll be sure to keep my mouth shut and leave it to internet randos.

[bodywhomper]

I do the leg blasters preseason under supervision of a trainer in October and November, starting w 2-3 sets of mini's and gradually work up to 10 sets of full. Once the season starts no more blasters. Perhaps on a shaky knee one might want to start earlier than that w the individual movements as a base to get into the mini's.

Thanks.

My statements were meant to be separate. My renewed knee problem was an aside-ish statement.

Re:leg blasters. Lots of discussion in this thread about lifting regards to legs strength. I was curious how leg blasters fit into this equation. I used them this autumn to quickly ramp strength for skiing (resort hot laps on tele). I was impressed.

Regarding my knee, in January, I finally got an appt with my physiatrist as I was occasionally experiencing minor knee joint failure while skiing. I torn my mcl last season. His examination showed that my abductors on that side had still not recovered and recommended some specific home exercises to focus on additional strength training of those muscles (clearly, I hadn’t done enough). He also assessed that my trunk/legs were otherwise quite strong (skiing and leg blasters).

[XXX-er]

My personal hot-take in regards to fitness/health/workout/nutrition is that all too often unrealistically high expectations are included in the protocols/methods/programs from leading experts. There is sooooo much great information out there on how to optimize your health , but when it comes down to it a lot of people simply do not have the time to follow the optimal protocols put forth by experts. IMO, there needs to be more emphasis on bang-for-buck. Personally, i am fully booked from 6am-8pm every day with work or family. The 5-6am window is when i workout and shit/shower/shave. The 8-9pm window is when i get my breakfast/snacks/lunch ready for the next day and take care of leftover chores/errands. My available time to devote to personal care has shrunk tremendously from when i was single and my physique shows it (im about 10-15lbs lighter with crappier mobility). I know exactly what i should be doing to get back into incredible shape and health... but i simply lack the time and have had to compromise. IMO, the fitness/diet/health gurus out there need to put out more information about the most efficient methods, and not just focus on optimal methods. It seems that the folks who focus on efficiency and shortcuts are the hacks which means its up to me to parse together what i feel are the most important things to be consistent with, while dropping things i dont think are as important.

thats why IME a 30 or 40 yr old at the hill wasn't necessarily in very good shape, buddy with the fam/ career would be on day 2 and can't really keep up with someone 15-20 yars older who is on 50 day with a bunch of touring following a good bike season

For this reason the original question is kinda nebulous, at 40 I was in shitty shape but I was in way better shape at 56 and there is a lot of varying milage

[bry]

JBDJ You could not do deads for a year, focus on squats and blow by that number. Squats will take your deads to new heights IMO.

Also eat way more. I was stuck at 175 forever but have rarely missed a workout this past year finally blowing out the home gym, got my diet right and minimized my cardio and was finally able to get to 190. 46, 6'2"...

[jackstraw]

Lifting throughout your life, and as you age, in my opinion, should be about functional strength and avoiding injury. Tweaking the “Bro Science” might net a 1% gain that probably won’t do shit for real outcomes. Just do a lot of everything and not a lot of any one thing, move your body consistently, the rest is fluff. Aesthetics means shit. Functional joints/tendons/ligaments/intervertebral discs that aren’t trashed from some moronic mid-life crisis workout routine are important. Just move, and have fun doing it.

I’m sure many will disagree.

That is my mentality. I mean really...I'm just trying to maintain being the best fuckin' skier on the mountain [emoji16]

[Trackhead]

My personal hot-take in regards to fitness/health/workout/nutrition is that all too often unrealistically high expectations are included in the protocols/methods/programs from leading experts. There is sooooo much great information out there on how to optimize your health , but when it comes down to it a lot of people simply do not have the time to follow the optimal protocols put forth by experts. IMO, there needs to be more emphasis on bang-for-buck. Personally, i am fully booked from 6am-8pm every day with work or family. .

I think this is an excellent real life summary of the challenges so many family oriented adults face in two parent working households. All the techy sciency shit is really largely meaningless for someone who is lokinh for functional life long fitness and isn’t concerned about hypertrophy, aesthetics, peak performance, etc.

[californiagrown]

That's a lot of words for a guy that's booked solid 6am-8pm every day. When another question comes up that has been perfectly answered by a premiere expert in the field I'll be sure to keep my mouth shut and leave it to internet randos.

Not really, just 2.5 minute stream of consciousness slapped onto the message board. Didnt mean it as a shot at you.

But to your point, id like the premiere experts to focus more on efficiency and bang-for-buck, intead of optimal protocols. Seems like the folks putting out most of the information aimed at folks with limited time are inexperienced hacks. Id like more 30min stuff from the premiere folks.

[Norseman]

hey, we got Danthepremierman right here boiling the shit down for us

[Dantheman]

But to your point, id like the premiere experts to focus more on efficiency and bang-for-buck, intead of optimal protocols. Seems like the folks putting out most of the information aimed at folks with limited time are inexperienced hacks. Id like more 30min stuff from the premiere folks.

1. One of the reasons that Huberman-Galpin series is so great is that it's very focused on things that are reasonable for people with day jobs and families.

2. To be fair to the premiere experts, most people don't know shit about shit (including me). If you don't teach them what is optimal they'll have no foundation upon which to determine where and how they can cut corners to maximize training efficiency without sabotaging progress.

[Dantheman]

Re:leg blasters. Lots of discussion in this thread about lifting regards to legs strength. I was curious how leg blasters fit into this equation. I used them this autumn to quickly ramp strength for skiing (resort hot laps on tele). I was impressed.

Technically, LBs don't build strength. They improve muscular endurance and resistance to muscle damage from high-rep eccentric loading.

hey, we got Danthepremierman right here boiling the shit down for us

Boiled down to a syrup: Methods are many, concepts are few.

[Hopeless Sinner]

Thanks.

My statements were meant to be separate. My renewed knee problem was an aside-ish statement.

Re:leg blasters. Lots of discussion in this thread about lifting regards to legs strength. I was curious how leg blasters fit into this equation. I used them this autumn to quickly ramp strength for skiing (resort hot laps on tele). I was impressed.

Regarding my knee, in January, I finally got an appt with my physiatrist as I was occasionally experiencing minor knee joint failure while skiing. I torn my mcl last season. His examination showed that my abductors on that side had still not recovered and recommended some specific home exercises to focus on additional strength training of those muscles (clearly, I hadn’t done enough). He also assessed that my trunk/legs were otherwise quite strong (skiing and leg blasters).

I do the blaster segment of the work out after all my usual stuff which was planned w the blasters in mind. I'm fortunate to have professional help so I don't have to think about programming and how all the different aspects fit together at all.

And yes the first month of the season riding the lifts w wfh randos describing their suffering at the beginning of the season is reason enough to want to do the blasters again this coming season, especially if we're fortunate to get some powder days.

[bodywhomper]

Thx for the leg blaster clarifications.

[J. Barron DeJong]

JBDJ You could not do deads for a year, focus on squats and blow by that number. Squats will take your deads to new heights IMO.

Also eat way more. I was stuck at 175 forever but have rarely missed a workout this past year finally blowing out the home gym, got my diet right and minimized my cardio and was finally able to get to 190. 46, 6'2"...

I’m not doing squats because I just lift at home, and don’t have room for a squat rack anywhere. (Also, not sure I’d do them without a spotter.) And I have no desire to join a gym; there’s about a 0% chance I’d actually make that trip with any regularity.

But…. Putting that aside, would there actually be any real benefit in trying to significantly increase my squat capacity from where it is now?

I don’t care about strength for the sake of strength alone, don’t care about adding muscle purely for appearance sake, do like to be able to ski better, bike faster, want to be healthy as I age, don’t want to damage myself - either in the short term, or the long term - by lifting more than necessary to achieve my goals.

Not going to minimize my cardio, at least when there’s no snow on the ground, because road and mountain biking are my main source of fun/release those months. Winter I do much, much less cardio…

[bry]

I’m not doing squats because I just lift at home, and don’t have room for a squat rack anywhere. (Also, not sure I’d do them without a spotter.) And I have no desire to join a gym; there’s about a 0% chance I’d actually make that trip with any regularity.

But…. Putting that aside, would there actually be any real benefit in trying to significantly increase my squat capacity from where it is now?

I don’t care about strength for the sake of strength alone, don’t care about adding muscle purely for appearance sake, do like to be able to ski better, bike faster, want to be healthy as I age, don’t want to damage myself - either in the short term, or the long term - by lifting more than necessary to achieve my goals.

Not going to minimize my cardio, at least when there’s no snow on the ground, because road and mountain biking are my main source of fun/release those months. Winter I do much, much less cardio…

I brought up squats in the context of your question around improving your deadlift. I personally don't do a ton of super heavy lifting but I get a ton of joy and I think athletic performance benefits from practicing the movements themselves with some meaningful volume, and I try to progress my overall fitness of which strength training is an important part.

I think there are probably benefits to trying to progress your strength vs living in a plateau, but I don't know. I'm not saying you need to max out or even go heavy believe me, but you can conceivably have a measurement framework for strength progression you can build on or chase just like endurance measures you might chase that can def enhance your athletic performance, help mitigate injury, improve mobility, improve flexibility, strengthen some joints, I think these things are probably somewhat symbiotic too. When I strength train I can actually practice yoga less bc I get that stretch in the strength movements.

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[J. Barron DeJong]

I brought up squats in the context of your question around improving your deadlift…

Ahh. Got it.

So my specific question isn’t how to increase my strength (deadlift for point of discussion), but whether continuing to increase it will benefit ski/bike/health. At some point there’s going to be diminishing returns, even negative when it come to cycling and maybe overall health as well.

I think I’d be happy to get to that point of diminishing returns and then maintain while focusing elsewhere, but who knows, maybe I’ll change my mind if I get there.

[lowsparkco]

Everyone is different, that’s part of the difficulty in prescribing “distilled” workouts that work for everyone.

For me, I am fastest, running, cycling, swimming when I get some good volume in (12-16 weeks) after a lot of strength training. So I have to be really lean and strong first and then a basic build of volume for a specific distance That has worked for events up to 5 hours long. Hard to say when would be “too much” bulk for skiing. My guess is you would know, but you can drop bulk so fast I can’t think it would ever hinder performance for very long.

The biggest risk is hurting yourself. The only way I’ve found to avoid injury is stretching and mobility work. Taking time off to throughly rehab and improve mobility and form before going back in. Working with good trainers helps.

[sb]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CpqPI...d=MDJmNzVkMjY=

Comparison of Italian and American diets.

[bry]

New Starrett book Built to Move was recently published I picked up and I am enjoying reading it with my wife, very practical advice for busy folks and families.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...-built-to-move


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[bodywhomper]

Thx! His tone can be annoying, but starrett’s stuff has been helpful for me.

[rod9301]

Lift light and get the benefits of heavy with blood flow restriction training. I did a full course with a PT after an ACL repair, a few yrs ago 80% venous occlusion and only 20-60% 1 rep max. Absolutely worked for me to return to sports within 6mos.

Seemed like it would be ideal for older adults for increasing muscle mass and strength while decreasing potential injury.

Just don't over do it too long, you will get more sore than your heaviest lift days.

How do you know it worked? I assume because you later tried to lift heavy and you were at the previous level. Let me know if I'm right.

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[J. Barron DeJong]

How do you know it worked? I assume because you later tried to lift heavy and you were at the previous level. Let me know if I'm right.

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They discuss it a bit in part two of the series DTM posted. (I believe part 2, slight chance it was part 1.)