Frailty is a bigger threat than lack of endurance.
The indisputable truth
For those past age 50 or those seeking to extend life and improve upon the quality of that extended life, the single most beneficial fitness-related activity an aging person can undertake is to implement a comprehensive progressive resistance training regimen. Lifting weights slows age-related degradation and (done right) fights to a standstill the inevitable physical disintegration associated with aging. Being successful in the weight room factually reverses the aging process.
Frailty is weakness and the curse of the aged. The cure for frailty is strength, power, and muscle, which can be obtained in the weight room, not sitting on a stationary bike or jogging. Elderly and sedentary individuals lose muscle mass, strength, and functionality. They can counteract degradation with the voluntary stresses inflicted by resistance training.
Strong people are far less likely to stumble, fall, and shatter brittle bones. When they do fall, their bones are not brittle and do not shatter. They get up, brush themselves off, and get on with life. Osteoporosis is an epidemic among older adults. The self-inflicted stresses of resistance training thicken and strengthen bone while simultaneously building muscle and injury-proofing tendons and ligaments. For decades, mainstream fitness experts and exercise scientists have purposefully and preferentially championed cardiovascular exercise. While cardiopulmonary health is critical and deserves a seat at the training table, frailty is a far more significant threat than lack of endurance. The cure for frailty is not improving at riding a stationary bike; the cure lies in increasing your raw strength by 50%.
Insufficient resistance training intensity
That which does not kill me makes me stronger. So true. Many practice resistance training, but very few obtain the sought-after results. The reasons for failure? The wrong training regimen, techniques, and a lack of training intensity. The intensity of resistance training is determined by how close we come to 100% of momentary capacity. If a person is currently capable of one hundred pounds for 10 repetitions and cannot do 11, his 100% maximum is 100 x 10 reps. In that same exercise, if that individual lifts one hundred pounds for 7-reps, they have attained 70% of current capacity.
Remember that capacity shifts, week to week, day to day, hour to hour, year to year, decade to decade. If the trainee “reps out” on an exercise, for example, pushes or pulls until they are unable to push or pull another rep, the trainee has attained 100% of momentary capacity. If you made 10 reps with one hundred pounds the previous week and this week 11 reps, you have achieved 101% of capacity.
The miracle of muscle hypertrophy is the physiological equivalent of a nuclear detonation. The adaptive response only ignites when exerting herculean effort. Muscle growth is a defensive mechanism triggered in response to regularly recurring (intense) training stresses. Without continual assaults on our current limitations, the body has no physiological incentive to reconfigure. Make a habit of regularly and repeatedly going to the limits of your capacities. Submaximal effort lacks the requisite physiological impact needed to strengthen the body and spark hypertrophy.
Exercise Hierarchy
A resistance training exercise hierarchy exists based on the collective empirical experiences of elite strength athletes. Results have created a collective consensus on exercise effectiveness. The Iron Elite identified and ranked the most critical and practical resistance training exercises and recommended specific techniques. The most effective resistance training movements are compound, multi-joint exercises that cause groups of muscles to work together in a coordinated, synchronized fashion.
Isolation exercises target an individual muscle to the purposeful exclusion of its neighbors. Compound movements include variations of squats, bench presses, cleans, deadlifts, rows, overhead pressing, power cleans, and quick lifts. The sophisticated trainer will spend 80% of available training time on compound exercises and allot the remaining 20% to a select group of isolation exercises.
Bodybuilding versus strength training
A radical difference, a schism, a chasm, separates strength training protocols from elite bodybuilding protocols. The goals are fundamentally different: the bodybuilder seeks to increase the size of a targeted muscle, and any increase in strength is purely coincidental. The strength trainer aims to strengthen a targeted muscle or muscle group, and any increase in muscle size is purely coincidental.
Because the goals are radically different, the training protocols differ radically. The bodybuilder repeatedly engorges a muscle with blood, thus creating the “pump.” This blood-inflation of the targeted muscle (over time and with repetition) causes the pumped muscle to increase in girth. The strength athlete’s sole goal is to increase poundage handling ability in core resistance training exercises. Classical bodybuilding uses a high-volume-moderate-intensity approach. Elite practitioners will train 60-120 minutes per session, 5-6 sessions weekly. Elite strength athletes will train 2-3 times weekly for 60-90 minutes.
Bodybuilding legend Arnold Schwarzenegger would train twice a day, six days a week, performing seven hundred sets weekly. Powerlifting legend Kirk Karwoski trained three times a week for 90 minutes, performing sixty sets per week, yet Kirk created a physique that packed far more muscle mass than Arnold.
Occam’s Razor
What is Occam’s Razor? To paraphrase- when presented with two systems that produce equal outcomes, one chooses the system with fewer moving parts. Regarding anti-aging progressive resistance training, the trainee should consider following (with exclusivity) either – the high-volume-moderate-intensity bodybuilding approach or the low-volume-high-intensity strength training approach. What is your personality type? what is your gut reaction when asked, ‘Do I prefer to train more often with lighter weights?’ or ‘Use heavy poundage in short, infrequent sessions?’ Assume that results are equal, then select one or the other.
Future discussions will focus on the techniques and tactics used for bodybuilding and the differing methods and tactics used for strength training. Regardless of the selected direction, the exercises should mainly consist of compound multi-joint exercises. While the strength trainer will use isolation exercises sparingly, the bodybuilder will use isolative movements using machines and cables far more liberally.
Completing the growth cycle with replenishment calories and deep rest
The classical progressive resistance growth cycle involves maximal muscle stress, feeding exhausted muscles quality calories, and adding lots of deep REM sleep. The fullest, fastest recovery comes for those who train hard, underpin intense training with high-quality calorie eating, and add deep, hibernation-like sleep. Do not train stressed muscles again until they are rested and healed.
Other recovery enhancers that have proven effective include the sauna, whirlpool, steam room, ice bath, deep tissue massage, and targeted nutritional supplementation. Resistance training success requires repeatedly (and safely) pushing and pulling to the limits of current capacities. Striving to improve capacities is where muscle strengthening and bone density improvements reside. The human body does not grow and strengthen handling sub-maximal payloads. Banish frailty with resistance training: Reapportion time spent on a stationary bike, head to the weight room, and lift to reverse the aging process.
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