The 5 Secret Advantages of Old Experienced Lifters | Mind Pump 2537

old experienced lifters have advantages yes it's true in fact there's five distinct secret Advantage they have related to muscle building and strength training today we're going to talk about those I love this topic oh man strength yes 100% um I'll I'll say the first one first so we can get one you know in and start talking about a little bit but the older you get and we'll explain why the older you get or should I say the more experienced you are it's more accurate way of putting this the longer you've been strength training the more you can squeeze out of lightweight in other words what once took heavy weight to accomplish can now be accomplished with lighter weight and people who've been training strength training for a long time know exactly what I'm talking about and we have data to support this you see uh muscle fiber recruitment patterns higher in experienced lifters with less weight that than would take a novice lifter to accomplish that maturity Factor like you've been working on this for so many years you're really in tune with your body and the the whole recruitment process itself you just get better at that your Technique and the skill of lifting all that applies towards maximizing that effort that's you think the main reason for this is the CNS right because there's other there's other points that you're going to make that I think uh also like blend with this right or you know because I would also say that you don't have to do as nearly as much volume so not only can you get away with lighter weight so can you with the volume or intensity too I mean this is the I've been saying this on the podcast for quite some time now maybe the neatest thing of getting older uh and what I've noticed in in my own personal lifting clear career is as I've aged uh yeah sure the energy isn't quite there uh sure uh there's certain things like as far as like getting back in shape and the the the aches and pains and the things that everybody complains about but one of the things that's been so amazing is the ability to hold muscle build muscle um is just is easier all together like around it doesn't I don't have to apply the same type of effort into the gym as what I used to somebody who's been uh strength training for let's say 10 years can make a 100lb barbell squat more effective than a novice lifter who let's say is just naturally strong okay because they know how to connect to muscles and they know how to intensify a lift and they know how to uh recruit more muscle fibers through training uh and strengthening and the adaptation process that the central nervous system goes through so to give you guys another example right when they look at um and I don't remember the exact number so these numbers are made up but it's something like this that the average person is only really able to summon something like 60 to 70% of their actual strength MH so when the average person goes and tries to lift something the they're they're only really a and they used all their effort they're only really able to summon about 70% Olympic lifters on the other hand and they've done studies on this 80 to 90 they're close they're around 90 or plus percent they're able to really summon their maximal strength now the novice lifter you can actually get higher than your 70% through extreme stress or duress like if your life is actually on the line studies show that your central nervous system kind of releases governers and allows you to express more strength this is the crazy story we hear of the mother who lifts the car to save their baby right or something like that right now we have these Governors to protect ourselves but through training and practice your body essentially um gets more comfortable with summoning more strength um and it's true for muscle recruitment pattern uh muscle fiber equipment as well so when you take a novice lifter and they're let's say doing a bench press and we're trying to activate you know 100% of the muscle fibers uh in the muscles that are involved you have to really push them hard they have to lift something that's so heavy and so hard that they're they're they're activating more muscle fibers now you take a an experience lifter they could take a submaximal load something they can lift you know relatively easy with moderate intensity and through focus and concentration they can get their body to uh to utilize more muscle fibers and this is why experienced bodybuilders will say this all the time like oh yeah when I was younger I used to have to lift heavy now I lift much lighter and I get better results you're like how's that possible like what's happening is it your Technique is better is it your no they literally get more out of less with their lifts and this is a this is an incredible Advantage as you get more experience because the risk of injury in problems goes up as the weight goes up right makes sense if I'm lifting more weight my form is off a little bit my risk of injury is much higher than if I'm lifting lighter weight so when you're experienced you can go to the gym and I find myself doing this now all the time 90% of the time I'm working out these days I'm using weight that is 60% of what I could really push and I'm able to give myself a really good workout through focus and concentration it's a safer yet still extremely effective work you know where we see another example of this that I don't I don't think the average person would probably make the con connection that it's relatively the same thing is you see this in sports at high levels with athletes that have practiced a a you know practiced their golf swing a million times and you know that guy could come in cold because he's done it for so long so many repetitions and do a couple little practice swings and then hitless yeah perfectly right or someone like a Steph Curry who has practiced that halfcourt shot he can that guy can hit it and let him give him the ball five times to warm up real quick and he's sinking it all of a sudden where the average person could shoot that a 100 times and not make it it's like it just shows you how much that and that's not it's not a per se like a muscle thing that's doing that it's more the central nervous system and the memory that it has than anything else that's what's happening in this case with with building muscle this is the origin too of the the um the term old man strength like every every teenage boy every 17-year-old boy knows this like you're you're you're 17 18 you're strong you're big strapping then you go wrestle your 45-year-old uncle and who's got a little bit of a pot belly you know doesn't work out maybe he was an athlete back in the day but whatever and he's just strong like what's going on they call it old man strength well he's just been in his body longer his body knows how to exert Force more efficiently and effectively than you and that's just cuz he's been on earth a little bit longer now of course over time that starts to wear off as the body breaks down but but for people who strength train consistently if you've been working out for 20 years you can make exercises do more for you than you could when you were only working out for two years you can squeeze more out of it and again it's it has to do with just your ability to activate more muscle fibers and make that exercise more effective with lighter weight this is a tremendous Advantage when you're working out in the gym oh yeah well it definitely takes all that time that you're working out that you realize your capacity stretching yourself uh and finding ways to uh exert more effort and recruit more muscle fibers and and Challenge and test that and then to find that sweet spot where you keep adapting you keep getting stronger uh and then every now and then kind of exceeding it um but you have to go through that entire journey in order to get to the place where you're in that muscle maturity where it's just it's so easy I could I could lift like smaller weights and and lighter load uh and I can maximize that just because now I can I can really summon and recruit that because I've experienced it wasn't uh wasn't it Arnold who was famous for saying that he could come into the gym and do one exercise one set of something and it be more effective than somebody spending an entire hour inside the gym yes you know that's another example of it's efficiency yeah just how efficient you move and how much strength you can summon how well you're connected all those things play a role and so I mean this is the part that I I've enjoyed about aging I mean uh again there's a part of you I wish I was I moved like I did at 20 years old and and could and played basketball same way but man one of the greatest things is I remember how hard I worked in my 20s to try and build a physique and the effort I have to in order to build a comparable or better physique than all the work and effort I put in in my 20s is significantly less that's a cool part about being older it's like compounding interest 100% this episode was brought to you by meal one it's 30 gam of protein in oatmeal high fiber it's got healthy fats complex carbohydrates it tastes amazing no artificial anything you want 25% off click right here which you know brings us to the next one which is muscle memory muscle memory is a real studied and documented phenomenon there are epigenetic changes that happen when you build muscle that allow you to rebuild it at a later time if you ever lose it at a much much faster pace and many people have experienced this without realizing it if you've ever had a broken bone or you know a cast on an arm or and you take the cast off after 3 months and you know I I went through this I dislocated my knee when I was 13 years old and I had to wear the straight leg brace for a while remember when I first took it off I looked at my leg and it was like my muscle was gone I had like just a femur and I was so like it was almost traumatic to see and then just through walking my way came back to normal size I didn't go work out yet it just came back to normal size that's muscle memory that's a real adaptation that we all possess this is true for strength training as well in other words you gain 10 pounds of muscle now and it it takes you a year to do it you lose it in a month because something happens and you're like I want to gain that back you'll gain it back in a month you'll gain it back very rapidly so the more experienced you are the longer you've been doing this like this plays into your favor you take some time off you get back in the gym it took you years before to get in that shape now it's like give me 6 months if I do everything right of course my body's going to respond like crazy it's so powerful you could literally over the course of three four years slow down your training lose 50 pounds of muscle do a a docu series on YouTube and and build back 25 of that and everybody is going to think you're a liar I mean that's the the most popular comment on that that there was even though I documented everything for everybody explained everything that was doing still people thought it was fake and it wasn't real and I told them it would happen like I knew it's a compliment really that that was going to happen because and I knew that I well I didn't know exactly right I knew that 50 was a long ways to go and I knew that that was my Peak but I knew that half of that was going to come quick to your point like you didn't expect to come back from the casted leg to the best looking quad you've ever looked but to get back to what it used to look like or what is normal from you like the body responds really quick that so I knew that man 25 of those 50 lbs I lost I'm going to be able to get back how you gained it back it was how fast was it 30 it was in a month dude 30 days yeah the first bit by the way we okay I want everybody to know we work with you every day and I would every day you'd walk in you you were gaining muscle every single day you were walk in you were gaining muscle but it came back so fast because you had had you had 50 lbs of muscle that you had lost when from when you were competing yeah but 25 of that that mus pounds of that muscle was muscle you had on your body for a long time before you competed that's right years and years as a as a as a you know personal trainer whatever that muscle's like crazy muscle memory and that came back like so quick that exactly and that's what it was and and again it's also you know you have to factor in that I did all the things the right way too right just uh the same person who might have been in a similar situation who doesn't dial their diet into and doesn't manage recovery of course not I was on the upper end of what you can do in that shorter period of time but that just highlights though how powerful that is on and and and it wasn't a tremendous amount of volume it wasn't like I had to like train my ass off to get that 25 I literally just needed to send a signal because to your point my body has has has carried around those 25 pounds of muscles for most of my adult life I mean from 20 years old to 40 I've carried the 25 I really only lost I mean I I didn't have that whole 50 that 50 was Peak me but I the 25 for sure and so my body is so used to having that it didn't take much stimulus and right dieting to get it right back and that is a very cool thing as you age because to your compounding interesting man man you know it's a it's it is slow when you're getting started and you're starting this journey it is a slow process to build muscle or to lose body fat but it's like compounding interest you know so is investing the first time you put your first bit of money in that five % interest rate or that mutual fund or that stock you know you know that that $500 doesn't make you Millions but $500 every month every for every year for decades you know and and now over time then that's some serious money this and what's beautiful about this and why it's such a a great secret Advantage is and this is this is mostly mostly concerning building muscle you know stamina and endurance and all that stuff as it's related to muscle memory there's some truth to this as well but the muscle hypertrophy aspect of it and strength as well muscle memory uh is is really directly connected to and what's great about this is you're going to have seasons of your life if you're if you're an experienced lifter you're 50 or 45 and you've been doing this for 15 years or 20 years or longer there's Seasons your life where you're going to not be able to go to the gym as much maybe you get sick maybe there's an emergency or something happens in the family or you have kids you have babies and you're not sleeping and you're you fall off and then you're like okay now I can get back to it and you think to yourself like man I used to it took me so long to get into that shape what's it going to be like to get back into it if so long as you don't overtrained right so long as you just kind of go in and start working it comes back so fast it's remarkable I used to love when I would train clients who had a background of highlevel Athletics and then they let themselves get out of shape so long so long is they didn't go crazy and overdo it that was always a challenge because they'd always they thought they'd had to go train like they used to when they you know follow my advice and we're going to do a little bit of strength training the strength gains were always comical they're funny I had a guy I had a a rower that I trained female rower and she was uh when she hired me I want to say she was in her late 30s early 40s she was a D1 rower and rowers especially female rowers they they get really developed backs and and biceps and shoulders and that stuff her strength so fast it was it was hilarious and she was like is this normal I said it's normal for someone like you for a high level athletes because you were so strong at one point you totally let yourself you know fall off she's like yeah but I haven't done this for 15 years here's the thing about this muscle memory sticks around it stays with you for a long time and it's an incredible advantage that you have by the way anybody will develop this the longer you've been strength training the longer you've been strength training this becomes one of your secret advantages as well your when your goal is actually longevity Vitality overall health it also gives you a tremendous amount of latitude uh to your point that you're making I mean this is how I I manage my life like I'm at a period in my life where I'm not trying to prove uh anything to anybody um I'm not out shopping for a wife I'm not there's nothing I'm trying nobody I'm trying to impress right now I want to be healthy I want to be mobile healthy strong and so I've built so much muscle strength over decades that I can really kind of you know I could take breaks and still be way healthier than any of my peers not lifting and then as soon as I decide to turn it up a little bit get it right back and it's such a it's such it's a it's it's one of the best parts of Aging that I don't think anyone ever communicated to me I've always been uh afraid of getting older because it's like oh my God everything goes downhill it's like well no if you actually start investing in your health and lifting and building muscle and you keep chipping away and building more year over year this is actually one of the coolest Parts about aging is it actually works in your favor it's awesome uh which brings to the next one which is keeping muscle requires so much less work than you took to build it it's actually interesting it's and again this is a a unique this is unique to strength training in particular now a lot of forms of exercise are like this building endurance and stamina and and and flexibility it takes C amount of work to get up to a certain point and then keeping it requires less work this is true for all physical Pursuits but it's really true for strength training and there's a lot of studies on this and the studies on this are they range okay but the range is ridiculous the ranges are ready for this it takes one nth the work between 1/5 to 1 nth the work to keep the muscle than it took to build the muscle just to maintain that's nothing that means if for every nine workouts you got to work out once to keep it now the the more extreme you are I'm going to guess like the more the higher you are on the extreme level of muscle and strength I'm going to guess this number changes for you like if you're a competitive highle bodybuilder powerlifter whatever it probably changes a little bit but it's still way less than was required to build it I mean this is remarkable in fact that the data on just the average person who doesn't strength train do you know how much strength training the average person has to do to just not lose muscle over decades cuz there's a once every two weeks once every two weeks once every two weeks like if the average person lifted weights once every two weeks you're going to be fit you're not going be all super healthy about it but you're not going to lose the whatever the number is per decade I don't remember what it was 10% of muscle every decade after I forget I think 30 that people lose you're not if you just lifted weights once every two weeks but for everybody else who's consistent if you're seasoned and experienced this is amazing it's like you know uh I I I'm going to take some time off I'm going to do way less because of whatever circumstance of my life you're not going to fall so far out of shape that people you're literally going to almost kind of stay right around where you at with very very little work and this is kind of the compounding interesting should be encouraging I know very encouraging a lot of times it's it's unnerving for people to take time off once they get in this super Rhythm and and they're doing so well but yeah to this point it's like you can take you can allow yourself that that time in between it's it really takes a lot for you to decline in terms of your progress if and if you actually this and this was the last piece for me to this puzzle if you compare that with also learning to balance your eating habits good point to mirror your training habits you can really bro you can hack into this like I I can go on a run where I'm consistently training three four days a week and I really pack on that muscle back in feel like I'm in great great shape single digit body fat feeling awesome then all a go like n I'm going to train once every two weeks in there and do a full body workout and as long as I don't eat like an [ __ ] and go the other extreme we all I'm piling ice cream and do you're still eating good I'm eating yeah making whole food choices hitting my protein intake probably scaling back a little bit of calories because now I'm not training as much just a little boy you can maintain that physique for a long time and then all sudden you kick it up for a couple weeks because you got something coming up and it's a it's and when you're thinking about most people that just want to stay fit and healthy long term uh it's it is not that hard once you do this investing once you invest in yourself and you build this muscle and you do this then the Aging part becomes a really cool part of this and balancing that out you know when I when I when I started realizing this was when I would go on vacation and not work out for a week and I'd come back stronger is when I realized I was probably overdoing it in the gym like you mean I didn't work out for a I remember one time I went I was I was uh I want to save I was in my teens and we went to Europe we were in Italy to visit my my parents family and I didn't lift weights for like 3 weeks that's a long time for a kid like 21 days and I came back worked out twice and I was as strong as I I was when my left and I remember thinking like what is what is going on here just goes to show you the just how powerful it is and the longer by the way the longer you strength train the more powerful these advantages are the the more powerful the muscle memory is and the you know being able to get the results with lighter weight and all that stuff is which is really cool it becomes incredible I remember I think one of probably one of the coolest stories that we've shared uh in our podcast Journey was uh the first time we met Ben pakowski oh and you so just to highlight the point you're making about when you've put a lot of investing in building muscle like it he was trying to lose 100 pounds of muscle he he he couldn't it was hard for him to lose it he had lost an initial amount he was a pro bodybuilder so he I mean he was super extreme with his muscle size but he had an additional like you know 100 pound he had you want to lose a total of 100 lb of muscle and it was a struggle for him it was just sticking to his body yeah he was like eating low calor super low calorie intentionally not hitting his protein intake not strengthening anabolic yes and he was I mean it just goes to show that when you have when you've put enough time under the iron of consistency and building like that and you and you've built up a certain it's so cool to I mean I would love to see this experiment with you because you've been so consistent sou for so long and you've built the the your kind of peak physique right now of your your journey I bet you could get away with training once every two to three weeks and I bet a year from now you would still be more impressive than 90 90% of every Instagram and fitness influencer that's how crazy of I think of investing you've done in in building muscle hey sorry to interrupt you look are you lifting weights eating a ton of food and struggling you're not packing on any muscle you're not building any muscle at all you're not getting stronger well check it out we have a hard Gainer guide this can be your ultimate resource to turn that around pack on some muscle mass with our hard Gainer guide it's totally free you can get it by downloading it clicking on the link in the description below yeah i' I've seen this with injuries like you know I'll get hurt lay off go back to the gym boom you know things come back it's it's pretty remarkable I used to love seeing this with clients which brings me the this next point which this is more of an ego thing but I do think it's an advantage because uh you know it's it's hard not to compare yourself to your peers in terms of you know how fit am I how well am I doing whatever the more experienced you are the older you get the the the the wider the Gap becomes between you and your peers like you know when you're a 55y old person who's been strength training for 20 years you are in a different category from other 55y olds you're in a completely different category if you're 20 and you've been strength training for three years and you're consistent like you're going to stand out you're going to stand out but among other 20-year-olds you'll stand out a little bit but it's not going to be like it's not going to be like remarkably different that 55-year-old that I just mentioned it's like two species it's like there's the typical 55y old and then there's johon who like what is going on with that guy over there and you see this the older you get the more experienced you get the wider this Gap becomes for me this is an advantage if you and your partner are both consistent with this like you age with your spouse or your partner uh my God a lot of the you're going to you're you're not going to experience a lot of the things that other people experience as they get older and it's uh it's combined with wisdom you actually enjoy it more what do they say uh uh youth is wasted on the on the young or whatever like you're fit and older man you've got time money you feel good it's pretty amazing and I actually think it is a it's a healthy exercise I know you're you were setting the table for you know you know not to get like caught up in you know comparing yourself to others but I actually think it's a healthy checks and balances I mean we just had a we had a live caller earlier today and he's in his late 60s and he just looks incredible right and uh you know he's calling us for more you know like what more can I do or this or that and at one point Sal's just like had had to get him to reframe the way he was viewing himself because he is so caught up in building more muscle getting stronger and keep pushing and adding more it's just like when was the last time you compared yourself to your friends and your peers and like how how many light years ahead health and fitness are you and you know you could see it on his face a little bit of course you know it's like well yeah I think so I think it's a good exercise sometimes CU sometimes people that are into building muscle and into health and fitness can also get a little obsessive with it and forget to kind of check back and go like wait a second if I truly am doing this for better quality life and health like reminding myself like I'm I'm winning this race by a lot and so I'm okay if I miss today's workout you know it's all right to look up every now and then it is that's how I look at it because it's like yeah you do the work and it's about your own benefit and progress and that's where you're really you know challenging as yourself but to look around especially with your peers because that's where it's the most visible every time I like almost like the the reunion sort of uh timeline right I hit the reunion boom let's look and see like where we're at in the landscape in terms of everybody's shape and how well they're doing healthwise and it's it's astonishing like if you're consistently doing the right things and going to the gym and uh trying your best to eat healthy it it's it just and it it's it's really an advantage of life because it's not a GU like we think it's inevitable that you're going to suffer from all these different things and have these massive decline in quality of life and of course you don't know what could happen and there's lots of you know things that we can't predict but you know by and large like you avoid a lot of of it it's a tremendous Advantage as you get older and the more experienced you are with this I remember when uh when was it Doug you went you went to like a high school reunion and you came back from I remember him telling me like oh my God these guy had a you know heart surgery this person passed away from this this person like I couldn't believe it right it was was like your 30th 40th I believe it was the uh 30th yeah yeah I missed my 40th yeah but uh yeah the 30th so I think yeah you can really see how it diverges totally the people who take care of themselves versus the people who don't and it's like two different Generations honly it's I mean aren't you guys starting I just I mean literally I got this text two days ago my my childhood best friend uh one of his high school good buddies passed away had a had a heart attack like we're now reaching that age which is crazy family M Mye heart attack yeah where we're having people that are are our peers that are starting to see those things like that and it result in in things like that I mean that's I mean we've arrived at that age now where it's like it's not that weird you know it's it's still a little shocking when you hear someone passes as early as late 40s or early 50s but it's not not heard of like it happens and so and that is the example of those extreme gaps right that is the person who just did not take care of them how we're not talking about tragic things that happen right car accident and there's also unknowns of course like you know crazy things Happ I had a client Jim Doug knows him and uh he had by the way this this th this um what happens to your body over years of strength training exercise it doesn't matter when you start this is all about just how long you've done it cuz I had a client he was almost 70 I think he was 69 at the time and he had uh 30 years of stren of strength training exercise experience so he started in his late 30s he was 39 years old when he started working out now this guy would wake up every every morning 6:00 a.m. he would swim 2 miles he Strang train with me twice a week and he rode his bike everywhere and when he would get his hormones checked when he would get he was the most healthy fit person and he would work out with me sometimes and I remember laughing cuz this guy would just he would just crush it but he had 30 years of of exercise experience and again he started later right at 39 years old he started doing this that's awesome lastly this is a huge Advantage you know your body now this one this one sometimes takes a really long time yes for you to really start cuz to your point you said earlier is like you know and I think that Fitness people are notorious for thinking they need to do more push more over enough hard lessons you tend to figure out just that sweet spot of what your body needs in fact we had referring back to that caller he's calling us right asking he's finished anabolic and he feels like you know you know that just doesn't feel like enough volume for me and I think I think I need more and he's asking Our advice and I we were all on the same page it's just like dude you've been doing this longer than all of us you know more volum like if you were my client wouldn't argue with you right here I would listen to you and go like okay maybe we'll go to a map's aesthetic and let's see how the only thing I would do is I would say I would challenge you to be honest with yourself like okay let's go let's let's double the volume up with map's aesthetic and you tell me how you feel compared to anabolic and nobody's going to know that better than that man I mean he has been in his body for 30 40 Years of consistent weight training and you really get to learn yourself and how your body responds well beyond that too even just at the most basic level you when you exercise and you do it right for long periods of time for years and years and then decades you know good pain versus bad pain you know injury versus the kind of pain that you feel when you work out you can identify in your body when something is off better than the average person who oftentimes doesn't even notice signs that of things that are happening until they get really loud uh you know how many times have you trained a new client never exercised before and the feels the pain of an exercise and freaks out because they don't know what's going on or they don't even feel the target muscle they feel it in some other strange place because they're not in their body you're not in your body when you're exercising expressing movement through your body you become connected to your body and you become aware of things that are happening and so healthy people who have been doing this for a long time or more likely the data shows this to go to the doctor when they need to and to not go to the doctor when they don't need to they're more likely to self diagnose accurately than the average person because they're in their body they know this is off I know what I feel like when I move I know what I feel like when I squat when I twist when I run they're testing themselves and moving constantly they're far more aware and this is a huge Advantage especially as you get older because a lot of people just they're not in their bodies you're teaching your body another language and that's I've always looked at it it's like you got to take the time to be intentional with what you're doing why else are you doing it you're just doing it to lose weight or you're just doing it to look a certain way you're not learning uh the full extent of what you could which is the long journey you know it forces that because you end up hitting these walls and you end up hitting like the inevitable uh it's injury or it's some kind of restriction but uh to take that time and really like listen to your body's feedback adjust and then also learn with more intention of how to maximize each one of those movements you're going to go so much further I I love that and I love that um you know if you if you not only put the time and effort into the building the muscle but then the like I love the learning a language analogy and really truly learning the language of movement and how your body responds to certain things and when I squat how much better my hips and my low back feels and you start connecting the dots to the things that really make you feel good and when you ignore certain things what will start to express itself you get you practice that enough over years and years and you start to notice things you I was sitting in front of the red light this this morning and I know because I have haven't been strength training lately like the first thing that starts to go is my my hips just naturally want to have this tilt but if I'm if I'm training if I'm actually squatting and I'm strengthening everything they stay where they're supposed to be and I have no low back pain but what'll start to happen is I neglect my training is that I'll start to tilt back into that that position and so I'm sitting in front of the in there and I'm doing like a floor Bridge position like engaging that I would not know that if it wasn't for all the years of training having low back pain not having low back pain knowing what exercise is where it's coming from that's one of the coolest Parts is as you learn this language of movement about your body as you understand these things and you start to sense them or feel them before yeah well I'll give you a couple examples too just to go from a health perspective like you'll see somebody with really really bad posture who let's say they were 60 years old you know at some point that posture wasn't as bad it was kind of bad and before that it was eh getting there now people who are moving expressing their body they'll catch it right away they'll feel it right away Uh something's off a little bit I'm aware my body that gradual decline it's like that what's that analogy where you put a a frog in in a pot of water slowly boil it and it doesn't it doesn't know what's going on somebody who's expressing and moving their body is keenly aware of how their body feels another example like and this happens all the time this is a terrible one but it's true somebody will have something going on internally they'll like oh my back hurts I think I have back pain I don't know what's going on they wait wait wait wait wait go to the doctor doctor is it muscle I'm not sure then they do an they do an exam they do a scan oh it's your kidney or your liver or cancer somebody who's been working out an exercising will know that's not yeah that doesn't feel that's not muscle pain that's a or that's something different I got to go get that checked out because they know what it feels like they know the difference they're in their body and that is a massive Advantage as you age you want to know what your body feels like because of this episode Maps 40 plus is 50% off click if you're interested got some questions the first one is can new older lifters build muscle like younger lifters yes yeah there's there are in fact there was a stud I've had so many clients in advanced age say tell to me I'm in the best shape of my life at 60 55 or you name it so there's there was a study that came out so here's the difference between a younger lifter and an older lifter it's the potential so the potential of a younger lifter may be higher because of Youth than the older lifter but until you hit that ceiling the rate of muscle growth and progress so long as injuries and things aren't in the way is actually relatively similar they did a study on 80y olds okay 80-year-olds in strength training and the amount of muscle they build in strength over it was a short period like 12 weeks was remarkable and really the study was like you build muscle just as well as you get older as you did when you were younger now their capacity again is lower but you'll build muscle very effective it blew my mind for sure I I think there's a I think there's a flaw in even those studies because there's another factor that you're also not playing and we always talk about the the mental part and there's something to be said about wisdom and somebody who's older versus somebody who's younger so not only from a physiological point that that study proves the point that you can still be but then there's that also that advantage of just being an older wiser person on how to approach things you tended I think you do things a little dumber when you're younger so I think the older the older client like the the young kid that I was coaching and helping right it's 25 years old who's you know one he's the kid who I tell him to do these things and I have to go repeat myself because it's like I told you to do this and he thinks oh I could do more or I need to do more listen versus my client who is older wiser respects me as in my profession knows that is he came here for a reason knows that I know what I'm talking about I tell him what to do he just does what I have to do like there's something to be said about the psychological and the the wisdom part that it comes with the old age too so I would also make the argument that there's a slight advantage to the the older person who's getting into it because they and they tend to have different priorities like that person is very serious about like hey I'm making this change for myself I'm 50 something years old I want to play able play with my grandkids I'm doing this versus the kid who's just like I want to get hot chicks like what do I need to do more balanced temperament and it's like they're very much more receptive to listening and learning at that point uh so yeah I would give that advantage to and that plays a role right it's not just a physiological the studies are pointing out the physiological possibilities but we know better than anybody right if that's not the only plays a fact that's right the mental part plays a huge factor in results and I would make the argument that my older wiser clients were better at adherence than my young kid who's full of piss and vinegar and thinks he knows better than I do they can still gain muscle I mean trip me out like 10 15 lbs this guy was 80 years old I'm like this is crazy and it's just yeah never done it before but it's it's there's a progressive way to to get there you do the right things and your body responds what age should someone stop lifting heavy you know heavy is relative it's all relative so I guess the question should be reframed at what age should someone stop lifting with good intensity never you you never stop doing this so heavy is all relative the intensity so long as it's appropriate is fine and that never ever changes it just needs to be appropriate to the individual so if you're deconditioned well the intensity needs to be very low if you're very conditioned then the intensity is much higher but you never stop lifting quotee unquote heavy so long as you're within the parameters of parameters of proper technique and form and do you need to necessarily lift as heavy as you used to this is when you're more experienced which goes to our first point which is like I I know for example I use myself I'm 45 I could go and if within within a month I could get myself squatting four plates to get you know great results I could squat with two plates and get just as good as results why take the risk except for my ego likes the four placeat but why why take the risk when I can do it with less uh with less you can generate that that demand yeah and that's that's what you learn is that you can actually intrinsically uh squeeze out more uh recruitment you can you can produce more Force but you have to go through the process of um learning that a lot and that's why you know load is a really good teacher in that and you learn that through you know how much you have to overcome this load uh but as you learn uh you can you can squeeze and maximize that effort um quite rapidly which then you know you see that progress with the stacking of more weight as you go but I mean you don't necessarily need to stack more weight you just keep that progression of squeezing and maximizing your effort you know I actually I think about this question a lot it's not um and it's not an easy one to answer because the range uh like because I I think of uh lifting heavy I think of someone who's chasing PRS right so what what point do you stop chasing PRS what age do I stop trying to hit PRS and I and what to me what matters most is am I putting the prerequisites in place uh in order to do that what do I mean by that well I H I know just the same reason why I stopped getting on a basketball court it's not because you can't be 45 years old and playing basketball I've actually played basketball when I was a young kid with 45-year-old dads in great basketball shape and playing but I'm not in that because I'm not doing the prerequisites to to earn the right to go cut left and hard and jump on a basketball court cuz I'm I'm just being honest I'm not training that way therefore I have no business doing that but it has nothing to do with my age it has everything to do with putting the work in to take that type of risk on the body because I'm not conditioning it correctly I think the same way with PRS like are you doing the work with Mobility stability control in the joint are you slowly progressively overloading to get to that point like that are you building a solid Foundation well [ __ ] you could do that at 70 if you take the right client and he is putting in all the work and taking care of his body he could be hitting PRS at 70 no problem but I'm not training for PRS right now I don't think I earn it I don't think I deserve it right now so I'm going to do I'm going to lean on what s's saying which is I know that I can move half the weight that I've moved before and still maintain a a physique that's more impressive than 28-year-old fit me so why would I do that so in that case I'm not even going to the risk versus reward isn't there that's what I always weigh out what's the risk versus reward in the beginning getting stronger gives you a lot of reward as you become more experienced it doesn't and it doesn't make sense to add 10 pounds to your PR because what are you going to get for it aside from the fact that you lifted more RIS reward are machines better for older lifters no no this is a a common one right oh machines are good if you're older no machines just balance and stabilize for you so they're easier to use I almost feel like they're worse they I think I don't think they train obviously they don't train you as well they're not going to give you the same return that's for sure free weights are harder they're harder to learn and practice but if you do them properly you're going to get way way better returnan it's like I would those bumpers for bowling Yeah well yeah are you ever going to get good at bowling I would I would never want so if I had a 70-year-old client who's new too it's green I would rather do body weight squats with them than leg Pressman totally you know what I'm saying like the benefits that they're getting and even if he could leg press say a lot more weight on the leg press but the benefit the benefits of the body weight squats you know free weight and that's no bar on his back I'm not even saying put a bar on his back I think that is better than sitting on a machine and leg pressing away there's no situation in real life where you're not going to experience multiple forces at once like uh opposing forces um while you're doing a movement and so uh you know that's the thing about machines they're very controlled and it's great if you have like some kind of Rehabilitation therapy you're trying to get stronger you're trying to get back to the point where it's in full function if you're in full function we need to challenge that full function otherwise it's like you know you're doing yourself a disservice to just everyday activities you do outside lifting you know I'm glad we this question actually got asked because we have a lot of trainers that listen to us and I and this takes me back to my fitness manager days a mistake that a lot of trainers would make would be making this mistake is they would take a client because it's easy to put them on machines and and show them they got stronger right so I could take a 7-year-old man he just gets started in the gym and I could show him oh he started at leg press at 60 lbs and now he's at 250 lbs look how much stronger he's got but that guy is still just as as likely to be walking down his stairs and fall or step up and slip and lose his balance versus I use his body weight to squat up and down or step up onto a a a mild step step up and boun like that would be and sure he didn't load 50 or 100 pounds on his back and he's not as strong on the leg but that will in real life for that client he'd be far better off doing free weight body weight type movements to get strong than he would uh showing and impressing somebody with machine exercises that's how much of it adding 100 pounds to a leg press is probably equivalent to like 30 lbs on a barbell squat okay if you add 100 pounds on a barbell squat it's way more than adding 100 pounds on a leg press everybody knows this uh so free weights just they train the body better but they require more attention they require really really close attention to form and technique and practice and coaches and trainers it makes you work harder it's easy to put someone on a machine it's a lot harder to do something free weight how should an older lifter eat same way younger lifters do so high protein whole Natural Foods um you know eat appropriate amount of calories there's really no difference in fact high protein Building Materials in fact high protein is more valuable for older individuals than it is for younger individuals they find this is true for even uh people who are older and don't strength train they actually now recommend for sure as people age they need to increase their protein intake because it's got protective benefits you know I I actually found this conversation with my Advanced age clients easier uh than it was for young most uh clients that are older uh re already recognize what foods they're intolerant to how they take their digestion in their stool a lot more serious than the 22-year-old person they talk to you about it all day yeah and so they that's us now so they know they do a better job of adhering to a whole food diet avoiding Foods they know that disrupt that stuff uh I would say it's uh easier to have this conversation than than having this conversation with a 25-year-old who still is ignoring the signs of eating a large pizza and what it does to their gut and everything like that and so you tend by you by the time you start getting 40 50 up uh you're pretty aware of how Foods agree and not agree with you and so that's pretty easy to communicate and then again and hitting the the the amount of grams of protein we always talk about your goal body weight that stays the same you know no matter what what are the best supplements for older lifters oh boy man uh you know multivitamin is always a good idea just to make sure you don't have any nutrient deficiencies Metamucil but creatine is so valuable it's valuable for everybody it's really valuable as you get older in fact so a lot of people know creatin as being good for muscle that's true it's also good for health it's a longevity compound so it helps your mitochondria by giving them more more fuel so all the cells in your body that use mitochondria now have more fuel and every cell in your body use mitochondria but what they're showing with the data on Creatine and older individuals is it's anti-dementia anti- cognitive decline effects huge remarkable it's Remar creatine will be within the next 10 years a supplement that is doctors are going to tell people to take yeah after a certain age doesn't matter if you work out or not they're gonna be like you're gonna take five grams of kattin a day I mean it's pretty much a multivitamin especially if you're uh aging I mean it gives provides you an extra amount of strength and support around the joints and also it's got all those cognitive benefits it's like it also brainer they've even shown that it is anti- osteopenia osteoporosis so yeah if you're as you're getting older uh multivitamin and [ __ ] [ __ ] big one yeah I feel like those are the the basic generic answers to this I think the the the more accurate that we would all actually do is you would you would assess this client and where they lack cuz the best the best the best supplement is the one that you're most likely lacking in like if you're deficient in vitamin D well that's going to become one of the most important supplements if you don't get enough magnesium that's going to be one of the most important supplements you don't get enough iron and so in advanced age uh I I would say getting a a t blood work done and seeing where you're deficient in something is probably the most important thing and then implementing for your needs all right I know you like that episode if you did check this one out 30% body fat for men this is way too high this is actually a bit high for women as well so in today's episode we're talking about how you can go from 30 to 10 what is 10% body fat this is when you have a visible six-pack can you go from 30 to 10% yes it's possible but not if you guess along the way so we're going to talk about how you can do that in today's episode now there's a huge range right of like body types some people can run uh a little bit heavier uh and or a little bit higher body