Old School

It was my birthday a couple of days ago, and with “life experience” some things become painfully obvious…or just painful! I guess that if you are even remotely a regular reader of my blog, we agree that physical conditioning is a very important part of one’s training process. Well, as so many other things, that part gets to be increasingly harder to achieve and maintain after certain age. In order to make it, there are some guidelines that may come in handy, as they have proven to be quite effective in my case. With that in mind, do not take these suggestions as any kind of recipe or program, but rather a framework to work with.

First, the main challenge that “advanced experience” presents in view of conditioning (besides the hectic life stuff, with job and family) is the need for more recovery. In simple terms, you just cannot train as much and as often when 40+ as you could in your teens of twenties. Therefore, you need to be picky about what you do and when. Essentially, I strive to have two days off between workout days, which means that I will do dedicated conditioning session two or sometimes three days in a week (if it fits Monday, Thursday and Sunday). Personally, I then focus on strength at those workouts, while using my martial art training sessions for conditioning purposes, i.e. harder drilling to that end.

Basically, this kind of approach is detailed in a very good book “Ageless Athlete”, by Jim Madden. He does include roadwork, i.e. specific conditioning sessions, but in my experience it can be replaced by more skill/drill training slots. Also, I normally conduct strength training in the form of so-called “lazy circuits”, and that that supports the conditioning aspect as well, if done adequately.

Still, there will be stretches of time when the above approach is not viable, so what do you do then? In these circumstances the method known as greasing the groove, made popular by Pavel Tsatsouline’s “Naked Warrior”. Basically, picking two or three essential exercises to be done in single sets dispersed a few times during the day (one arm pushup and one leg squats in my case), enables you to do it even at work or at home…or wherever; so, with good exercise choice and a little commitment it is possible to achieve solid results this way. In addition, I subscribe to the idea of using stairs instead of elevator, walking or running instead of driving whenever possible, doing some vigorous, playful movement daily etc, because cumulative effects can be surprisingly pleasant. 

Finally, it bears mentioning that I do some sort of mobility training every morning, before commencing other obligations that await me. Similarly, before going to bed in the evening, I do a short sequence of static stretching, in order to relieve my mind and body of stress and tightness that might be left from the day, thus maximizing the chances for successful recovery, and subsequently optimizing the further training process.

In conclusion, ageing brings poses new challenges and obstacles, and the chief hindrance in tackling them could be the memory of our younger selves and trying to do things the same way as 10 or 15 year ago. Embracing the new circumstances will allow you to learn more about yourself and your training, and possibly make you even better in what you do owing to this new perspective.