Or you can just be stubborn and keep loading your beloved lying triceps extensions for another 25 years.
If you want them to grow, you must work them in different planes of motion and at different anglesįurthermore, if you’re older and more beat up, something as subtle as a change in grip width or hand position can be enough to mitigate pattern overload injuries.
Basically, the bigger your exercise toolbox, the better your results.Īs exercise scientist Brad Schoenfeld notes in a study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning, your muscles’ architecture supports variety during resistance training. to Work Out Tell You How They Do It VarietyĮxercise variety is a grossly undervalued hypertrophy tool. If you only have 30 minutes to work out, prioritize a big lift-not 11 variations of cable curls.
Of course, training economy still matters. These exercises allow for greater mind-muscle connection and can help clean up your technique, which is often the limiting factor.Īnd since isolation lifts aren’t as taxing as the “bigger” lifts, sets can safely go right to failure (and even beyond), which is a powerful hypertrophy tool. In fact, older lifters should do more isolation work-not less-especially if trying to bring up an aesthetically weak body part. Like a few sets of dumbbell curls or triceps pressdowns, not those excruciatingly slow 1RM deadlifts, will be what sends them tumbling down the overtraining rabbit hole. Related: Normal-Sized Guys Who Are Freakishly Strong Tell You How They Did It Isolation Exercisesįor some nonsensical reason, older trainees are always pressured to dump any isolation or “single-joint” exercises to “save energy.” But I have done other deadlift versions, such as snatch grip, stiff-leg, trap bar, dumbbell and barbell Romanians, standing good mornings, seated good mornings, sumo off pins, snatch grip off a podium, and a multitude of back extension variations (for 100 intense new workouts, try Maximus Body). This is to prevent overuse injuries and ensure more balanced development.įor instance, I haven’t done a standard deadlift in almost a year. Rotate variations of the big lift regularly.Max-rep or PR sets with a big lift can be flirting with disaster. Hit your “required reps” and that’s it.Think: “I know I can do that lift a bit better,” and you’ll continue to lift well into old age. Practice near perfect technique-and never stop learning it.So if you want to regularly include the big lifts you should do the following: Related: 10 Secrets to the Perfect Deadlift However, the “performed correctly” part becomes much more important with age. Performed correctly, these movements still offer the biggest bang for your training buck. Just because you’re older doesn’t mean the “big” exercises like squats, deadlifts, and bench presses are suddenly too dangerous to include. If you’re a healthy man who’s trying to train hard past 40, this is for you. So I decided to write my own type of over-40 training article. Suddenly, I felt embarrassed more than anything-like I was a washed-up ballplayer being asked to pitch Viagra or be a spokesman for a new line of “rich mahogany scented” adult diapers. While I was flattered, the warm and fuzzy feeling faded once I skimmed articles on the topic in their archives. A popular magazine asked me to write an article on weight training for the over-40 average Joe.