The Barbell Prescription
 

This is an excellent discussion about why lifting barbells is so very important, especially for us aging folks. Cardio is not king, at least it's not king if you're continuing to lose muscle/bone as you age.

A good excerpt to watch is the segment titled: "Safety Concerns" at the 27:25-minute point, in which the doctor explains why the Deadlift is such a crucial exercise. It busts a myth that most people think that Deadlifts is an exercise that is an injury waiting to happen.

Here's a little bio of the doctor being interviewed: https://www.greysteel.org/team-1

Yep. Exactly. When we turned 65, we realized that we could get free gym membership and we joined a gym right away, "we" being my wife and I. We do everything together. We've been gyming ever since, with a short vacation from the gym during the Covid epidemic. We never did get Covid. Our focus has been strength work, an hour or so twice a week doing full body work at our limit. It's made us pretty much bomb-proof except for my heart issues, probably genetic. My wife and I do all the same things and her heart is doing fine.

Like the doctor in the video says, "Training is not exercising" and "The gym is a magical environment." I've built a plan that starts in October and runs through July and I have a training log. Been doing that for about 30 years now. What I do is not exactly what he advocates because I train for a particular sport, cycling, which is an aerobic sport. My desired outcome is stronger riding and more endurance. The health thing is a very important side benefit.

Weight training is sorta subsidized here in the US after age 65, free gym membership with your health care plan. (google) BTW, I've never been injured cycling.

I am a huge big fan of resistance training and strength training but I disagree that barbell lifting is the one and only way or the best way to get strong. Barbell lifting isn't for everybody and it may not always be the most optimal way to maintain strength for everybody There are some serious limitations with barbell lifting which mostly have to do with the movement pattern that a barbell forces your body into. There are many other ways to maintain strength besides barbells. Another thing to consider is that strength without good mobility and good cardio is dysfunctional and useless. I thing older folks need to focus more on mobility and movement than just raw strength.

I’m surprised by how many people I know who are our age and don’t do resistance training as intentionally and regularly as they need to, especially since its importance seems so well-documented and publicized. I mostly use dumbbells, except for deadlifts and some lower body stuff. I take the point about the importance of cardio and mobility. It’s all connected.

And if you're into C&V, you can work that into barbell lifting too :p

https://www.bikeforums.net/23390141-post86.html


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Did you steel that dumbbell from the cartoons?

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Dan

Strength training is certainly of great importance, particularly as we age (to slow the long slide to muscle loss). Helps with stability, power, agility, bone density, among other things.

Cardio training is certainly also important. For that other "muscle" (the lungs) and all the associated areas of the body impacted by strong bloodflow and availability of nutrients. (Including muscle growth from strength exercises.)

Dumbbells. Floor exercises. Ruck marches (with weight in a smaller backpack). Trail climbs. Plus cardio exercise. With sufficient nutrition and sleep to help support all that activity. Can all help.

I agree that barbell training should not be the only way to get strong. I would never dream of just doing barbell lifting for strength training and mobility training is very much part of what I do, in addition to training my type IIA & IIB fast twitch muscle fibers, which I believe to be very important to fighting off the negative effects of aging.

To be fair to those at Greysteel & Starting Strength (to some extent), I think the reason they focus and advocate so much for barbell training is because their main clientele (especially Greysteel) are elderly people that were, for the most part, sedentary for much of their life. For those people it seems like barbell training is the best to start out with and maybe they do other things after that, I don't know.

However, I do know that some of the people are in such bad shape that they can't even start out with barbells, some can't even do full body-weight exercises, so they start them off with more specialized programs to build them up and eventually get them on to barbell training.




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I think that is a great book and really enjoyed my 16 months of Starting Strength. My back complained quite loudly and now my resistance training is less likely to interfere with my cycling🤞

Really combo of cross training is the best prescription.
Cycling provides cardio, need strength / resistance, and really need to do regular walking as well.
Stretching and/or yoga type in mix also helps greatly.

I hit the gym once a week for strength training. Lots of dumbbell work, kettle ball swings, core exercises and leg presses, lifts and lunges. I used the stair climber last time for 10 minutes, and OMG was I sore the next day. I always have a rest day or two after a hard workout or cycling event.

Nice cross training. I have been doing PT at a center as a result of a recent accident, approx 3 months ago, and am now almost back to where I was minus cardio which will take lots a cycling again. RE: lunges - never really did these and Im sure sore after adding these to the PT mix. The PT has really pointed out areas of weakness that I will slowly improve over time and it will help my cycling in the long term.

Here is my personal prescription for strength, cardio, mobility, speed, power and endurance. I've been doing this for 10 years now and it works very well for me. I am also a big fan of stair walking. I like to use real stairs for walking not at the gym.

Kettlebells

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Various steel clubs and maces in different weights and sizes

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Cardio isn't king, eh?

It is king if you don't want to die from heart attack, stroke, diabetes. It is if you want to increase your health span.

But if you care more about being not so frail that you can't take care of yourself in old age (assuming you make it that long), then strength is king.

To my mind, lots of cardio with a little strength training is optimal. So cardio is king, strength is highest-ranking subject.

Does firewood count?

Your heart is the most important muscle. If your heart is bad or weak you won't be able to do much else. Humans have evolved for endurance and also to be able to move fast and be explosive if the situation calls for it. To be fast you need to train fast. Personally I prioritize endurance, cardio and speed / explosiveness. Strength training is just a supplement to maintain some basic strength and muscle function. I am not looking to break PRs in weightlifting or look like Mr Olympia.

I try to get my HR up even during strength training by limiting time between sets to enough time to do 15 squats with no weight. Keeps my HR up and moving even during strength training. I also change exercises in order to keep the muscle memory to a minimum. For instance, I was told by a Doc that the shoulder has 18 different muscles and it is impossible to engage them all with one or two exercises. I usally feel really good after I do strength traning and a quick 15 minute spin. Total time is around 45-50 minutes and the commute is 6 steps to my basement.

Exactly!!!

Strength training also promotes greater bone density, something cycling works against.

[QUOTE=I Like To Ride;23653056]Here is my personal prescription for strength, cardio, mobility, speed, power and endurance. I've been doing this for 10 years now and it works very well for me. I am also a big fan of stair walking. I like to use real stairs for walking not at the gym.

QUOTE]

So you use ‘real’ stairs? Not the fake ones at the gym that go up at a some fast speeds that are similar to ‘running steps’ at a stadium? If you can run your steps for 10-15 minutes, hats off to you but I will stick with the stair climbers where I can adjust the speed and get an excellent cardio and physical workout.

[QUOTE=rsbob;23653729]I call those things "the stairway to hell." I use them as prep for skiing and hiking every winter. I don't care to do stairs outside at 35° and raining. Besides the closest good stairs are 30 miles away. I don't run them, just do an hour or so Z2 or 30'-45' in Z3. I don't run on them nor do I see anyone running on them at the gym. I like that one doesn't have to try to maintain a particular rate of climb. The machine takes care of that, which creates the challenge. It will walk your legs off.

As I mentioned before, I never intended to place one activity over another WRT importance. However, if you are an old person that has been less than optimally active during your life (which is the subject of the video in the OP), then it seems from the results that strength training is crucial and that's why I posted here in lieu of the Training and Nutrition forum. These people cannot do power training, which I'm a firm believer in, but it would be dangerous for those people.

My only intention was to show how important strength training is and the body needs more than simple cardio, but that's not to say, in the big picture, that strength training is more important than cardio.

I wish all I had to do was ride a bike and stay strong and healthy into the 80's, but that would only result in under-use injuries.



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What sort of risks do untrained people have when doing power training? Assuming they start easy and progress over time, of course, as one should do with any exercise.

I'm not saying that can never do power training. However, it's important to build up the musculoskeletal system before doing power training. Granted a young person could start off with power training, but for the older folks that have zero background in strength training, power training would very likely lead to injuries to bones and connective tissues.

Actually many young people that workout also injure themselves quite frequently lifting weights and they blame it on lifting too much weight. When more often than not, it's not the weight they attempted to lift, rather the amount of force they exerted to lift the heavy weight.

In the same way many people suffer injuries when getting into running. And that's because running is not only an aerobic activity, but it's also a power sport, because the force on the body can be as high as 2 to 4 times their bodyweight.

Furthermore, professional sprinters can exert about a 1,000 lbs of force on each limb with each stride. Those guys only weigh about 150lbs, but their body is feeling ~1,000 lbs of force. There is a lot of training to prepare their bodies to handle that amount of force.

The same precautions should be followed for untrained seniors. Take it slow and easy to build up the bones and connective tissues.

In my mind, strength training is more about building up the whole musculoskeletal system, not just the muscles.




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