Beyond-Brawn-2nd-Edition

BEYOND BRAWN
19.17 An older body cannot tolerate repetitive stress like a younger body can, all
other things being the same. You must become especially attuned to the
warning signs of overtraining (see Chapter 14). Be sure to take action before
you get worn down by overtraining. Manage your training intelligently.
Heed the advice that the older you are the more rigorously you should avoid
overtraining, and the more heavily you will feel the aftermath if you do not
avoid overtraining.
19.18 e older you get, the greater the need for consistency in your training.
While a young person can lay off from training for a couple of months and
get back to previous best strength and fitness levels quickly, it takes more
time for the older person, and the chance of incurring problems along the
way is usually much greater. And if you lay off too long, you may never make
it back to where you were previously.
19.19 Older people often have parts of their bodies that do not work with the
unrestricted range of motion of youth. ere may be damage from injuries
or accidents of years ago. While ranges of motion can be improved, for some
people there will always remain limitations. It is essential that older people
do not imitate youngsters, but modify exercises to accommodate their own
limitations. Not only do some exercises have to be modified, but some
exercises need to be avoided. Anything that hurts should not be done. You
must exercise without pain. Exercise-induced discomfort of the good kind
is one thing. Training through pain due to a body that cannot co-operate is
another. Application of the “no pain, no gain” maxim will kill your training,
so forget that cliché.
19.20 Without selling yourself short, keep your goals realistic. Focus on the next
5–10% improvement, and then the next, again and again and again. at is
the way to go for safe and sure progress, whether in the strength, muscular
development, flexibility or cardiovascular component.
19.21 Exceptions to the former point are long-term and very-advanced trainees,
as opposed to people starting their training in middle age or later. ese
already-very-experienced trainees, once over fifty or so years old, may no
longer be interested in getting stronger still. ey have already achieved very
close to their absolute potential, and thus have been super strong. ey have
accepted that, with the passage of time, their absolute strength has to wane.
At this time in their life they may never try to increase their poundages.
Instead they might maintain a high level of strength by using taxing but not
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