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What’s Possible After 40?
What’s possible after 40 is a question that I ask myself all the time. Obviously there are challenges now that I didn’t have when I was younger. However I am curious to see what is possible. Earlier this year I was in training for the 2015 Grid season with the hopes of being a part of the Carolina Crush. When the team didn’t happen, I was in limbo as to what I was going to do athletically.
Athletics have been a part of my life for over 30 years. The sport I was involved with has always played a major role in my life. I am not ready to quit being an athlete now. The biggest change is simply priorities. There is no way that a sport can dominate my life, or even come close. God and family are going to win out every time, and that is not going to change.
I have a belief that priorities are the number one reason that more athletes aren’t still exceling after the age of 40. I know that I still feel capable of accomplishing major feats of strength and athleticism. The only issue that I have is making time to put the work in. This year has been the best year that I have had in a long time for constant training. After the Crush folded, I didn’t stop. There have been time where I only worked out 2-3 times, but I didn’t stop.
This consistency in training has triggered my desire to push even harder. I have had one set back this year, and that was a torn pec. That was a sign that my body is different now. I am going to have to train smarter than in the past. I look at this as an exciting challenge.
The first alteration in my training will be max effort loads. I will be using tempo as a way to establish maximal effort without the top end weights. Think about it you could literally progress by using the same load for several weeks. Here is an example:
Week 1 300lb x 3 reps with a 3 sec eccentric and a 3 sec concentric
Week 2 300lb x 3 reps with a 5 sec eccentric and a 5 sec concentric
Week 3 300lb x 3 reps with a 7 sec eccentric and a 5 sec concentric
The same weight is used, but each week your body is required to adapt to a new stimulus in the form of tempo. You can also add pauses to the equation. This process will allow your body’s ligaments and tendons to adapt to the training process, which is a big key for me. My body is always capable of getting strong in a hurry, so strengthening my ligaments and tendons has to be a priority in my training.
There are several factors that we can manipulate to force adaptation other than reps and load. I am going to develop a plan that will call upon these other ways. Another key is that I want to feel good, so I can play with my children. I want to be able to run and jump, so that I can teach my son Rock all the sports that he is going to want to try. I believe with careful planning that I can be strong, athletic, and mobile. One major goal is at the end of the day I want to have the energy to play with my family. I believe that you can have it all.
The first that I always have to do is set goals. Here are a few of them:
• Grid League 2016
• Compete in Powerlifting
• Compete in Weightlifting
• Squat 700+
• Bench 400+
• Deadlift 700+
• Snatch 135k/297lb
• Clean & Jerk 170k/374lb
I have already done way more in all of these except the Grid League goal. If I can do all of these, then I will be much more balanced. I also want to do a few things that I haven’t done in the past like:
• Run a 5K
• String together 5 Muscle Ups
• Hand Stand Push-Ups (I haven’t tried these yet)
• Hand Stand Walk 5 yards (I haven’t tried these either)
There are also some basic athletic goals that I want to try to meet as well:
• Vertical Leap 35+ inches
• 4.9 40 yd dash
• 9% Body Fat
These athletic goals are also things that I have done better with in the past, but it has been a long time. I just want to see what is possible after 40. Hopefully I will inspire some of you along the way.
I know that one of the biggest challenges is going to be “time”. A part of this process is going to be “time management”. Time management is something that I have been working on hard for the last year, and I have found several ways to improve my use of time that I will be passing on to you. I will have challenges to doubt, but that is something else that I will talk about. I want you all to learn from my little experiment.
Here are the things that you all can expect to learn over the next several weeks from following this process:
• My Workout
• My mobility
• My recovery
• Time Management
• Overcoming obstacles
• Nutrition
I will also be videoing a lot of my workouts, which I will be posting as well. I just want to experiment on my own body, and hopefully you can all use me as a test dummy. I want you all to come on the journey with me, and together we can see how awesome the body can perform after 40.
I would love any questions or comments! Just post them below and I will answer them each and every one.