The Truth About Age And Fitness Training
I was about seventeen years old. I had various first place wins in my weight class in teenage and open mens class bodybuilding competition. I dedicated a lot of time to bodybuiding and I knew that I was good. I was waiting to be called to the stage when I noticed a man with almost all gray hair,with a lightly wrinkled but determined looking face wearing a large black sweatshirt.
When he took off his sweat shirt, he amazed myself and everyone else backstage. He was a human tank! Large chest, well developed wide shoulders, a perfect six pack and a tiny waist, with a pair of huge deeply striated legs to bottom off the rest of his body. My heart sunk I knew from a glance there was no way I could beat this guy.
This grey haired spectacular bodybuilder walked past me, entered the forty years old plus Masters competition and changed my idea of age forever.
That competitor was fifty five years old.
Metabolism does change as you get older it slowed down but in my experience not nearly to the degree that most people claim. Your appearance is controlled more by what you do then by what age you are especially when it comes to how much muscle or fat you hold.
In my experience as a personal trainer over the last Ten years I have consistently had the best training experiences with people as far as attitude and results that were age 40 and older.
The best experience I have ever had was with training as far as getting results is an individual named Joseph Williams. Who I began to train for competitive bodybuilding at 53 years of age. Joe's other acomplishments include becoming a champion in over 10 other body building championships from the state to international level and competeing against me.
Let me break down just some of the things I have learned about age and fitness as I have been blessed to have trained individuals from as young as 12 to as old as 70 something (my 70 something year old client never did tell me her exact age)
1. Training males as young as 12 years old I have seen significant increase in muscle and strength
2. I have experienced very little strength degradation related to age of until after 65 years old.
3. In training my 70 something year old I and was amazed to see her actually acquire striations in her leg muscles through our training together.
4. I have come to believe that major changes in body fat as as far as age happen more because of age related activities than metabolism
examples:
(some Kids under the age of 12-activities- skateboarding, riding bikes playing tag)
(some Adults over the age of 30-activities- watching tv, watching kids play, playing cards).
5. I have seen males get stronger simply by going from their 20 into their 30s and 40s I'm not taking about with training I am talking about simply aging! Strange but also awesome and true.
6. The strongest most powerful males I have ever trained have been over 40 years old!(shout out to Bob and Rick)
While age does slow the metabolism down as you get older it is nowhere near the amount that the average person thinks.
I would suggest for young kids to wait until the age of 12 to begin serious training (though I have had my kids doing some type of causal training as young as age 2).
Don't use your age as an excuse for significant fat gain or muscle loss, instead I hope you use this info to motivate yourself to get training!
Metabolism does change as you get older it slowed down but in my experience not nearly to the degree that most people claim. Your appearance is controlled more by what you do then by what age you are especially when it comes to how much muscle or fat you hold.
In my experience as a personal trainer over the last Ten years I have consistently had the best training experiences with people as far as attitude and results that were age 40 and older.
The best experience I have ever had was with training as far as getting results is an individual named Joseph Williams. Who I began to train for competitive bodybuilding at 53 years of age. Joe's other acomplishments include becoming a champion in over 10 other body building championships from the state to international level and competeing against me.
Let me break down just some of the things I have learned about age and fitness as I have been blessed to have trained individuals from as young as 12 to as old as 70 something (my 70 something year old client never did tell me her exact age)
1. Training males as young as 12 years old I have seen significant increase in muscle and strength
2. I have experienced very little strength degradation related to age of until after 65 years old.
3. In training my 70 something year old I and was amazed to see her actually acquire striations in her leg muscles through our training together.
4. I have come to believe that major changes in body fat as as far as age happen more because of age related activities than metabolism
examples:
(some Kids under the age of 12-activities- skateboarding, riding bikes playing tag)
(some Adults over the age of 30-activities- watching tv, watching kids play, playing cards).
5. I have seen males get stronger simply by going from their 20 into their 30s and 40s I'm not taking about with training I am talking about simply aging! Strange but also awesome and true.
6. The strongest most powerful males I have ever trained have been over 40 years old!(shout out to Bob and Rick)
While age does slow the metabolism down as you get older it is nowhere near the amount that the average person thinks.
I would suggest for young kids to wait until the age of 12 to begin serious training (though I have had my kids doing some type of causal training as young as age 2).
Don't use your age as an excuse for significant fat gain or muscle loss, instead I hope you use this info to motivate yourself to get training!
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