Much respect for Steve Maxwell and all that he has achieved as both athlete and trainer, but I, too, found the article overly pessimistic.
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I love this.Weakness does not need more justification to be weak.
Absolutely.When it comes to aging and training I have to keep coming back to my man Clarence Bass. While he is definitely showing signs of aging in his muscle tone and presumably other aspects of his metabolism, the guy is a beast, and has been for years.
I still take exception to this quote:
"Once you've reached your mid-forties, you are merely trying to hold onto what you've built over your lifetime thus far; you are 100% in maintainence mode."
@ Adam R Mundorf,
I've read and re-read Steve's article on intrinsic vs extrinsic and most of the time I do train intrinsically, but toward extrinsic goals in some respects - always looking to gain some strength and mass, or to shift mass around for vanity's sake. I don't chase numbers but I do like to see them go up.
I do not normally have a set % of my RM that I increase loading or apply to a deload cycle, generally working a variety of rep and loading schemes when possible and increase when my reps begin to put me out of a given range or when my TUL before tech failure becomes too long.
I will shift my training strategy if I am not making any gains though. This is something he has mentioned in the past re intensity - ask more of yourself and you'll be able to do more, and this is something C Bass speaks of re his ability to make gains or hold onto them well past the point where most others are in a Nursing Home or pulling their pants up to their armpits.
I will admit, there is no way with my current lifestyle I could ever hit the numbers I used to hit on any but a handful of accessory work - my days of 300lb benchpress and 400lb squat are truly behind me and have been for a while. But...give me 8 months (maybe less) with a good gym membership and I'll bet I hit 250 and 325 for reps, respectively, at 180lbs bodyweight. I wouldn't be able to do so for long though as I just don't have the time or desire to train that much bench and backsquat, or to spend that much time in the gym away from family. Admittedly I would never have hit my old PRs if I'd had kids to care for at the same time.
Another thing, I'm a much stronger swimmer than I used to be, paddle a canoe like a boss and for longer periods of time. I have jumped programming and actually improved some of the lifts I had stopped training (don't trade a more ambitious program for a less ambitious one). My max heart rate is still a touch over 180 by my estimate.
As an open letter responding to older people wanting to get super buff on T therapy and hour long split sessions, well he's right. Not everyone is going to get super buff at any age let alone starting late (some will though!). You have to ask why you're training and if the potential consequences are worth your goals.
But in a "you're going to decline, accept or get hurt" (if that's what he's saying, and even if he is going to be right at some point) I'm not ready to accept that anymore than I'm going to abandon higher intensity training. I run with what works for me because it works, for me.
There is only one way to know what I'm capable of, if that does decline year over year and I'm going as hard as I can, that'll have to be good enough - only one way to find out though. In that respect I agree with him that form, intensity of effort, and TUL are the foundation of training, with intensity being the variable most likely to change over time relative to age - but I'm sure a rep to failure is still going to feel like a rep to failure no matter what weight it is. Train smart, train hard. After a couple of re-reads I have to agree with 90% of what he asserts.
I still take exception to this quote:
"Once you've reached your mid-forties, you are merely trying to hold onto what you've built over your lifetime thus far; you are 100% in maintainence mode."
At age 43-44 I began putting weight back on from an all time adult low of about 155lbs. The pinnacle of my rebuild (done in spurts working around wrist and hernia surgery) had me at nearly 200lbs at age 49 (over 40lb difference @ 10lbs/year) and ready to keep going if lifestyle issues hadn't limited my training options to lower intensity protocols. I could have done it in a lot less time too, but multiple surgeries have a way of slowing one down.
Anyway, thanks for the link, he hasn't been as active on his blog lately - good to see some current words of wisdom.
Yeah... too true North Coast. I don't buy this either. I (like yourself and many others here) are living proof of the fallacy of that statement. Can we be as good at something as we could have been decades earlier? Maybe not. But can we improve on where we are, absolutely!"Once you've reached your mid-forties, you are merely trying to hold onto what you've built over your lifetime thus far; you are 100% in maintainence mode."
Yeah... too true North Coast. I don't buy this either. I (like yourself and many others here) are living proof of the fallacy of that statement. Can we be as good at something as we could have been decades earlier? Maybe not. But can we improve on where we are, absolutely!
This episode of the Joe Rogan Podcast ruined Steve Maxwell for me. I think he's lost his mind. A the very least, he has some pretty wacky notions.
What part?
Is this the one where he talks about his "guy" who basically tells him what to do based on the position of the stars or whatever?This episode of the Joe Rogan Podcast ruined Steve Maxwell for me. I think he's lost his mind. A the very least, he has some pretty wacky notions.