This is something I was curious about after seeing a bunch of extended family and friends over the holidays. Was curious what you have seen in relation to how people age after being serious about strength during their 20s.

There were probably half a dozen folks in their 60s who during their 20s/30s were in tremendous shape from weight lifting, most played football or something like that in highschool and then continued on with serious weight training throughout their 20s and from pictures you can tell they were in amazing shape. At various times in their 30s they all gave up serious lifting, and now in their 60s they are all rather overweight and have tons of the obesity associated health problems.

In fact the people in my family who never took actual fitness training seriously, but instead just lived generally active lives are in way better health in their 60s than those who were once serious about working out.

I have a few theories related to this and were curious if you all had any thoughts or similar experiences.

1) The people used to weight training for 20+ years had gotten in the habit of eating super high calorie diets and with age and declining activity it was almost impossible for them to reprogram their eating habits.
2) Those people who took fitness super seriously kind of got discouraged at some point in their 30s when they couldn't perform at their previous level and over time lost the drive to try to be healthy.

I'm 46. I dealt with something like what you suggest - I lifted until my early-mid 30s, got injured, ate like I was still lifting, could not lift due to injuries and didnt know how to fix the problems, stopped working out, got fat and moving anything was painful.

I started working out (lolcardio - even that was painful) a couple years ago, fought through a lot of pain, figured out how to fix the pain, started lifting and doing SMR, ART, deep tissue massage, mobility and corrective exercises, and now I feel younger than ~10-15 years ago. And I'm stronger than ever. And I can eat like a horse again

3) sample size
4) most people suck

1. 'Life' got in the way of continued fitness and they never made the commitment to fit it in. Oh they might have been all "this week" and "next week" and did it in spurts, but never enough to make it a habit in their new 'life'

2. With #1 they felt they could not eat as conveniently as before and thus ate "bad calories"

3. And along with #1 and #2 they continued to eat like they were expending the calories in earlier years, only they weren't but since they were "gonna get into it again soon" they kept it up and each noticable weight gain was shrugged off because "going to start running" kept being repeated in their head, even though it never came to fruition.

In other words, in their earlier life they were living a way that they could not sustain once they had "responsibilities" but failed to let go of the idea that they could, "next month."

You can't continue eating like a 250 pound beasting weight lifter if you want to be a 180 pound couch potatoe

Incidentally, this is solid proof (hurr durr) for why you should learn the why of what you're doing and not just the how.

And here I thought we were going to get interesting anecdotal evidence on the long term effects that weight lifting has on joints, muscles, skeletal structure, etc

My joints & muscles feel better than they have in years

In spite of your weight lifting, not because of it

lolz

Oh, and check out what I drew on my iPad

lol

rofl

Since TVs switched to flat screens, when would anyone need to be able to lift more than 30 pounds?

failedtrollisfail

Those big bodies are tough on the heart for those over 60.



Informal unscientific study. Two old SS guys against
two old cardio guys.
The SS guys.
Arnold Schwarzenegger
July 30,1947
6'2"
Chuck Norris
March 10,1940
5'10"

The cardio guys.
Mick Jagger
July 26,1943
5'10"
Steven Tyler
March 26, 1948
5'9 1/2"
*****************
Which group will live longer with healthier lives?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_d...white_thinking

Let me rephrase this: "What will kill you first, blow or juice?"

As long as we're anecdotalizing, I give you Jim Fixx.

lol

bill_hicks_laughing.wav

The funny part is I'm confident jogsy is 90% super serial, mixed in with 10% oldmanyellsatcloud/trollishness.

Jimmy Fixx'es family had a history of heart problems.

You have never shown any facts to support your position. In fact none exist. This silly lifting fad started in 1977 with Stay Hungry.
How many big strong 80-year olds have you seen? Not many. Most of them have passed away.
Even Jack LaLanne did not recommend heavy weights for seniors.

I don't tend to base my world view on anecdotes, sorry.