Once we get so old, size becomes less and less important. It’s less of a plus to be big and strong if that means it’s hard to move our weight around without hurting. Big and strong used to be a big plus with the women and in sports. Now our size is less important to the women and we are no longer banging into each other while playing sports.
When you’re older, it seems like smaller and thinner is more desirable around the dinner table and at the gym. In the gym the big, life long weightlifters have many aches and pains that they talk about. Their shoulders, neck, hips, knees and every joint seems to hurt. They continue to lift while managing the pain.
Given the perspective that size is going to be a negative and pain is a hindrance, let’s take weightlifting in another direction. Let’s go counterculture with the weightlifting and lift not for size.
When approaching weights, don’t have a goal of finding out how much you can lift. Finding out the maximum weight your chest or back muscles can lift will likely damage your smaller shoulder muscles and tighten your neck. And again if you can lift a great deal of weight yet find it difficult to lift your own weight, you regret your size. Better to lift light weights while moving from weight machine to weight machine easily when you are over fifty.
I prefer weight machines because the machines with the range of motion determined help me from doing stupid lifts. While I’m all for lifting weights at many angles and approaches to feel muscle movement, free weights and ignorance are not a good combination. For this reason, I tend to stick with the machines to guide my weight lifting unless there is a trainer to show me the correct lifting motion.
To feel muscle movement is the goal of my weight lifting. For that reason, work all the muscle groups during a weight lifting session. Working legs, chest, back, arms and all muscle groups in an hour or less gives you valuable information about your triathlon training. If you notice sore muscles, lift slowly and lightly to bring back muscle balance to opposing muscles and then later look up on the internet more therapeutic exercises for those sore muscles. Also determine what you are doing wrong with movement while swimming, cycling or running that is showing up when you are lifting.
Use weight lifting to also discover your current range of motion or flexibility. Feel the stretch that occurs as the weight is moved. Reduce the amount of weight if necessary to feel the stretch and know your range. We can add weight back for strength training, after we get the movement that we want.
Your level of tiredness and fatigue will also show itself on your easy day of weightlifting. While we obviously have strong leg muscles, a hard day of triathlon training can make our legs feel like noodles or stiff while lifting. Use the knowledge of how little weight the legs are lifting to determine the recovery you need.
When we were young, we wanted to look older, bigger and stronger. Now that we are older, it feels good to look younger, thinner and more mobile.
