I think the first thing that peeps over 40 have to assess, is their overall life stress outside of the gym.
This is almost never talked about in relation to recovery, but life stress is probably the most impacting when it comes to systemic recovery. Over 40 we have to do a lot of stupid adulting. Which sucks, and can suck the life right out of us.
Physiologically when we’re stressed all the time, it means the sympathetic nervous system is often in a case of being turned on far too often, and not allowing autonomic homeostasis through allowing the parasympathetic nervous system to take over for a while.
So I often ask guys that are older, what their “life” is like. What their relationships are like. What is work like. These things play a part in systemic recovery because if someone doesn’t have coping mechanisms built in to create stress free times, then training is really going to suck too.
So the first assessment before we delve into such a discussion, is for me to ask guys…how do you deal with stress? What time do you make in the day for “white space”? That is, where you turn off all the bad stuff and learn how to zone in to a place of calm and relaxation?
So let’s start there…