Trouble Doing Pull-Ups

I did miss that you were 68- I apologize. Not that you can’t still do some daily pull-ups, just be very cognizant of your recovery and don’t push too hard. There are older people doing much more strenuous things, and I’m not one to have age be a limiting factor, but I have to say I wrote that post with the idea that you were a bit younger.

Fighter pull up program
More than doubled my pull ups in a months time.

Yup, I have to much more careful these days . When I get injured it takes forever to heal properly , if I ever do. It easily takes me twice the time to recover from when I was 30 but what’s interesting is that’s not always the case. Several times recently I have been pressing very hard and doing what I thought would take 3 or 4 days to recover from and then feeling like it’s time to go at it again in 2 days when it’s probably too soon? It is hard to tell when you’ve actually recovered from a workout and grew some. I find I’m always feeling it’s time to hit the weights again even though I may not have fully recovered ?

One way I can usually tell is when the weight I used last time feels heavier than before. That happened the other day, I think I came back too soon as I couldn’t do as many reps as the last workout but there’s so many variables it’s hard to tell, maybe I just didn’t sleep well the night before or too much extra work around the yard? Workout—-recover—muscle over compensates and gets stronger. It seems like the over compensate part is something that rarely happens?
Scott

Thank you for sharing that - it is very interesting - recognized a lot of what he writes about elbow pain when doing this. Food for thought.

If i remember correctly Bill DeSimone did also mention once in a podcast I believe, that Dr Darden once included side bends in one of his programs for lat work. Not sure if that is true (Dr Darden?)
This is because the last actually attach at the hip joint, if memory serves me correctly. All this talk of upper and lower back musculature is a bit of a misnomer.

As far as the age thing goes … I think IF you’re really into your training , have no injuries or health issues that hard trading could have a negative effect on, backing off with effort isn’t the way to go. My own improvement on pull ups - which was also the hardest exercise for me since I started training 36 years ago , came about five years ago and I just turned 68 in June. My weight is between 192-195 all year.

Turpin , who was a respected voice on the old board by nearly everyone who posted there, was about the only guy who agreed with me on this. He said it best when he said when you take on the mental state of ‘just maintaining’ you gradually start slipping backwards.

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I get what you are saying - if you back off effort and just try to stay at a certain point, you will start to slide. Of course, as you get older, that starts to happen anyway, regardless of the approach you take. It is just that if you aren’t making the effort to improve, the slide may occur more rapidly.

To me, the idea of maintaining is more about having realistic expectations: whatever exercises I am trying to do, I still try to make improvements over the short term. But if it doesn’t happen, I don’t freak out about it, and start doing stuff that my body can no longer tolerate.

tzabcan,
I could not agree more with the last paragraph.
I reached my best ever shape aged 47.
Whilst you cannot defeat “father time” and all that he throws at you . You can though with the right mental approach , effort, consistency and good judgement do some pretty impressive things.

Mark

When I was 49 I read an article in Iron Man magazine titled “ 400 X 20 “ . It was Stuart McRobert’s account of him reaching s deadlift goal and the dead ends and pit falls he encountered along the way.

It was very inspiring and I decided to do a similar thing and set a goal of 405 X10 but instead using a Trap Bar and a 10 rep target because I always fell apart at reps over 15 , so used that as an ‘excuse’ to reduce the number of reps , LOL . And I know I’d NEVER get to 20 …

So I set the goal to be reached around my 50th birthday and afterwards decided to repeat it every year which I have. Only change was I now do it at the end of March instead of June because I learned how bad TBDL can beat you up in the hot weather.

Anyway, I still do it and last March - last workout before they closed my gym for the Covid - didn’t get the 10 reps … I got 12 … go figure , huh ? Must have been some really hot girls watching :wink:

I figure when I can do that at 70 , I shouldn’t have any trouble getting out of a chair. As far as not being stupid about it , I never cared about singles , triples , etc or using more than the 405 though people ask all the time how much could I do for a single and my answer is always the same …

“ I don’t give a shit.”

I know , I know … 405 isn’t a big deal but it’s just fine for me , especially as a decrepit old man.

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So surely not exceeding 405 is just “maintaining” then? Sorry that is what it appears like to my ignorant eyes.
Also you have to employ a careful approach as you age. Stuart McRobert I think regrets some of the gung ho training that he did in earlier years. He wrote about this as injuries began to kick in. You may NOT be able to rise out of that chair if in the attempts to push on with too much reckless abandon lead to some crippling injuries.

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Turning also appeared on the comments section of a Facebook power lifting style group post. The post asked people to detail how many years training they’d had and also list their injuries. The catalogue of injuries read like battlefield statistics. Horrific. Everyone of the 34 replies bar one had a long list of bad injuries over the years. Not a good advert for weight training at all.
The one reply that was different read, “I think I’ll stick to backgammon.”

Loops I meant Turpin…not Turning.

Cautionary tale from Dave Draper. He was squatting big and deadlifting big until his mid 60’s, then it all fell apart. Developed spinal stenosis, had surgery, didn’t fix it properly. I think he now walks with a cane, and does pretty minimal upper body work.

In all the years of training I only really hurt myself once as a teenager when I arched my back the opposite way you are supposed to doing dead lifts and killed my lower back. The only other serious injury I received was when an errant golf ball smashed into my knee while video taping a golf tournament . Then as a result of that I tore a miniscus in the other leg as I favored the injured leg to much. Never had another injury from lifting. I always try to push it as hard as I can as training for maintenance is just to boring . If I get a heart attack it’s a good a way to go as any!
Scott

I never dead lift and I quit doing squats 40 years ago ha ha . For me they weren’t worth the risk. Now I’m not adverse to doing body weight squats. When sitting around in the office at work I would occasionally do a set of 50 or so deep body weight squats with no weight . Rowing on an erg and leg extensions and the free weight squats are all I do for legs. My legs were always overdeveloped compared to my upper body so the skinnier they are the better, ha ha!
Scott

Being able to move a decent amount of weight in a squat or deadlift is quite satisfying psychologically, especially if you are older. So I can understand why people can get hooked on doing it. But even if your technique is perfect, it does put a lot of load on the spine, and that load can cause gradual changes in the structure of the spine. For many people, these changes are of little consequence, and they can keep lifting heavy well into old age. Others are not so lucky. Unfortunately, it is hard to know ahead of time which group you belong to. Purely from a health and longevity standpoint, what you are doing probably works as well as anything.

The thing is, you can look at lifting weights as you get older, and the risk of injury and yiu would be right to be cautious, but also remember to look at the peoplw your age who dont train, see how many havw back issues, knee issues and all aorta of health issues.
Everyone I know who has a bad back is someone who has never lifted weights.

entsminger, I remember your problems with pull ups from the old forum, and I would have to say dont worry about them, good exercise yes, but perhaps just nkt for your body. This is not exactly giving up, more a case of focussing on other rhings your body actually likes.
I dont care what any expert says about an exercise being great, if it doesnt suit your body, it is not worth doing - like me and dips!

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No doubt there is a sweet spot between not training, and banging out heavy squats and deadlifts. I always seem to get hurt when I chase after PR’s in the deadlift. But RDL’s with moderate weight and volume make my back feel good.

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But Stuke…you are equating it to almost an either / or situation it seems. Lifting weights does not necessarily equate to having to do big, sometimes risky compound exercises like the squat and dead lift. There is a middle ground. You can resistance train in a manner, and using exercises which minimize the risks involved, even if they don’t completely eliminate them.