I was pondering my next routine and realized how pointless the most careful planning was if I suddenly quit 10, 20, 30 years down the road. It’s akin to meticulously counting carrot calories and eventually going on an all-out binge.
So now I’m wondering about how to make weightlifting part of my lifestyle, for good. (Cardio and stretching is easier to manage, I find).
I was thinking of simply placing a certain amount of exercises and training prescriptions and pulling them out of a hat. I’d train on non-sore days when I have the most time. Obviously this won’t be conducive to much hypertrophy or specific adaptation in the short term (due to the persistent variation), but I think it could yield good results in the long term.
I plan on training for the rest of my life. Obviously, things will have to change as I get older, but I have made my health and fitness my number one priority in life. And I plan to workout to stay healthy and fit well into old age.
Personally, I’ll be a Renegade for life. Although Coach D has programs for specific sports and activities, he also has training programs for people who just want to be fit and healthy for the rest of their life. For me, his programs address all my needs (speed, strength, agility, conditioning, flexibility, etc.). I’m doing more specific work now to address my immediate needs for strength and mass, but once I achieve that, I will turn to general fitness.
Not to mention that I just want to be able to function in everyday life without all the problems you hear people complain about as they get older.
I work at a corporate gym and I get comments all the time from the people I train like, “when you’re my age…you won’t be training as much” or “you wait, 20 years down the road…you won’t have those six pack abs!”
I have to laugh, cause to be honest…there is no way in hell I will EVER stop training and striving to perfect my body. Unless I am bed riden with the Ebola virus…I WILL be in the gym. Its a lifestyle. Its a part of my life. I don’t view it as a chore or something that I will grow tired of. Some people just will never understand that.
Do football players say “Will I be playing football in 40 years? If not these drills are pointless.” No. How do you know you will be alive tomorrow? You have to do what you love while you have the chance. In 40 years in gonna still be competing and im gonna be telling my grandkids about how i squatted 1000 when i was a young buc.
Seriously. We all eventually run out of tomorrows. Which is why I try my damn’dess to make each moment in the gym count. Make every rep count, finish my sets, push my self to my maximum potential and then some.
While I admit, some days are better than others in the gym. I really do try to train like there is no tomorrow.
I do know that I’ll be known as “Bird Lady” in the neighborhood, will be collecting odd little knickknacks and displaying them proudly in every window of the house, Ko will be busy scaring the local children by constantly sharpening his knives on the front lawn while whistling. I’ll still be painting; except it’ll be tole painting on rocks that I find during my morning walks.
Will I still be training? Hmmmm…don’t really know…
Well twenty years ago when I started I had no idea I would still be training today. As a matter of fact I can’t think of any time longer than a two week break in the whole twenty years. Like breathing and eating, training it’s just what we do.
I decided I wanted to be big and strong when I was 15. It’s been over 15 years and I still want to be big and strong.
When I don’t care anymore I’ll stop, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon. It’s just too cool to be in strong and in shape. If I ever start wondering if it’s worth it to work out I just have to look around me.
Besides, now I have a kid. What kid doesn’t want a dad to look up to? One that can do stuff and play sports, etc.? What little kid doesn’t want a big strong dad that he can run to for protection?
F’N-A, and for my own sake it’s nice to walk into a tense situation and get some immediate respect because you look like you can tear shit up without breaking a sweat.
Haven’t you noticed the respect automatically accorded beautiful women and strong, confident men?
Probably not, in 40 years I hope they have a pill that makes me big, strong, fast, flexible, regrows hair, pays my bills and increases the size of my penis.
I’m 47 now, and have been training in one form or another for at least 27 years, so I guess I have only 13 years to go. I train as hard now as I ever have: Weights, sprints, interval runs, martial arts, calisthenics, etc. The key is to get addicted to having your body feel strong and healthy. Then, as you get older, you have to keep working harder in order to maintain what you’ve got. I figure as long as I can run full speed, or do maximum effort weight lifting, I’m still young.
If you just want to be healthy then run around the yard or something. I do this much more for health. In fact some of the things i do arent exactly what you would call safe. I dont know what ill be doing in 40 years but i do know i wont be saying what if. Im going all out for as long as i can. Louie Simmons is 55 years old and he just deadlifted over 700 lbs. Whats your excuse?(not you specifically, but you in general)
I’ll be working out next week (this week is a rest week)…That’s all I care about. I want to live healthy and look good nekkid NOW! (If I may say so, I’m achieving that). I think that if I just keep that attitude it’ll last longterm. It’s a priority now because I don’t have anything higher on the list besides my PhD. But if my kid’s in the hospital, or someone I love is on their deathbed, I won’t give a fuck about working out. (Extreme examples I know but you get the point)
I really think life is about priorities, and its dynamic nature doesn’t allow me to say whether or not I will train in 40 years the way I do now. But NOW it’s a priority so I’ll bust my ass to achieve my goals. Whether or not I continue in 40 years the same as I do now doesn’t diminish the focus and the work-ethic I developed during the portion of my life where athletics and body-building have been a priority.
On a more serious note (since my first post in this thread was me being facetious).
I really just hope that by the time I’m 60 or 70, the competitiveness will have long ran it’s course and no longer exist in my system. Just would like to be able to enjoy bein’ healthy and active.
So, I guess I do plan on liftin’ weights in 40-years.
Z-man
I had the same response when I saw Miguel Indurain on the Tour shows…I was shocked at the weight he had gained! But that’s the price we pay for the concentrated caloric diets we face when we stop exercising. This is a life long discipline, and carrot (or calorie) counting will be part of it now, and when I’m 94…visiting all of you youngun’s in the Gym, Pool, at Yoga, or at the next power lifting contest. Yep, it ain’t fun sometimes, but it’s fit and that’s what counts.
