Yessir....I was mostly referring to Strength and Conditioning activities(Anaerobic) and age. Weight lifting for example, most people( Like 95%) lift too much weight in their quest for size and or strength. Tears in the muscles, tears where the muscle tendon meet bone and trauma to the joint capsules occur when lifting heavy for long periods. The mechanisms that report joint angle, muscle length, etc reset and limited ROM(range of motion) occurs over time especially if not stretching properly. The best example is natural human posture. Did you ever notice old peeps tend to shuffle, are hunched forward and have no ass along with a head out in front of their bodies. This is a loss in the Postural muscles and eventually the bones fuse and there they are, usually in pain and limited in their mobility.
High Intensity training/lifting can help cause this shift in posture or at a minimum start to cause a pain condition and lost mobility, especially as we age. For example, someone can curl #100 for 10 reps using a 1-0-1 time. 1 second concentric(up) 0 seconds pause at top, 1 second eccentric(down). That person is curling to build biceps; who doesnt want "big guns"? The object is to build muscle, thats it! Unfortunately, ego plays its part and now we want to see our PB(personal best) so we pile on more weight and now we are building ego only but hurting our bodies. Building muscle requires GPO(gradual progressive overload) so how do we do it safely? Same example as above modified, curl #50 for 10 reps using 6-2-6 time. 6 seconds concentric(up), 2 second pause at top, 6 seconds eccentric(down). We are still building muscle but not using the body killing weight, whats different? TIME and less weight. We are still building muscle but we are not killing the joints. Most lifters that originally had #100 slinging through the air for 1 second struggle with half the weight controlled for 6 seconds.
In the aerobic(with oxygen) area higher intensities are almost impossible as our wind will give out and then thats it. You will stop or continue walking until your systems can metabolize the cellular waste and you regain natural respiration. SAID(specific adaptation to imposed demands)tells us to chart how far we got and try to get a lil more next bout....this works for both types of conditioning.
Lifting is ultra important especially as we age and it looks like the best non medication solution for the testosterone issue from what I have read recently.
Ill leave you with an example of Andora Quinby, RIP. No I didnt drop a barbell on her, she came to me in the 90's and wanted to be a powerlifter.....lol.....she was 84. I think she still holds the world record on the bench press at #65! Yes we trained "hard" but I respected her age and her abilities and we rarely pushed a 1repmax and she did great even on the world stage. Exercise is the best prescription!!
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