Over time, we are witnessing a progressive increase in people (men and women) that begin or continue to practice a particular task, so more or less competitive, above a certain age.

It’s not so unusual to see people over 65 years old (we use this as the standard age), engage in a marathon or weightlifting competition. Although nobody wants to belittle the great dedication and extraordinary nature of the get always in play, it remains true that the performance of a body is gradually decreasing once more than 30 years. The goal in this case is to analyze and make an overview of training in a certain age group, taking into consideration the changes due to the passage of time.

MAJOR CHANGES IN THE MUSCULOSKELETAL LEVEL IN OLD AGE:

• Progressive bone demineralization, possible degeneration in osteopenia and osteoporosis later.
• Decrease in muscle mass (sarcopenia), linked to decreased production of testosterone, decrease of innervation of fast fibers resulting in a lesser capacity to generate force in a short time.

We must not think that the age factor, change the adaptations resulting from exercise. Although in a different way, but remain the same for a 30-year-old.

One of the most useful protocols, in spite of the common conception is that of training with overloading: endocrine, nervous stimulation, increasing bone density and muscle mass, are the real age prevention, delaying all musculoskeletal problems that often occur due to inactivity. You don’t need to dwell on the fact that, of course, despite this volume and intensity of training are basically scaled, causes less resilience.

Another factor to take into consideration is to hold related to the physical and nutritional status of the subject, paying attention to any past trauma, which is still ongoing and any harmful habits. Although obvious, keep in mind that medical advice is always essential.

Having said that you pass to the real test: the recommendations are to be carried out both to evaluate cardiovascular efficiency (eg. treadmill) is a real strength. In the latter case, the guidelines do not prohibit in particular no exercise, however, it is obvious that we must be especially careful when administering exercises that require flexibility and coordination requirements too high muscle.

It is customary to start with basic exercises, is not required to, but preferably with the aid of machines. Later, after you have familiarized yourself with the basic exercises is useful in the exercise program progresses, barbells, medicine balls or more in order to implement the appearance of coordinative and stimulate the subject to use your CORE muscles.

The use of free weights must find a gradual adaptation and programming must appropriately involve periods not too far both in terms of volume, intensity and dl in order to maintain constant improvements and avoid stress that would be poorly tolerated.

Finally, as always, remember that the food aspect plays an important role, both in maintaining/increasing lean mass, both in the maintenance of skeletal structure.

“A man is not old until is looking for something” (cit)