Weightlifting

 

INTRODUCTION

Strength training is fundamental for all exercise and athletic activities, whether you’re just trying to stay healthy or you’re an athlete in a specific sport. Muscle strength and tone is essential to good health, longevity, and peak performance in any sport. Building strength also “fine-tunes” your nervous system and helps maintain bone density. Although you can do strength training using just your body weight (push-ups, squats, etc.), this essay focuses on weightlifting.

Some of you may have tried weightlifting as part of your training for a particular sport. Others might have done a bit of lifting at a general fitness gym that mostly consists of exercise equipment like treadmills, stationary bikes, and various machines.  In many of those gyms, if free weights exist at all, they are usually in the back corner, of poor quality, and not well maintained. People who try to use these free weights are not supervised or trained in the proper techniques; and they often get discouraged or injured. (For instance, when I used to lift at a local fitness gym in Utah—before I built my own setup in my garage down there— occasionally someone else would wander into the back weight lifting area. We’d share the space and alternate lifts.  Several times I found myself [a beginner] teaching them the proper form for a squat or bench press).

However, most people—and I’m guessing this most likely includes you—don’t know much about weightlifting and haven’t really tried it. The good news is that you can take up weightlifting at any age. Here, I want to focus on encouraging older individuals (at or near retirement age) to give weightlifting a shot. As we get older, we tend to become more cautious which is good when it comes to driving but a negative when it comes to health and body strength. In general, people over 60 are more worried about falling, breaking a bone, or getting injured doing any strenuous physical activity. That worry can lead to a sedentary lifestyle, with minimal exercise which is actually a misguided approach to staying healthy. The sedentary lifestyle leads to general muscle weakness, osteoporosis, and balance issues.

Weightlifting might seem intimidating or “too dangerous” at first, but it’s actually one of the best ways to build and maintain muscle strength, improve bone density, and keep your body flexible with better balance. Yes, minor injuries like pulled muscles can happen, but they usually heal quickly with rest and stretching. Meanwhile, the stronger, more active older weightlifters are less likely to fall in the first place—and if they do take a spill, they’re more likely to walk away with just a bruise rather than a broken hip.

ESSENTIALS

 

Coaching and Scheduling

Men and women of all ages and body types can benefit from weightlifting. There’s never a time in life where you don’t need strength.  However, real progress comes from following a structured program on a regular schedule. Lifting sporadically without a proven plan for progressive strength building (and without proper technique) won’t get you far—and can increase your injury risk.

Most successful weightlifters rely on a strength coach who teaches them correct technique and maps out an effective ongoing training schedule (i.e. as you look back through your logbook, you should be able to easily see that you’re gaining strength.) A novice will be lost without a good coach.

Powerlifting vs. Olympic Lifting

There are two main styles of weightlifting:

  1. Powerlifting
    The three primary lifts are the Squat, the Press, and the Deadlift. The Press is further divided into the Overhead Press and the Bench Press. Powerlifting is all about moving as much weight as possible, focusing on slower, controlled lifts. Technique matters, but the mobility demands are less intense compared to Olympic lifting.

  2. Olympic Lifting
    The two primary lifts are the Snatch and the Clean & Jerk. Olympic weightlifting focuses on explosive power and technique to get the bar overhead in one swift motion (the Snatch) or two motions (the Clean & Jerk). It’s about combining speed, coordination, and mobility, and requires a high level of athleticism.

 

It is my observation that older persons who are introduced to weightlifting are directed toward powerlifting. For them, the primary emphasis is on gaining strength. They can progress further and be more successful at powerlifting. Proper technique is critical, though—take the Squat, for example: hand placement, bar positioning on the back, foot angle, and knee movement all need to be sequenced properly before you can consider lifting heavy weights. It’s not just learning it once, either: “lapses” in technique happen regularly, so a coach’s watchful eye makes a huge difference.
(My own wonderful coach, Michael Street, seems to have eyes in the back of his head—from across the room he can spot even the smallest error in my form!)

Variations on the Basic Lifts

Powerlifting might sound repetitive, but each basic lift has variations to keep you energetically engaged. For instance, besides a standard Back Squat, there’s a Front Squat where the bar is in front resting on your clavicles.  The Overhead Press has a variation called the Push Press. For the Deadlift, you can adjust your foot position (narrow or Sumo stance) or do rack pulls of heavier weights over a shorter range of motion. The Bench Press can be done with your feet on the floor or on the bench. Another set of variations for each lift is when they are done with different steel bars. A standard steel bar typically weighs 20 kg, but you can use lighter (7.5, 10, or 15 kg) or heavier ones. There are also specialty bars (fat bars, curved bars) that change the stress on your muscles.

Equipment Basics

A well-equipped training facility has a great deal of necessary equipment:

  • Bars: Standard bars weigh 20 kg, but “beginner” or “technique” bars can weigh 7.5, 10, or 15 kg. Olympic weightlifters often use standard bars with extra “whip” (flex) for dynamic lifts, while deadlift bars are slightly longer, thinner in diameter, and have more aggressive knurling.

  • Plates: You’ll see racks of heavier plates (10, 15, 20, and 25 kg) and lighter “change” plates (0.5, 1, 2, 2.5, and 5 kg). Rubber-coated plates are usually higher quality (safer for you and for the floor) than bare steel.

  • Racks: Squat racks or power cages are where you will place the bar between lifts. Some racks are bolted to the floor, while others are freestanding. The quality and price of racks vary a lot.

  • Flooring: Lifting platforms or thick rubber mats protect both the floor and your equipment.

          Other Gear: You’ll typically see benches for bench pressing (and sitting between sets).  There needs to be complete sets of barbells of various shapes and sizes that are

          used for ancillary lifts. Exercise machines that can be used to stretch your legs, shoulders, or back are necessary too.

          The lighting and sound system needs to be high quality (there is often music playing; soft or loud, all genres).

Personal Gear

You don’t need a ton of personal equipment: T-shirts and shorts are common workout attire, plus proper lifting shoes with stiff soles and a sturdy lifting belt (usually leather). That’s about it!

MY PERSONAL WEIGHTLIFTING EXPERIENCE

Let me start by the dispelling a notion that I had about weightlifting before I walked through the doors of the gym. I had an assumption that it would be good exercise and gaining strength would be rewarding, but the process would be rather dull, and the lifting itself would be drudgery. That notion turned out to not be true at all; while lifting is challenging, it is also fun.   I lift with a small group of older folks who are nice, interesting, and accomplished with various professional backgrounds. There is a necessary rest period between each lift, and that is when we talk about pretty much any subject under the sun. Common subjects are politics (only works as we are all of the same persuasion), music, automobiles, family situations, and travel.  We are all friends that enjoy each other’s company. 

Depending on how long we have each been training, plus our age and body type, the strength we exhibit (the amount of weight we lift) varies considerably. We are not competing among ourselves; but we are competing with ourselves in terms of trying to get better with each session. 

Everyone keeps a logbook. Each day, Michael checks what we did previously and writes up an individual plan for today’s session. The idea is always to be making progress from one session to the next. In a particular session I might be working on pure strength at the top end and doing a number of single lifts at relative high weights. In another session, he might have me working on stamina and doing a series of lifts below my maximum weight, but with more repetitions. Usually, he works the room and goes from rack to rack and observes and coaches each of us individually. An average training session is about 90 minutes. Some people train three days a week; I prefer two days a week because it gives me more chance to get beyond the stiffness of the previous session (it is necessary to stretch in the back room before each session).

 

I first picked up a barbell in 2014, shortly after retiring.  It was a fortuitous set of circumstances that led me to find Michael and weightlifting. As you might expect when starting out as a novice, you need to learn the techniques for each lift, and the weights tend to be relatively low. Take the squat as the most basic lift: starting out I had no idea how weak I was, and I couldn’t even do a squat with a 20 kg bar. Michael had me start out with a canvas weight belt with lesser weights suspended from it. Over 3 to 5 years I progressed to my personal best squat that is currently 120 kg (the magic conversion number is 2.2, so my best squat was 264 lbs.).  The dead lift suits my body type (relatively short spine) and I have done well with my deadlift weight progression over the years. My personal best is 165 kg (365 lbs.). So on and so forth for each lift. Naturally, my progress in terms of weight progression has tapered off and I’m more at a plateau level now after 10 years. As a senior, I am stronger than I ever been in my entire life.  I have found that weightlifting is also very good for golf [my other passion] as it keeps me flexible.

 

Beyond the tangible physical benefits, weightlifting has also helped me grow as a person. My natural impulse is to overthink everything (I used to be a physician, after all), so I had to learn how to get out of my head and into my body. When I step out from the rack under a bar loaded with heavy weights, it immediately gets your full attention—I must be totally in my body and in the present. In fact, I do a little hand gesture to ground before each heavy lift to remind myself to focus on the “Now.” That ability to ground myself has carried over into other areas of my life.

 

Needless to say, I would highly recommend weightlifting to almost anyone, but especially to older people who want to improve their physical condition. It’s a misconception that lifting is too risky or a good idea that is too late for seniors. Done with proper coaching, weightlifting can help you get strong, increase your bone density, keep you flexible, and improve your balance.  And it can even lift your spirits.

 

 

 

Beyond the tangible physical benefits, weightlifting has also helped me grow as a person. My natural impulse is to overthink everything (I used to be a physician, after all), so I had to learn how to get out of my head and into my body. When I step out from the rack under a bar loaded with heavy weights, it immediately gets your full attention—I must be totally in my body and in the present. In fact, I do a little hand gesture to ground before each heavy lift to remind myself to focus on the “Now.” That ability to ground myself has carried over into other areas of my life.

 

Needless to say, I would highly recommend weightlifting to almost anyone, but especially to older people who want to improve their physical condition. It’s a misconception that lifting is too risky or a good idea that is too late for seniors. Done with proper coaching, weightlifting can help you get strong, increase your bone density, keep you flexible, and improve your balance.  And it can even lift your spirits.