Over Over 50? Ditch the endless stretches, cardio and machines and find a barbell
Recently I had a new client begin working with me one on one. For obvious reasons, I won’t divulge the identity of this client. Suffice to say, the client is over 65, with chronic knee pain and a severe limp on his left side.
Now, with those 3 pieces of information securely in hand, I can almost smell other coaches and trainers developing the beginnings of a training program that would involve a 4kg kettlebell and banded pull-aparts from now until the New Year. According to these coaches, the “pre-reqs” (pre-requisitions) of training would have to be developed before this client could safely sit back down, let alone squat with a barbell.
Now, let’s refresh, and look at this client from another angle.
What if I was to describe to you a male client, 6’1” tall, weighing between 90kg-95kg and barrel chested. Suddenly you have created a whole new person in your mind and with that person comes a wholly different approach to training involving free weights, machines, plyometrics and every other trick in the box.
Of course, when training any client, a coach must look at more then the 3 cherry picked descriptions mentioned above regarding Person A with the limp and Person B with the big chest, despite them being one and the same person. I highlight this descriptive contrast simply to encourage other coaches not to merely view certain clients through a prism of age or current ability, but to perhaps view clients through a lense of physical potentiality. What could this client be?
A number of years ago, I briefly worked with a gym that did not possess one single free weight. Not one. Every single exercise available required either a fixed pivot, stack style machine, or cables. The gym had a strict policy of 20 minute sessions involving 3 sets of 7 reps for every single exercise! (excluding their leg press which demanded 20 reps for total beginners, who were often more senior members of the community). No physical assessment was ever performed. Regardless of their current fitness standard, the program would not be altered.
The instinctive, heretical part of my brain screamed that this was madness. Any sensible coach worth his or her hourly price would call for warm ups, mobility drills and any variation from the rigorous 3x7 template that could never be strayed from. And they would be right to do so. This gym did not give a shit about the mobility of these clients hips, only the width of their waistband. It was a race to build muscle to burn more NEAT calories daily. Let’s give the devil his due, it worked for that single goal! But it neglected to go further and improve these clients ability to move competently and efficiently through their day to day world. But what I must admit, is that it did successfully build muscle! No, it did not develop movement patterns, joint functionality or aerobic capacity, but in my business, building muscle is no small feat.
To return to my aforementioned client, this client, like every other person in the world, will benefit from an increased amount of muscle mass in his body. However, ideologically driven coaches, or equally coaches who are too nervous to physically stress and challenge a senior client will prescribe light weight, low intensity exercises. This is where the banded pull aparts become a stable feature in an over 50s training program, rather then utilizing high yielding tools such as barbells, ketlebells, leg press machine, chest press machines and lat pulldowns, all of this to the detriment of the client themselves.
You may look at an older client and feel that certain exercises are too demanding for them, but try not to forget, these clients came to you looking for a result. If you truly believe that a banded pull-apart and a 4kg kettlebell will be enough for an elderly client to see a physical result, fine, but be prepared for a low level return for your client.
Your results are your testimonials. Use the best tools to get the best results and let go of ideological forms of training. There is a time and place for machines and if you are over 50, that time might just be now.
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