Interesting piece, I too have passed 50 and am trying to stay in shape, inspired by you I do dead hangs too, I reckon i could give you a run for your money on that one. I have been a tree surgeon for the last 25 years and all that monkey strength hasn’t left me even though I stopped climbing professionally 5 years ago. A while ago there was a you tube thing on the ‘90 second hang’ loads of gym bros were failing it. I tried it immediately and found it easy. I hadn’t done any hanging for years at that point. They say strength gains fall off quickly when you stop training but that can’t always be true.. Perhaps strength slowly gained over many years also slowly leaves?
One thing I urge you to try is the farmers walk. I found this by accident after I had to abandon my kettlebell clean and jerk routine due to elbow tendinitis. Just grab two heavy things suitcase style (I use Kettlebells) and walk as long as you can. Stop rest and repeat. Like the hang its a high bang for your buck kind of excersise.
The clean and jerk routine is also great and I will get back to it as soon as I am sure that the elbow is fine, (that the worst thing about the 50’s, things take ages to heal). If your interested its a Pavel Tatsouline routine aimed at gaining that farmer strength and is ideal for the older gentleman. There’s no training to failure to leave you sore and the strength gains and muscle gains were really noticeable after a short period. Especially traps and triceps. To do it you need a kettle bell and possibly some training on proper clean and jerk form. There’s loads of good form videos on Tatsouline’s Strong First website. This is the protocol I did, https://www.strongfirst.com/the-best-all-around-training-method-ever/ Like I say, at our age it’s ideal. Because you quit each session when you fail the talk test (too gassed out to talk) you never over train and get sore, and yet no other exercise I have done has given me better gains in terms of strength and muscle growth. Not that I’m trying to get big. I just want to be able to do the things I used to do without something going twang..
Anyway. Keep it up. How a bout a piece on how to motivate yourself to do all this stuff, after a hard days work the temptation to park your arse on the sofa is strong, how do you resist?
Many thanks. Funnily enough I have sort of started doing farmers' carries in that I carry all my weights from the house to the garden when I work out. I agree they are a more natural all over form of weight training.
Interesting about the tree surgeon. And how strength built up over many years daily use stays.
Self-motivation is a good one I shall work on that and I shall check out Tatsouline
Hi Dominic,
Interesting piece, I too have passed 50 and am trying to stay in shape, inspired by you I do dead hangs too, I reckon i could give you a run for your money on that one. I have been a tree surgeon for the last 25 years and all that monkey strength hasn’t left me even though I stopped climbing professionally 5 years ago. A while ago there was a you tube thing on the ‘90 second hang’ loads of gym bros were failing it. I tried it immediately and found it easy. I hadn’t done any hanging for years at that point. They say strength gains fall off quickly when you stop training but that can’t always be true.. Perhaps strength slowly gained over many years also slowly leaves?
One thing I urge you to try is the farmers walk. I found this by accident after I had to abandon my kettlebell clean and jerk routine due to elbow tendinitis. Just grab two heavy things suitcase style (I use Kettlebells) and walk as long as you can. Stop rest and repeat. Like the hang its a high bang for your buck kind of excersise.
The clean and jerk routine is also great and I will get back to it as soon as I am sure that the elbow is fine, (that the worst thing about the 50’s, things take ages to heal). If your interested its a Pavel Tatsouline routine aimed at gaining that farmer strength and is ideal for the older gentleman. There’s no training to failure to leave you sore and the strength gains and muscle gains were really noticeable after a short period. Especially traps and triceps. To do it you need a kettle bell and possibly some training on proper clean and jerk form. There’s loads of good form videos on Tatsouline’s Strong First website. This is the protocol I did, https://www.strongfirst.com/the-best-all-around-training-method-ever/ Like I say, at our age it’s ideal. Because you quit each session when you fail the talk test (too gassed out to talk) you never over train and get sore, and yet no other exercise I have done has given me better gains in terms of strength and muscle growth. Not that I’m trying to get big. I just want to be able to do the things I used to do without something going twang..
Anyway. Keep it up. How a bout a piece on how to motivate yourself to do all this stuff, after a hard days work the temptation to park your arse on the sofa is strong, how do you resist?
Many thanks. Funnily enough I have sort of started doing farmers' carries in that I carry all my weights from the house to the garden when I work out. I agree they are a more natural all over form of weight training.
Interesting about the tree surgeon. And how strength built up over many years daily use stays.
Self-motivation is a good one I shall work on that and I shall check out Tatsouline
Healing in the 50s is SO slow ...