7 Lies Older People Are Told About Fitness | Mind Pump 2697

All right. Today we're going to talk about seven lies that older people are constantly told about fitness. We're going to crush these lies and encourage you to start exercising. It's one of the best things you can do. We're going to break it down. Let's go. Break it down. Yes. Uh before we get into the lies, uh I'm going to talk I'm going to bring up a study. There's a lot of studies on exercise and older population. And I'm talking about uh people over 60. There's studies done on people in their 70s. Um and I even found a study of people in their 80s. Okay? And I just want to talk about the studies a little bit. I brought one up here just so that people can kind of see what can happen uh if you exercise properly. Now, this particular study occurred over three months. So, this was a 12week study. Here's what they found with this population. You ready? Knee extension strength increased. Now, this group exercised twice a week uh for about 30 to 40 minutes of strength training. How old was this group? This particular group was uh 65 and older. Okay. And their uh the intensity was moderate. So, this wasn't like a crazy workout, okay? And and we'll talk about our own personal experience, but I'll just quote this study. You can find tons of studies. There's so many of them done on this population, but check out the strength gains that they saw in that period of time. Knee extension strength went up on average 174%. Okay. 174%. Means they're more than doubling their strength. More than double. Yeah. More than double. On the low end, 61%. On the high end, there was an individual that increased their knee strength, knee extension strength by 374%. Leg press strength went up 130% on average. Overall gains of strength in the upper body were between 20 to 50 uh%. Now let's talk about muscle mass gains. There was a 10 to 13% increase in muscle fiber hypertrophy across the board. Mid thigh girth increased by 2.7 cm which correlates with the first uh part which is which was done with a CT scan. And then functional improvements walking speed improved by 50% indicating uh better mobility and reduced fall risk. the control group, zero gains in anything. Of course, they had a group that did nothing and they saw zero. I wonder how much was controlled to nutritionally because I would I would bet that put on a high protein diet. That's right. In conjunction with this, there was no nutritional um interventions. This was all exercise. I just want to point out how much more compelling this is because in my experience um that's always a challenge. It's always been I don't care how old or young you are. uh clients tend to struggle with hitting the optimal amount of protein. And so if there was no control for that and they basically just introduc introduced strength training and they saw that good of benefits, imagine I would argue if I got a hold of that same group and was like strict about, hey, we're going to also bump your protein while we do this, I bet you would see almost double that, which is crazy to think about that. Yes, 100%. uh in in other studies will will compare strength gains in older populations to younger populations and the rate of gain of strength gains are similar. Okay, so there's this belief that as you get older your body's ability to adapt to exercise uh it just you just don't adapt as well. It's not true. Now your ultimate capacity changes obviously your max strength at 70 is not going to be what your max strength potential was let's say at 30 but the strength gains happen uh very quickly uh when you especially when you first start exercising. So we're going to do is we're going to go through the lies a lot of the myths uh that people are sold um in this age group around exercise and I'll start with the first one which is that cardiovascular exercise is the best form of exercise for the aging population. Now this myth is perpetuated by what we know about the benefits of heart health in relation to cardiovascular and so this is why I think it become and your doctor right your doctor tends to you know promote this over uh squatting or doing an extra like doing a new you know weight training routine and so by default this has been used as the main form of exercise for the elderly and it just isn't the most ideal. It doesn't even come close. Let's just talk about heart health here for a second. Uh the data will show clearly that when it comes to overall heart health, reductions in cardiovascular uh events, right? Reductions in cardiovascular disease, in heart function and health, strength training is not just as good as cardiovascular training, but probably better uh in a few way more protective in a few other ways. And part of the reason for this now, now cardio is great for endurance. Okay? So if you want lots of endurance, cardio is a great way to exercise. But that doesn't mean you don't gain endurance uh from strength training because you do gain endurance. In fact, the type of endurance you gain from strength training is more applicable to your life than the endurance you'll get from cardio because strength training makes you stronger. And what you really need as you get older is strength and stability. Yeah. Now, here's why strength training in many cases, uh, and again, I'm I'm I'm talking about the data actually outperforms cardio for heart health, and that has to do with insulin sensitivity. So, building muscle or strengthening muscle improves insulin sensitivity. And there's a lot there's a very strong correlation between your ins between insulin resistance and cardiovascular disease. We know this. We know this extreme cases with diabetes, for example. Building muscle makes you far more insulin sensitive because well number one muscle is a storage vessel for sugars and carbohydrates but also muscle itself is insulin sensitive. Cardiovascular exercise will improve insulin sensitivity while you do it but it doesn't contribute to this permanent change in insulin sensitivity not nearly as much as strength training. even just heart health uh strength training uh has been shown to be superior but then when we look at all cause mortality because you're just looking at the heart which again I I made the case and again look at the data we'll look at like osteopenia and osteoporosis and what what's the best form of training in that regard and that's definitely weight training strengthening bone reducing risk of fracture and fall and resilience if you do become cardio doesn't touch that doesn't touch it uh so strength training if you had to take one form of exercise as you got older that would give you the most bang for your buck in terms of longevity and health. The data is very very very clear. Uh it's actually strength training. And then just to add a cherry on top, the amount of strength training required to reap the majority of the benefits you'll get from strength training is very little. It's actually quite little. In fact, the the the data will show in aging population, one day a week will give you s probably about 70% of all the results you get from strength training, you'll get from one day a week. Two days a week gets you close to 80 uh%. You just don't need to do a lot of it to reap uh tremendous benefits. And it's very protective uh when you have muscles protective when you're not doing any type of activity. Again, in my experience, by the way, uh in this population, the the benefits they get from proper exercise are actually more profound uh than I see in the younger population because they tend to come to me very deconditioned. So, you see this huge turnaround. Um the next big lie, which we kind of talked about, is your body won't get stronger or build muscle. Oh, yeah. And I I've actually had clients that thought this and believe this and because of their age range and um you know the thought that your your health just naturally declines over time uh that they weren't actually going to be able to build substantial amount of muscle or like that wasn't they were just able to maintain at this point which is not true. They can still build muscle. This is why I've never liked those studies that show um you know for every year after a certain age every decade after 30. Yeah, you lose this percentage of muscle cuz it makes people think that oh no it it's uh yeah it's inevitable that oh as I age I'm just going to lose muscle when in fact I've had many clients that never weight trained didn't get started until they were 50 60 years old and had more muscle at 50 or 60 than they did in their 30s and a lot of a lot of people do not realize in fact we still get that's a this is a common question we have a a group uh that we do the muscle mommy group uh with women, right, that we've done the muscle mommy movement that we were doing. A lot of women in that group uh we had it just the other night. Someone asked that like that that was older and said, you know, can I still build muscle and I'm past 50? It's like, uh yeah, yeah, absolutely you can still build muscle. And I've had a lot of clients that are were in their best shape of their life at the 50, 60, and even 70 years old. So, it's very possible. It's actually reasonable. uh if you're not strength training now and you're 65 or older, it's reasonable uh that if you all things being okay, right? Uh that you're going to double your strength within a year. Double. That's reasonable. By the way, I read a study in 90 days. So, I'm giving you a very conservative like if you start out and let's say, you know, right now you're like, man, I could barely do 10 body weight squats. It's very reasonable that at the end of the year you'll be able to do 20. In fact, it's reasonable that that'll probably happen within three months, not just a year. So, think about that right now. If you're listening to this, you can be twice as strong as you are now within a year. And that's again, that's not like a pie in the sky uh goal. That's something I could extremely conservative. I mean, I could promise that to someone barring any major illness or or injury that that's going to happen. That's going to happen. Today's program giveaway is maps anabolic. If you want to win, leave a comment below this video in the first 24 hours that we drop it. Subscribe to this channel and turn on notifications. If you win, we'll let you know in the comments section. Also, MAPS GLP1 is half off. This is a workout program with the nutrition advice and lifestyle guidance that helps people who are using a GLP-1 for weight loss. So, if you're using ompic or wiggoi or saglutide tepatide, this program is perfect for you. Go to mapsgl1.com. Use the code GLP50 for the 50% off discount. Back to the show. Another lie is that exercise or in particular strength training is dangerous. This is not true whatsoever. If you do it properly with good technique, good control, and you apply exercise appropriately, right, according to your current fitness level, what your body's capable of, you progressively uh well, you progress yourself in an appropriate way. It's not only safe, but it improves uh your safety overall. So, I've trained uh many many people. At one point, majority of my clients were over 60. Um and uh not a single actually had never had an injury while training someone. They were under my care. I watched their technique, watched their form, we applied exercise properly. Um and nobody got hurt. Yeah. And a lot of times this gets perpetuated by like some doctors out there that are trying to prevent certain movements like the deadlift for instance, you know, to avoid that at all costs. And you know, obviously technique and progressively overloading is has to be a major factor of doing it correctly. Uh but it's it's going to do the opposite. It's going to strengthen you and be more resilient towards uh forces you're going to face. Not only that, but every exercise that you can think of that you make that maybe you consider dangerous or scary or uh you're very insecure about trying cuz it looks hard. There's a regression. There's a regression to that movement. There is a movement that I mean and many of my clients in that were advanced age, I did not start with a barbell back squat. No, we there was uh some of those clients uh the the exercise looked like getting up and down from a chair. That's right. you know, and some of it started with me assisting them and then eventually came them by theself and then eventually became one leg doing it. It's like there is a way for you to take every exercise that maybe somebody else has uh deemed dangerous and you regress that movement and nothing is wrong with starting with the regression. In fact, I'd encourage, you know, starting with something like our map starter type of program that's regressed way back and then eventually progressing through that if needed. And if you're really afraid or worried about the risk of injury during exercise, uh get a coach. Hire a trainer. Y hire a trainer. Like this demographic uh is such a great demographic for personal trainers because um number one, they tend to have the time and the some of the expendable income to invest in a personal trainer once a week. Trainers uh who are trained in train in working with people in this age group are very good at what they do. Um, and you're you're not going to get hurt. They're going to train you appropriately and it's very safe. It's actually safer than uh other forms of exercise because it's very controlled. Remember this, like when it comes like if you have a major injury or you're recovering from an accident, uh the form of exercise that a rehab specialist, a doctor will apply is strength training. This is what you do if you go to a physical therapist. They use forms of strength training because it's so safe. So, it's a complete myth uh that it's dangerous. Next up, this is a big one. This is a big one. Well, I already have bad knees. Yeah, I've already got a bad back. This is just going to make those things make it worse, right? No. Opposite. The opposite. Properly performed strength training is the best thing you could do for chronic pain. Period. End of story. Not just my opinion. Again, look at the data. It's very, very clear. Chronic pain is different than an acute injury. Like if you tore your knee and you need it to heal, that's different. Don't go work it out. Wait till it heals. But if you've got knee pain that's been with you for years or decades or back pain that's been with you for years or decades, that's a result of dysfunction which starts with weakness. There is a dysfunction in that joint. And what controls and stabilizes the joint are muscles. If you look at all your joints and you took all the muscles off, the joint does nothing. It just sits there. What makes the joint move and function are all the muscles that surround it and control it. And if some of those muscles are weak or tight or both, the joint itself starts to function in a way that is dysfunctional. That's what causes pain. That's what causes the joints to wear down. If you look at your knee and you look at the way the kneecap slides over the femur and the way the knee flexes and extends, if it if it's moving the way it's supposed to and supported the way it's supposed to be supported by the muscles, there's no pain. Mhm. If it's moving in a way that's suboptimal, that joint starts to wear down. Now, the question people often ask me is, "Well, my joints already worn down. What can I do now?" Your joints heal. People don't realize this, but joints heal once they start moving properly. Once the surrounding joint starts to move properly and this happens. Plus, don't you want to build some stability around it? Yeah. Regardless, so you can actually walk and have function and do like daily activities. It's you know what? It's such a defeist way to look at it for I I I used to like deal with this with um you know my my grandpa, my grandma and like trying to you know really reinforce the fact that we need to get stronger. So, you know, a lot of these pain signals will will dampen because now we have more security and more stability there around the joint to help. Yeah. And I mean, just we'll talk about the back cuz that's a very common the most common area of pain is back pain. If you took your spine out of your body, it's made up of multiple joints. What puts the spine in proper alignment and prevents it from moving and flexing way? It's all the muscles that surround it and stabilize it. Well, isn't all I mean, all chronic pain, the root of it is weakness and instability, right? So if you are suffering from chronic pain in your knees, in your shoulders, in your neck, in your back, the root cause of that is weakness and instability of the muscles. Therefore, training those muscles to be more stable and strong is the way you alleviate that pain. Now, here's the key because someone might be listening and saying, "Look, my knees hurt and I do get up to go to walk and exercise, and when I do, they hurt and so I need to sit down and rest them. That's the only thing that takes the pain away." So here's the difference between uh good function and dysfunction. So if you get up and walk and your knees hurt, there's dysfunction there. Walking more is just more dysfunctional movement. Strength training is targeted. So what a good coach or a good trainer will do is they'll look at your movement and say, "Okay, that's why your knee hurts. Here are the specific exercises for you that will correct that dysfunction." It's not the walking that's hurting you. It's the fact that when you're walking, there's dysfunction in the joint. And so we need to work on creating better function moving track those muscles and build up support system. That's right. So as a trainer, I'd see somebody with knee pain and they says it hurts when it walks and I do an assessment. That's what a good coach does. And then you see, okay, I could see why your knee is bothering you. And so let's strengthen these muscles. Let's loosen these muscles. And over time, walking no longer hurts you because now your joint is moving the way it's supposed to. you know, the extreme version of that. I remember when I went through my ACL and MCL tear and uh I couldn't figure I couldn't understand uh why I could still walk. And I remember uh the Oh, after they were torn. Yeah. And I remember the doctor going like, "It's because of how much muscle you've developed in your legs. Your muscle is supporting it and keeping in place. There's no stress on the on the ligaments even though you don't have them and you blew them. That's how much your muscle supports that." Now, that's obviously an extreme example of that, but the the reverse is true, right? So, if you have no muscle in your legs or in your arms, then all the stress goes to the ligaments and the joints. You getting strong and developing those muscle takes the the stress off those joints. And especially proper movement like you're saying is that what's happening when someone walks and they feel that crummy is you're not walking properly. You're putting all the stress on the joints and the ligaments because you have no muscle to support the walking. Once you build the muscle to support walking and moving properly, you no longer have that pain again. And this is why other forms of exercise are are sometimes not so good for pain is because you're not targeting what needs to get stronger. So your body develops these movement patterns and your joints develop these patterns based off of well uh how strong and stable you are or you aren't. And if you don't correct it, moving more isn't going to fix the problem. You have to move differently. And the way that you move differently is you train the body with targeted strength training. Because strength training is great because I could target specific muscles, specific movements in very specific ways. Fix the problem. Boom. No longer have pain. Uh and joints begin to heal. They actually start to heal. Next up, uh exercise uh doesn't help with mental health. There is a a significant percentage of people uh in older populations who start to suffer from things like depression. Um exercise has been shown recent study actually huge study just showed that exercise proper exercise is one and a half times as effective as talk therapy or medication. Yeah. For the commonly most common forms of depression. Why? Well, there's a couple reasons why. One is a healthy brain tends to be happier and a healthy brain comes from a healthy body and muscle is like an organ. It's one of the largest organs of the body if you consider it one. And when you strengthen muscle uh you start to feel a lot better. And you can get into all the neurotransmitters and and how the brain works. But um the data is very clear on this. One of the first things you'll notice when you start properly strength training even once a week is a change uh in your mental health. You just feel a lot better. This episode's brought to you by Viori. Go to voriclo.commindpump. Get 20% off the best athleisureware company in the world. Back to the show. Uh, next up, uh, I'm already active. Why do I need more exercise? I garden every day. I go on walks, uh, every night. I think I'm good. I think I'm fine. If you don't send a signal to your body that says you need strength, your body will only ever be as strong as it thinks it needs to be. In fact, it starts to challenge that if you never challenge it. That's it. This is this is where the those studies are come out, right? Where you lose muscle every decade so much because if you don't send a signal to the body that you need it, it pairs it down. It and and anyone has seen this example if you're you're old enough to have realized like you lost the ability to do something. You know, I remember when I lost the ability to squat all the way down. I mean, it was like a rude awakening. Like I mean I obviously did it as a kid where I could sit all the way as the grass comfortably. At one point in my life I stopped doing that and I I was not even 30 years old and my body already said hey we don't need to do that. You don't do this anymore. Your body will pair down whatever you don't stimulate. And so if you don't stimulate it to carry weight uh to be stronger then it'll say hey this is worthless for us to have it. And that's where those studies come in where they talk about how as you get older you just keep losing muscle. we keep losing muscle because we're not doing things to counter that, right? You know, strength, well, all physical pursuits, but strength in particular. Um, and by the way, strength is the cornerstone physical pursuit. So, strength contributes to all the other ones. When you lose strength, then you start to suffer. The other ones start to suffer as well. But your body is only as strong as it thinks it needs to be. So, let's say every day uh for the last, you know, 20 years after dinner, you go for a walk for a mile. This is your activity. It's good, by the That's good. It's great. It's better than definitely better than not doing anything. And it's definitely made you healthier uh to do it than to not do it. But what your body does is it says we only need to be strong enough to be able to do this. And in fact, let's challenge that. The reason for that is your body's an efficiency machine. It's not going to make you require more energy uh than it needs to. Okay? It's an efficiency machine. So, if it doesn't think it needs it, it starts to challenge it. So, here's what your walk starts to look like. At first, you were kind of fast. Before you know it, starts to slow down. Before you know it, your posture starts to change. Then somebody tells you, "Hey, you should probably use a cane." Now you're using cane. Now your body adapts to the cane. Now you need a walker. Now you're in the walker. Before you know it, you've lost that function. Strength training tells your body, "We need strength. We need to be strong." And if you tell your body it needs to be strong, it will be strong. It'll keep that strength. So you're already active, which is great. Add a day of strength training. Watch what happens. And then finally, the last one. I'm too old to exercise. Your body always adapts. Yeah. It always has the ability to adapt until the day you die. Um the beauty of strength training is it's so individualizable. It's so adaptable. I could train somebody who's had a stroke. I could train somebody who can't walk. I could train somebody who's 90. I could train somebody who's nine with strength training. The difference is how I apply it, the way we do the exercises, and what the techniques look like. That's it. So, a good trainer, a good coach knows how to do this. And regardless of where you're at, they can use strength training to improve your strength and your function. I think something I don't know if you add this as another lie or it fits into one of these, but I think you have to address this. You talk about it a lot on the podcast on other episodes, but I think there's also this misunderstanding of how much you need to do. You don't need much to reap these benefits. I think that that's got to be the other thing. You got to think, oh, I'm 60, 70 years old and I'm just losing muscle. It's a young man's game to get back and to lift and build muscle. And I don't got I like I mean I have friends that are in their in their 40s that they claim they don't go to the gym because they don't they don't want to spend seven hours a week in the gym to look like a certain way. And it's like oh my god you have such a misunderstanding of what it takes to build a strong physique. It does not take anything near that. The amount of strength training, this is backed by data that is required to prevent muscle loss. That's it. You're just going to keep yourself from losing muscle is about once every two weeks. Once a week will actually have you building muscle. That's how little you need. Twice a week you're going to get about 85 roughly 80 to 85% of all the potential benefits. Potential benefits. So I'm not saying you're going to get just you're going to slow down your progress. That means that your ultimate potential of strength, you'll get about 85% of the way there with about two days a week. But one day a week gets you a lot of the way there. In fact, when I when I think back to all the clients I trained in this age group, they all trained with me once a week. I had nobody over the age of 65. Actually, I take that back. One person I had one person over the age of 65 that worked out with me more than once a week. Everybody else was once a week. We'd come in, we do about four or five exercises, they would leave profound benefits. So, you don't need much. Look, if you like the show, come find us on Instagram. You we'll see you at Mindpump Media. [Music]