Aging bodybuilders and those in pursuit of improvements in body composition often fall victim to programs that are inappropriate for them and the expectations that are driven by a desire to keep up with their physical conquests of the past. My intention as a 
former competitor with more than 20 years of experience training and coaching others is to offer insight for those who are training hard despite the physiological changes that tend to come with age.
Aging is characterized by significant neuromuscular changes including decreased firing rate to muscles, reduced number of motor neurons, as well as reduced satellite cell number and recruitment. These age-related physiological changes lead to concurrent decreases in maximum strength, power, and rate of force development even in highly-trained older athletes. This is paralleled by an accompanying loss of muscle fiber number and size along with compromised muscle performance and reduction in functional capacity. Although resistance training appears to offer some effective countermeasures, some age-related decline in training performance appears to be inevitable as an athlete ages.
Reduced training capacity
Many older athletes may experience decreased range of motion due to diminishing elasticity of tendons, ligaments, and joint capsules and in some instances, arthritic changes from old injuries. Whether from training mishaps or age-related wear and tear, the older athlete may rely on a more adapted and instinctive approach compared to their younger counterparts. Therefore, it becomes imperative to identify exercises that stimulate the targeted muscles but do not exacerbate existing conditions or cause further injury.
Although most resistance exercises require both concentric and eccentric contractions, it has been well documented that eccentric contractions are particularly damaging to skeletal muscle fibers.
Several studies have indicated that older adults are more susceptible to acute eccentric exercise-induced muscle damage than are younger adults. Fiatarone Singh et al. reported increased muscle damage in both older men and women after 10 weeks of strength training, and Manfredi et al. found higher levels of muscle damage in older men after acute eccentric exercise compared with young men.
The recovery capacity of the older athlete is also generally less than their younger counterpart, so recovery from training becomes even more important. Periods of recovery may be longer and more pronounced than what they were in years past. And it has been suggested that training volume should be reduced by 5% per decade beyond 30 years of age. (Rippetoe and Kilgore, 2006) That said, time to recovery can be highly variable between individuals and dependent on not only age but many factors including total training volume and intensity as well as adequate sleep and nutrition.
Unfortunately, lifters and athletes, irrespective of their biological age, mistakenly accept popular training methodologies as dogma with the intentions of continuing them into the later years of their training or competitive careers. However, as an athlete ages he must be cognizant of his own biofeedback and adjust training in order to preserve his body and achieve realistic goals.
Experience and Instinctive Cues
One advantageous characteristic shared by many experienced bodybuilders is the accumulated knowledge of their body particularly as i
t relates to various training protocols coupled with a thorough understanding of what s/he can and cannot do. It’s this connectedness that bodybuilders have between their body and their innate instinct which keeps them out of harm’s way. With this experience also comes a better ability to determine which exercises, workouts and training patterns work well and which ones are less effective, or even counterproductive.
The instinctive cues or training “sixth sense” can be analogous to driving a high-performance race car. Years of training experience allows an individual to gauge how far he can push his body before it “redlines” and comes only with time, patience and careful monitoring. Paying close attention to strength, energy, recovery and any visual changes that are occurring will indicate when it’s time to accelerate or pull back. This knowledge is something that cannot be obtained from a text and is invaluable when it comes to formulating a training program.
Aging is generally associated with neuromuscular decline and progressive loss of muscle mass and strength which can result in reduced functional capacity, but biological age is not a reason to start writing a training eulogy for the older athlete. However the accompanying physiological changes may require making a few concessions to a training protocol to allow training on a regular basis. Small considerations may be all that it takes for the aging athlete to continue to do what he loves and his reliance on instinct and biofeedback can serve as an invaluable guide for appropriately adjusting training parameters.
Train Smart and Good Luck!
