I agree with plyometrics being the stretch shortening cycle. But for most athletes and people, there are many routes to bone and tendon strength. Most strength training will do this, no definite need to use advanced techniques to optimize it.
But skipping rope is excellent for conditioning, throwing medicine balls against a wall helps shoulder mobility, jumping is a great warmup for squats and deadlifts and useful in itself - but like sprinting, with jumping from a box it is easy to get hurt without stretching and a plan. Take it slow, and start low.
I typically lift weights but I’ve been sidelined because of recurring shoulder injuries (they all stared from biking crashes). I’m older now and the muscle atrophy happens so fucking quick now, it’s depressing. Getting good medical care in the US is so hard that I’m relying on AI and hope I can figure out how to rehab my shoulder and not go downhill much more.
Why don’t I lift weights? Because a longstanding injury reared it’s ugly head again and it’s not easy to see a medical specialist (2+ months).
Could your primary (usually easier access) just give you a PT referral? Most PTs should be able to guide a rehab program to full exercise including resistance in a safe manner with full awareness of your specifics.
Thanks @Dr_Paprika for the plyo/ballistics discussion.
To go back to first principles, weightlifting is about generating force to do work. Newton’s Second Law shows F=ma, force is the product of mass and acceleration. Work is the product of force and distance, and acceleration often requires overcoming g=9.8 m/s^2.
So there are different ways of generating force.
Emphasizing mass (m), little a: strength training
Lots of m, more a: Olympic lift, strength-speed
Moderate m, more a: speed-strength training
Modest m, maximum a: explosive lifting, power
Where explosive lifts include jumps, throws, plyometric jumps from a high box or step.
Power is the best way to hit the fastest twitch muscle fibres (type IIx or IIb). Strength training hits fast twitch fibres (type IIa), with IIb at high weights (often above 80%). Runners are more dependent on slow twitch endurance (type I). Training a specific way will increase that type of fibre. But for an athlete training for pure strength, this needs to be the focus of more than 70% of training efforts. You would devote less than 15% to power or speed-strength, and address these in periodic blocks.
For almost everyone else, a mix of things is better, including a mix of aerobic and anaerobic energy metabolic pathways - strength and endurance training.
Well, I have not read this huge thread. I find the question insulting. Don’t challenge me.
I, at 65 years old, take care of all house repairs. I mow my grass. I shovel the snow. I walk our dogs (daily). I ride my bike every other day.
And I do lift weights for my back. Every day. But it’s frankly none of your business why I don’t lift weights. I do it every damn day, just taking care of business.
A question for the OP, have you ever worked? I mean really worked.
More inclusive category, push-pull, force-driven resistance, all done from the sitting position. So far, I’ve had a very good response to it. From people who don’t work out. Recently, chair tai chi has been very popular with people who don’t work out. I think that is largely because of the sitting position, people who don’t work out sit a lot, it is a very comfortable position for them.
It might also be said that elderly people should continue to jump, skip and throw since one tends to lose power before they lose strength. But any strength training will strengthen bones and connective tissues like tendons, ligaments and fascia. People who take peptides that inhibit myostatin, or steroids, to quickly develop muscle (instead of gradual growth) are taking huge risks of overwhelming the heart which oxygenates tissues, and the connective tissue which prevents against injury and overload.
I started working when I as ten years old and for decades worked eighty hour weeks. I’ve worked in kitchens, grocery stores and construction. That’s not really your business either, and no one made you respond to this thread.
There is a lot of evidence exercise helps people, even busy people with physical jobs, and that is the focus of this thread. Who am I to argue if you feel you already get enough exercise? I’m glad if you do. But the reason to read threads is to fight ignorance.
My emphasis is on the “continue” … ideally doing it all along!
This forum has us asking lots of questions that are none of anyone’s damn business. Curiosity. Beautiful thing is that no one needs to answer. But they can. And the answers and discussion is sometimes interesting.
Well, the exercise is leaning over with a 10lb weight in each hand and then straightening up and spreading my shoulders. I only do 20 reps but it’s a start.
This also works on your balance and your butt.
I should also do curls.
Seems to be helping.
The other exercise for the summer will be mowing the grass Got to keep moving.
Oh man 11 years old, a dollar an hour was amazing (when I finally got paid for a lot of work). I was a rich kid. My grandfather built a mobile home park. There was plenty to do (mostly landscaping, digging trenches for gas lines, yes, that’s what kids did).
Mowing grass with old, old tractors. The only way I could turn the steering wheel was if I got it moving first, which made for some interesting situations.
I’ve already lifted all the weight I want, but see that my back needs some work, I’m going to work on it, before it stops working for me.
Fascinating study. Too early to extrapolate mice to people, but it is perhaps a clue as to how exercise helps the ageing brain, by improving the blood brain barrier in the aged.
Excerpt:
Exercise can strengthen a leaky blood-brain barrier, which may improve brain health and potentially fight dementia, according to an ambitious new mouse study of exercise and neurodegeneration published this month in Cell.
In rodents and people, the blood-brain barrier — a narrow layer of cells that protects the brain from toxins and pathogens**—** typically weakens with age, contributing to neuro-inflammation and other problems, including heightened risks for dementia. But the study’s authors found that during and after exercise, at least in mice, the liver releases a specialized protein that travels to the brain and helps repair the protective cellular barrier there.
The effects of the exercise protein were especially striking in older mice with a form of Alzheimer’s disease. Their memory and learning abilities improved substantially when levels of the protein rose in the brain. The researchers found the same protein in the bloodstreams of physically active people…
…But — and this was the point of the study — when they genetically upped the release of GPLD1 (produced by exercise) from the livers of older, inactive mice, as if they were exercising, that protein pruned away much of the excess TNAP (which makes the blood brain barrier leakier), leaving the animals’ blood-brain barriers in far better shape. Those mice, including a group with rodent dementia, then outperformed other same-age rodents on learning tests and began sprouting new neurons in portions of their brains, presumably because their brain tissue was better protected now by a rejuvenated barrier.
My wife and I play a LOT of chess. Now that we are both retired from work that required quite a bit of math/programming/spatial analysis, we think that this will help keep us sharp.
Cribbage too. And well darts, but that focus is on being steady. Oh, and oddly we are target shooters now. My wife asked, and I’ve been coaching her. And she took a class.
So we are keeping busy, that’s for sure.
My wife is physically more active than I, but we do walk dogs daily, and we have bikes. Yeah, they are electric, but it gets you out there. And you have to pedal or the motor will not help.
I saw the Post article this morning and found it very interesting. Inspiring, even! I did not know about the blood-brain barrier. It sounds like exercise helps even if you haven’t been doing consistently for years.
I’ve been lifting on average 1-2 times a week for some months now. Trying to be more regular about it which should be easier once I don’t have to don a snow suit to get to the gym. Spring is not a great time for hiking in my part of the world so that frees up some gym time.
No not injured, but dang even knowing this it surprises me.
I’ve been good about having ballistic as part of my routine but had not previously been doing much true plyo. So started. And coming from a decent overall base. Depth jumps and some various bounds, depth drop push ups using 70# hex dumbbells as the top level. Fun. Doesn’t feel too hard while doing it. Quick to throw in a couple of rounds early in the session. And … damn sore the next day. These eccentric things pack a kick man!
Seriously. Anyone thinking of adding true plyo to what you do, and a little bit is reported to do lots for helping us age well … it doesn’t seem too hard when you do it but really take that advice to heart. Take it slow. Start low. Ow.
Check claimed there were seven “cardinal movements”: Bending (hinge - including deadlift), squat, lunge, push, pull, twist, and gait. I would maybe add jumps and throws (Check considered jumps “push” and throws “push-twist”).
Most weightlifters don’t do actually lunges (weights throw you off but add little to your much bigger bodyweight, you don’t need ‘em; I rarely do split squats, etc.) or much twisting (best done using bands or cable machine “Woodchoppers” twist abdomen while also going high to low or low to high); nor much jumping (the best warmup for squats or deadlifts) nor throws (medicine ball thrown high against a wall) - jumps and throws are commonplace in CrossFit.
Most of the few that do these unique exercises find new sources of soreness as they try something new, starting the next day, and lasting a day or two (“delayed onset muscle soreness”). I’d start with one set of 3-5 and work towards three sets of five, from a step and working up to a box of 25-45” (depending what one has available, age, fitness level and motivation).
Gymnasts, dancers, decathletes, skiers and basketballers practice lots of jumping and landing. Most of the rest of us benefit from a modest amount of speed (power) work, possibly recalling that power is force times velocity (speed); and momentum is mass times velocity.
I often have up to two days of soreness if I try something new, even if I am using moderate weights. I find a low dose of naproxen can help. I really need to start skipping rope again, even though I hate doing it.