t’s common knowledge that we lose muscle mass and strength as we age. This is known as sarcopenia.

Building Muscle as You Age

As someone approaching their 40th birthday, I’m interested to know what the research shows about this syndrome.

So, I dug into the research to see what, if anything, could be done to reverse or at least slow down the physical decline we go through as we age.

What I discovered was fascinating, and I share all of it in this episode.

I’ll explain:

• Why do we lose muscle and strength as we age?
• That this rate of decay in physical capacity is not inevitable.
• How you can keep gaining strength and muscle mass up to your 60s.

There is a large amount of research on this subject, and it was eye-opening to dive deep and learn that we are all largely in control of how much muscle and strength we have as we age.

We Are Largely in Control of How We Age

The importance of healthy habits stacking on top of one another is crucial.

Likewise, the negative effects of bad habits compound very quickly.

I also discovered:

• Why most athletes peak in their 20s, but you can be at your best in your 40s and beyond.
• The key training strategies to implement as you age.
• Why your diet is absolutely crucial to you retaining muscle later in life.

If you apply what the research shows and implement the strategies I give in this episode, you can stay strong, muscular, and lean for decades to come.

You might not be an elite athlete in your 40s but, if you give your body what it needs, you can stay strong, lean, and fit. Doing so will serve you well for many decades and increase the chances of living a long and healthy life.

When you’re coaching personal or group training, you’ve probably come across a sluggish client, or one that doesn’t pick up on exercise cues, or they muddle through their training with no enthusiasm. And, this bothers you because it’s not occasional as they’re almost always like this.

When you’re coaching personal or group training, you’ve probably come across a sluggish client, or one that doesn’t pick up on exercise cues, or they muddle through their training with no enthusiasm. And, this bothers you because it’s not occasional as they’re almost always like this.

If it’s a personal training session, it’s easier to ask if anything is distracting them.

Even if there is, they’re under no obligation to tell you. These people are paying you for the hour, and they’ve shown up, even if it’s half-heartedly.

In a group exercise setting, it’s not advisable to single someone out, and it is probably unethical. All you can do is motivate and encourage the group.

The old me might have ruined this client because of my previous experience with coaching and group training. Push, push, and push harder, but now I know better. Seeing how some kids were ruined by coaches using this method made me see the error of my ways.

Not everyone responds to a hyperactive, in-your-face coach.

Many people see trainers as boot camps, punishment instructors, and it’s better not to feed this stereotype.

So, what do you do?

You could ignore them and hope the problem goes away. But you’re a coach who cares, so this is not an option. The other option is to put into action the following advice in this article.

Is it perfect? No, but using this advice combined with your experience, you’ll be more likely to keep than lose the client. And that’s a win.

Why Clients Resist Change

Even when the client is in front of you doesn’t mean they’re all in. they may flip flop between stages of the Transtheoretical Model (TTM). Remember TTM from your studies? If not, here’s a quick refresher.

The TTM is used in health psychology to explain or predict a person’s success or failure in achieving a proposed behavior change.

Here are the six stages of change:

1. Precontemplation: Not acknowledging there is a problem behavior that needs to be changed
2. Contemplation: Acknowledging there is a problem but not yet ready or sure of wanting to make a change
3. Preparation: Getting ready to change
4. Action/Willpower: Changing behavior
5. Maintenance: Maintaining the new behavior change
6. Relapse: Returning to old behaviors and abandoning the new change

Usually, the client in front of you is either in the action or maintenance stage, but that doesn’t mean they can’t regress.

When the client has a change of heart, they can relapse into old behaviors or slip back to the preparation and contemplation stage.

This regression could be the reason for their sudden loss of motivation and enthusiasm. No amount of encouraging, yelling, or positive talk is likely to help here.

What You Can Do

Now is the time to remind them why they’re here.

• In a personal training setting, this takes fishing out their consultation form and reminding them of their short or long-term goals.
• Then, asking them if they still want to reach these goals.
• If yes, that’s great, and hopefully, they refocus on the task at hand.
• If not, their goals may seem too ambitious because of a change of circumstances or heart.
• Then, between you and the client, adjusting these goals to suit them better will help.
• When the client feels a part of the process, and it’s all about them and not you, this creates more buy-in from the client.
• Then ask the client if any obstacles affect their ability to reach these goals.
• Some clients will immediately answer, and some will not.
• You need to remain quiet and listen while the client thinks and responds. It must be their barrier and not one you suggest.
• From there, between the two of you, come up with solutions for these problems. Small steps the client feels comfortable taking will help them move forward and regain some pep in their step.
• In a group setting, between sets of exercise or breaks in the action, remind them of the health benefits of exercise.
• It is not unusual to have ups and downs, and progress is not in a straight line.

Explain why you structure the class the way you do and the why behind some of the exercises. For example, a hinge movement is a perfect way to pick something off the floor to save your back.

This explanation helps the unmotivated client by adding an extra incentive to stick with it and see how exercise benefits them outside of the gym.

Communication Builds Relationships

Not everyone feels comfortable talking about their issues in a gym setting or with other fit people around.

Therefore, it’s important to open a line of communication with the unmotivated client.

With group exercise, this means making yourself available before and after class to answer questions and concerns. Or providing a business card with an email address so they can correspond this way. Will everyone take you up on this? Probably not. The best you can do is to make yourself available.

The power of knowing that someone is in their corner is sometimes enough.

In a personal training session, sharing something about your personal experiences, both good and bad, as a coach and being transparent might make it easier for them to open up versus thinking trainers are perfect people with exercise and nutrition.

Then the client might be more inclined to talk about the issues which are holding them back.

If they do, listening and not trying to fix it is key.

Knowing what’s going on allows you to tailor your program and your message inside the session. If they don’t tell you a thing, at least the client knows they have a listening ear in you.

Open Lines of Communication

In your career, you’re bound to train the unmotivated client. Would you mind not turning into the in-your-face coach and mistaking their lack of enthusiasm for an opportunity to push them harder? Instead, be understanding, open lines of communication, and remind them why they’re here.

Because then they will be more likely to stick around.

A new school year is around the corner. All over, there will be in-season coaches trying to condition their athletes to be ready for game time and out-of-season coaches trying to get their athletes faster, stronger, and tougher before the season begins.

A new school year is around the corner. All over, there will be in-season coaches trying to condition their athletes to be ready for game time and out-of-season coaches trying to get their athletes faster, stronger, and tougher before the season begins.

Lots of effective exercises, cone-drills, and conditioning schemes will be assimilated. But if the right things aren’t done in the right way, with the proper rest, timing, and compatible exercises, the program will be working against itself.

What few coaches consider is whether the improvements their athletes make come despite their efforts.

This improvement is a phenomenon that author, Nassim Taleb, calls “teaching birds to fly.”

The wonderful thing about training adolescent athletes is that they have a lot of biological momentum, which pulls them towards being stronger and more athletic. It’s hard to mess that up.

Additionally, they are exceptionally resilient.

Even the most ridiculous training programs will tend to make high-school and college-age athletes stronger and better conditioned. But could the program get them more bang for their buck? Could they see more of the desired adaptations? Almost certainly.

In over a decade working with sports coaches, I’ve noticed that it is startlingly rare for coaches to make any distinction between different power training:

• Speed
• Plyometric
• Agility work
• Conditioning

Coaches are often confused about the purpose behind their drills. The majority want tired athletes. “If it is hard, it is good.” I’ve heard more than once. You can’t blame the coaches, though.

This motto is the tradition that is passing down in almost every sport.

But this needn’t be the case. You can get athletes optimally faster, better conditioned, and even tougher in the same program if you understand a few simple principles.

It all boils down to understanding the basics of energy systems—concepts so simple and essential that every coach should know them.

Energy Systems Made Simple

The body is an adaptation machine. It tends to respond predictably based on the type of stress that it is experiencing.

When the body is called upon to do an activity, it utilizes three energy systems:

1. The Power System* (ATP/CP)
2. The Burn System* (Glycolytic)
3. The Aerobic System

While every action initiates all three systems, one system is often doing the bulk of the work.

Understanding how to train each system best is crucial for determining how you should prepare.

*Note: No one else calls the ATP/CP system the power system or the glycolytic system the burn system, but this will be easier to remember.

1. The Power System

Think of Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) and CP as dynamite. It is very explosive energy:

• In the Power System, ATP and CP are utilized to create a level of power that is impossible without them.
• ATP and CP make max speed, max vertical jumping, max agility, and max strength possible.
• These are the elements that are the most destructive and essential in almost every sport.

But you cannot effectively train these harmful elements without ATP and CP.

Here is the rub. ATP and CP are like an 18th-century musket. When you decide to use it, boom, it’s gone.

ATP and CP only last about 6-7 seconds.

Then you’re losing power. Even Olympic 100-meter sprinters at the top of their training game will be decelerating before the end of a 100-meter sprint. They’ll hit top speed and then start to go slower because ATP and CP are gone.

And ATP and CP take a while to re-load.

Specifically, there is anywhere from a 1:12 to a 1:20 work to rest ratio required to make an all-out effort and then do another. For better power training results, err towards 1:20 or more.

That means if your speed training has you running max-effort 20-yard sprints that take you three seconds, then you would ideally rest for 60 seconds in between each. If you only rest 30 seconds, guess what. You aren’t getting faster. You’re getting tired.

2. The Burn System

When strenuous efforts extend beyond six seconds or are repeated with little rest, the burn system tends to take over.

• The burning system begins to drive the machine for medium-range efforts from six seconds to two or three minutes.
• To train this system specifically requires a 1:3 to 1:5 work to rest ratio.
• Depending on your sport, you can train this system with everything from repeated 40-yard dashes at only 30-40 seconds rest (too little rest for speed training) to Fartleks and conditioning ladders.

Coaches love the burn system because it burns, it’s hard, and an all-out effort.

But this is not an effective way to train speed, agility, power, and strength, those elements that are most destructive in almost every sport.

When your speed training becomes burn training, it is no longer speed training. When you do box jumps to train explosive power and repeatedly do them with little rest, you aren’t getting more explosive.

You aren’t training power.

Furthermore, this sort of training also tends to beat the hell out of the central nervous system and the muscular system required for the practical training of any power system goals.

For this reason, I recommend avoiding burn-specific training (other than while playing sports) until within a few months of the season and limiting this training while in-season.

3. The Aerobic System

• The aerobic system is predominant throughout most mild daily activities such as walking and any exercise lasting over two or three minutes.
• Despite being the opposite end of the spectrum from power work, it is crucial to almost all athletes.
• A more developed aerobic system will help athletes recover more quickly and make them far more capable of developing the burn system.

These generalizations do not tell the whole story, but they are the basics that everyone should know.

For a more in-depth look at all three systems and how they work in your training, this article in The Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism does a great job clarifying sport-specific conditioning demands.

Practical Implications

The myth of more is better pervades sports. Many coaches would look at the distinctions between energy systems and conclude that their sport requires the development of all three systems and try to find time to train everything, all of the time.

It is important to remember that you can get a fixed amount of training adaptation out of the body:

• Three hours of vigorous exercise isn’t better than one. It is almost certainly worse.
• Over time, athletes can develop greater work capacity so that they can compete for longer durations.
• Work capacity will look different in each sport.
• It could mean anything from dozens of near-max bouts in a football game or tennis match to oscillating between many different intensities and moving almost constantly throughout a soccer game.
• Regardless of what your sport requires, work capacity should build slowly and methodically.

As I’ve stated, the burn system has a way of counteracting speed, agility, plyometric, and all power system training—the qualities that are most destructive in sports.

Training should be done with sufficient rest for optimal power system training results, without too many reps, and before more fatiguing work.

It would be better to avoid any traditional conditioning on days that focus on training the power system. But, of course, you will eventually want to introduce other variables as well.

Many different training goals have to be balanced and coordinated over a training year:

• Speed, agility, plyometric power, strength
• Metabolic conditioning
• Aerobic conditioning
• Mobility
• Toughness

Some goals go together better than others; each has its benefits and costs and will depend on the sport and the training phase.

I’d recommend focusing on quality movement and gradually building the power system early on, with a bit of gradual mobility and aerobic development for most sports. Over time, you can build up to greater intensities and duration of work.

This focus alone will develop a lot of capacity in the burn system without explicitly targeting it. As always, training needs to include appropriate recovery. A couple of months before competitions begin, start to integrate a bit more sport-specific interval work gradually. But his approach runs contrary to what is typical.

Most coaches want to begin their off-season with hard conditioning gauntlets and as many exhausting gut checks as possible.

While I understand the value of establishing standards of work ethic and developing mental toughness, it is important to recognize the costs of this work. I like to approach building mental toughness in a manner that aligns better with my other training considerations.

Train Mental Toughness

Rather than starting off-season with a few weeks of puke-bucket-workouts and then easing into a more effective training philosophy, I recommend starting with a fanatical emphasis on executing exercises with proper technique.

At the same time, clarify all your disciplinary expectations:

• Focus on high-quality movement, but consistently punish disciplinary infractions like lack of eye contact, urgency, or tardiness with burpees or wind-sprints.
• I prefer full team punishments as these incentivize leaders to emerge.
• Explain to your athletes that such punishments work against their training goals and that you’d prefer not to have to resort to dumb training.
• In addition, make sure to bring a bit of competition into your weekly routine.
• With consistency, this approach produces athletes with a rare level of discipline, attention to detail, and mature mental toughness.

This will become apparent in the months before the season when you begin integrating more metabolic conditioning.

The best way to maximize all the attributes your athletes need is to have a system for determining what is trained and when. It doesn’t need to be complicated.

How is strength defined and who defines it? Kinesiologists study muscles and have various ways to gauge muscle contraction, length, tension, and force.

Therefore, kinesiologists typically measure strength by these primary factors and neglect individual variations of strength as a subjective concept. Whether one can lift X number of pounds overhead is meaningless in the overall definition of functional strength.

Functional strength is the strength that gets us through life and daily survival.

How is strength defined and who defines it? Kinesiologists study muscles and have various ways to gauge muscle contraction, length, tension, and force.

Therefore, kinesiologists typically measure strength by these primary factors and neglect individual variations of strength as a subjective concept. Whether one can lift X number of pounds overhead is meaningless in the overall definition of functional strength.

Functional strength is the strength that gets us through life and daily survival.

Lifting a heavy load overhead is a fantastic measure for Hercules or the competitive weightlifter but the history of manual labor has consisted of something very different.

Manual labor typically involved walking, running, pushing, pulling, and grasping.

Take a minute to think back to your history books and those photos of the grueling pushing and pulling of primitive mechanical devices and the relentless building of the pyramids, to name just a couple.

What is wrong with “strength” as defined by Olympic weightlifting?

Absolutely nothing. I love it. I train with it, I teach it, and I encourage it. There is no better feeling than watching my athletes hit personal records of lifting heavy loads.

Weight lifting (Olympic or not) has military value and athletic value. It increases stamina and power output. The technical skill that goes with the training behind it (Olympic lifting in particular) is second to none.

For the sake of this article, however, I am not referring to this definition of strength, but rather I am talking about daily functional strength and the movement involved with everyday people living their natural lives.

So what is this definition of strength? It is not very exciting unfortunately, but equally as important as load-lifting strength.

What is Functional Strength?

Functional strength is the ability to run your load-joints (shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles) through a full range of motion without pain, stiffness, or restriction. This is also known as load-joint articulation.

What is the goal of functional strength?

Load-joints must be able to open and close in a full range of pain-free motion. How does this work in a couch-potato environment where we are no longer pushing primitive machines around? It comes through movement.

In today’s undemanding environment, we get stuck in a “box” of doing the same motions over and over again.

We are no longer spontaneously stimulated by our environment, as we once were. More and more people are replacing the days’ motions with “work” (computers and typing, talking on the phone, and driving) or “recreation” (watching TV or playing video games), so we need to find ways to alter our environment in order to keep our load-bearing structure active and healthy.

How do we create movement in a “box?”

Unleash your restrictive movement. Put your body through a range of motion that requires an opening and closing of joints into all the planes of motion. Get outside of the gym, get inside the gym, get on the track, and get out on the trail.

Do things that you once did as a kid. Play on a playground with the rings and the monkey bars.

Practice handstands, somersaults, bear crawls, frog jumps, and lateral hops. Grab an agility ladder and play hopscotch with it. Stimulate your mind and your body’s response to it. Sit less and refuse to be bound by a box, restricted territory, or a terrain.

Is “stronger” better?

Let me give you an example of a great test. Let’s consider the bulky, muscularly defined “strong” man and the functional “weak” woman. If we were to put them both on a climbing stair test (a specialized, limited, and repetitive process) with ascents and descents, the weaker female would far surpass the strong man. Why is this?

It all boils down to their varying degrees of musculoskeletal system function.

Is there anything wrong with being strong and muscular in the sense of this man? Absolutely not, but at the same time he is limited in his ability to respond to spontaneous environments.

The female in this example however, has a more varied (and pain-free) degree of function. She is agile and unrestricted to a box.

Degrees of Functional Movement

It is a rare thing to see an athlete of one sport move flawlessly to another (Michael Jordan for example as he attempted to move from basketball into baseball). It is even difficult for an athlete to change positions within the same sport (like moving from pitcher to first base for example).

Why? Repetition of the same limited sequence of motion over and over again. Do not let yourself be confined to a box of limitations. Play multiple sports and do not get stuck just playing first base.

Degree of function varies between each individual. This is why having your own personal program is essential to fitness, strength, and functionality.

Function is the key to success in sports, the military, and all other necessary skills, like speed and agility. All of these demands rely on the ability of the individual to run load-joints through motions.

We do have the ability to adapt to various mind-body combinations and the key is stimulation, not age. No matter how old you are, movement is vitally important and becoming functionally strong boils down to your desire to go out into the world and not wait for it to come to you.

For Functinal Strength – Personalize Workout Programs

Find a recipe that works for you – to do that you first need the right ingredients. What you put into the pot is what you get out of the pot.

Seek out programmers who take your goals and custom-tailor your workouts to you.

Run, bike, and swim. Add resistance training, weightlifting, and kettlebells to your training. Hop on some monkey bars and play around with gymnastic elements. Do some hot yoga and stretch well.

If you have never done any or even just some of those things listed, learn them and have fun with them.

Form is always the priority so do not rush any of these elements. Remember that strength is not always defined by how much the load is but rather is most often defined by load-bearing functionality.

Best advice? Have fun and do not be confine by the box. Eat well. Train well. Have some fun (just a little bit is okay!).

Modern society is changing rapidly. We are becoming a society who expect everything immediately. Put it down to modern technology and the Internet if you wish. However, this demand for instant gratification is now transferring across into modern education – and nowhere more so than the fitness industry.

It’s easy to become certified in the fitness industry – but that doesn’t always mean you’ve been educated.

Athletes spend a lot of time seeking the next greatest training program – usually a super-secret-never-seen-before-Russian plan. Yet athletes should be investing more time in their own education and understanding of the process. Have you noticed that many athletes fail to actually complete any given training plan?

Perhaps this is through boredom, but I would put it down to a lack of understanding of the science and education behind the process. Without thorough understanding, mastery becomes near-on impossible. The path to deep mastery is education.

We’re Not Using Our Weapon

Education is far from a quick fix or the ability to download something instantly. It is a lifelong pursuit. Nelson Mandela declared, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”. Yet as a fitness nation trying to change the world of 2.1 billion obese people we seem to fail in a big way.

“Cheap one-day courses are also now in abundance. Such is the low barrier to entry for fitness education certifications that anyone can become an expert and run one.”

Industry standards have become so low that coaches are now confusing the very population they are trying to help. In the desire for one guru to outshine another, coaches contradict each other for the sake of it. For athletes, the weekend warrior, or fitness enthusiast, our desire to understand our training has become null and void. Monkey see, monkey do. Then move on to the next shiny object.

Let’s look at the options for self-improvement.

Put Down the Books and Attend Live Events

Reading should of course be a staple part of anyone’s diet in self-improvement, but attending live events takes things to a new level. These events or courses facilitate a deeper level of mastery. They allow you to be the dumbest person in the room (think about that for a while), to connect with like-minded peers and individuals, and to ask in-depth questions of the experts.

It’s not easy to figure out where to start with these live events. The fitness industry has an abundance of certifications to choose from. Type in “BOSU balancing circus acts” and you’ll probably find a level 3 qualification. Cheap one-day courses are also now in abundance. Such is the low barrier to entry for fitness education certifications that anyone can become an expert and run one.

Although in-person classes are best, some are more valuable than others.

How to Choose the Right Course

First of all, ask yourself these two questions;

1. How much am I prepared to invest?
2. Will this course or certification fill a void in my educational needs?

Take your time to think about question one. If you think it’s just about the money, then buy the cheapest course out there as you are missing the point. I’m talking how much time are you willing to invest in your own education. Price should be irrelevant.

“You can be the best theorist in the world, but remember we’re in the fitness industry, and practicality is essential.”

Investing in your own personal development and education is one of the richest and rewarding things you can do in life. Treat fitness education like a university degree. Invest wisely and look at the long haul. Would you like to buy that instant training program or learn how to write multiple programs for different scenarios?

The best things in life have to be earned. Nothing in life should be a given, yet sadly the fitness industry is handing out certificates like there is no tomorrow. When I talk about investing time in education, I like to look at the pre- and post- learning material to the course. And that is both from a theoretical and practical perspective. You can be the best theorist in the world, but remember we’re in the fitness industry, and practicality is essential.

With the best courses, the learning is mostly in the journey to the certification. The effort required is both mental and physical preparation. To teach and apply our knowledge we must first seek mastery – and in the fitness industry that means getting our hands dirty and hanging out in the trenches.

Take the Strength Matters Level 1 kettlebell certification as an example. We advise a four- to six-month pre-certification training period. Minimum. Not because we want to give you a beatdown. Because we expect our students to be just that, students. And to become an instructor, you must follow the path and journey to becoming an instructor in the way a student would. That is where the real education is. The journey of self-discovery. The ability to empathize with students.

To be a good instructor, you must be a good student.

Advice

So whether you’re an athlete, coach, or fitness enthusiast, my advice to you is this. Put down the computer, put down the book, and go and learn in person from the industry experts. YouTube University is merely a starting point in your journey of fitness. Think of fitness as education. Invest wisely for long-term rewards.

I’d guestimate that 99% of training plans are never completed. Be part of the other 1% who thinks of fitness as an investment for life. Value yourself and own worth like a university degree. A deeper understanding of the subject matter and will set you apart from others who follow the herd mentality and seek the easy option in life.

Be different. Value your education and work hard for it. Seek mastery. Nothing is more rewarding in life.