Last month I touched on body types and nutritional needs in newer lifters. This month let's look at the changing food requirements of vet/older lifters. I'll leave the body types part out of this one. Most of
you have been doing this long enough to know your type. The reason(s) I've chosen this as the topic is that I have noticed metabolic changes as I have aged . I have also noticed changes in long time lifting friends. I went through the force feeding stomach full 24/7 thing many years ago. There may well be a time for that in some lifters lifting career. It did work for me in putting on a tremendous amount of muscle and more adipose tissue than I feel is healthy. Can't change the past only learn from it. I am hopeful that I did not do much damage with that activity. Time will tell. I am sure that many of you reading this have some very substantial time under the iron. If like myself, many of you are very familiar with 'muscle memory'. That term angers some people . After all muscle does not have a brain. Seasoned guys know exactly what I mean though. The muscle that many of us worked and struggled for many years to obtain seems(and is for many ) much easier to regain after lay offs that may occur for a variety of reasons. After all life is never perfect from start to finish.
I still stick to a fairly high protein diet but less so than in my youth. Where I may have consumed 2 grams per lb of bw in my youth. I consume about 1-1.5 grams per lb LEAN bw now. Regaining muscle mass comes plenty fast with that amount of protein with less likelihood of fat gain. I would think a bit less stressful on organs as well.
My carb intake has changed probably more so than my protein intake. As a young guy I just ate all the time. I over trained quite a bit and was just ravenous most of the time. I was more focused
on calorie intake rather than the quality and timing of foods. Today I focus on having enough complex carbs to train ,work and think well. I try to take in no more in one sitting than enough to function well
for the next couple or few hours before I can eat another small amount of food.I usually cut my carbs a few hours before sleep. This has made getting and staying lean so much easier. Generally I will limit simpler carbs to right after training . The bulk of carbs are very slow burn low glycemic index carbs. I just feel so much better this way. I do keep healthy fats intact but I limit those as well to get what I need rather than what I want.. My overall caloric needs are less at a given body wt today compared with 25 yrs ago. Training is much more enjoyable this way instead of chore like drudgery . Older bodybuilders or power lifters that are competing will have varying goal oriented nutritional requirements of course.
I see guys here and there from the gym long ago when I hit various gyms. I noticed many have all the muscle mass and sometimes more than they had 20 yrs ago or so. Some still lean and some with good sized guts . The guys with the guts probably eat almost the same as they did in years long gone. The lean guys probably made adjustments along the way. It is really uplifting and inspirational to see guys in 60s and 70s+ in great shape. If you are happy with your current condition/composition then leave things as they are. If you are always trying to make improvements no matter how small then relook your diet and break out of some old ruts. Many of you have been at this for most of your adult lives and will be for as long as possible. If that is the case reward yourself by tuning your diet for optimum results. The guidelines I follow that I listed above are generalizations. What I have discussed is experience and accumulated knowledge that are fairly basic.I really learned quite a bit through trial and error but am always trying to gure out what may work better for me.
I am sure plenty of you are very skilled in body recomp and some not so much. Some are great at piling on muscle but are pretty vague on dropping BF% properly. I'm gonna say I'm in that second group for sure.I know what was not easy to access in my youth is GOOD prep advice up and down. Now we have a fairly exclusive group of people that can really cut the learning process time down dramatically. I'm not talking about the kid with an online training cert or a health club p/t with a little piece of nutritional knowledge. I'm referring to the elite trainer/ prep coaches like those on anasci and other boards. Don't know any of them personally but have read quite a bit of their strategies. Looked at some of the before and after shots of clients and have to say many are astounding. It would be great to see some guys that are older And have never really achieved the condition that would like go ahead and do it. For those who want to but don't know how. Read and assimilate all you can. If that is not your cup of tea let someone do it for you and eliminate guess work and wasted time. When I say wasted time I'm talking trial and error. Reading and learning is never a waste of time. So I'm hoping at the end of the summer there will be a bunch of gray haired(if you have any) guys big, lean or ripped feeling good about the payo for all those hard years of training. I have never retained a trainer such as those in anasci's trainers forum. I did have a going training business some years back. While I have quite a bit of learned Knowledge from 33-34 years of being in and around iron sports I feel almost a beginner when I look at the training and dietary guidelines of some of the great trainer /coaches. Great stu. I see many techniques these guys/girls use that took me years to learn through trial and error. That's what really go t my attention. I knew quite a bit about what works. The trainers in the training forum are on a different level. Really eliminating dietary guess work I'm ready to improve learn new and better ways and move forward in 2013. Every now and then I like to do something for me. Waited till 2013 to decide to use a trainer/coach . A new rst for me about to begin in the upcoming weeks. Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks.
Til next time happy training and happy eating ~Turbobusa
**From the 2nd issue of the AnaSCI Newsletter
you have been doing this long enough to know your type. The reason(s) I've chosen this as the topic is that I have noticed metabolic changes as I have aged . I have also noticed changes in long time lifting friends. I went through the force feeding stomach full 24/7 thing many years ago. There may well be a time for that in some lifters lifting career. It did work for me in putting on a tremendous amount of muscle and more adipose tissue than I feel is healthy. Can't change the past only learn from it. I am hopeful that I did not do much damage with that activity. Time will tell. I am sure that many of you reading this have some very substantial time under the iron. If like myself, many of you are very familiar with 'muscle memory'. That term angers some people . After all muscle does not have a brain. Seasoned guys know exactly what I mean though. The muscle that many of us worked and struggled for many years to obtain seems(and is for many ) much easier to regain after lay offs that may occur for a variety of reasons. After all life is never perfect from start to finish.
I still stick to a fairly high protein diet but less so than in my youth. Where I may have consumed 2 grams per lb of bw in my youth. I consume about 1-1.5 grams per lb LEAN bw now. Regaining muscle mass comes plenty fast with that amount of protein with less likelihood of fat gain. I would think a bit less stressful on organs as well.
My carb intake has changed probably more so than my protein intake. As a young guy I just ate all the time. I over trained quite a bit and was just ravenous most of the time. I was more focused
on calorie intake rather than the quality and timing of foods. Today I focus on having enough complex carbs to train ,work and think well. I try to take in no more in one sitting than enough to function well
for the next couple or few hours before I can eat another small amount of food.I usually cut my carbs a few hours before sleep. This has made getting and staying lean so much easier. Generally I will limit simpler carbs to right after training . The bulk of carbs are very slow burn low glycemic index carbs. I just feel so much better this way. I do keep healthy fats intact but I limit those as well to get what I need rather than what I want.. My overall caloric needs are less at a given body wt today compared with 25 yrs ago. Training is much more enjoyable this way instead of chore like drudgery . Older bodybuilders or power lifters that are competing will have varying goal oriented nutritional requirements of course.
I see guys here and there from the gym long ago when I hit various gyms. I noticed many have all the muscle mass and sometimes more than they had 20 yrs ago or so. Some still lean and some with good sized guts . The guys with the guts probably eat almost the same as they did in years long gone. The lean guys probably made adjustments along the way. It is really uplifting and inspirational to see guys in 60s and 70s+ in great shape. If you are happy with your current condition/composition then leave things as they are. If you are always trying to make improvements no matter how small then relook your diet and break out of some old ruts. Many of you have been at this for most of your adult lives and will be for as long as possible. If that is the case reward yourself by tuning your diet for optimum results. The guidelines I follow that I listed above are generalizations. What I have discussed is experience and accumulated knowledge that are fairly basic.I really learned quite a bit through trial and error but am always trying to gure out what may work better for me.
I am sure plenty of you are very skilled in body recomp and some not so much. Some are great at piling on muscle but are pretty vague on dropping BF% properly. I'm gonna say I'm in that second group for sure.I know what was not easy to access in my youth is GOOD prep advice up and down. Now we have a fairly exclusive group of people that can really cut the learning process time down dramatically. I'm not talking about the kid with an online training cert or a health club p/t with a little piece of nutritional knowledge. I'm referring to the elite trainer/ prep coaches like those on anasci and other boards. Don't know any of them personally but have read quite a bit of their strategies. Looked at some of the before and after shots of clients and have to say many are astounding. It would be great to see some guys that are older And have never really achieved the condition that would like go ahead and do it. For those who want to but don't know how. Read and assimilate all you can. If that is not your cup of tea let someone do it for you and eliminate guess work and wasted time. When I say wasted time I'm talking trial and error. Reading and learning is never a waste of time. So I'm hoping at the end of the summer there will be a bunch of gray haired(if you have any) guys big, lean or ripped feeling good about the payo for all those hard years of training. I have never retained a trainer such as those in anasci's trainers forum. I did have a going training business some years back. While I have quite a bit of learned Knowledge from 33-34 years of being in and around iron sports I feel almost a beginner when I look at the training and dietary guidelines of some of the great trainer /coaches. Great stu. I see many techniques these guys/girls use that took me years to learn through trial and error. That's what really go t my attention. I knew quite a bit about what works. The trainers in the training forum are on a different level. Really eliminating dietary guess work I'm ready to improve learn new and better ways and move forward in 2013. Every now and then I like to do something for me. Waited till 2013 to decide to use a trainer/coach . A new rst for me about to begin in the upcoming weeks. Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks.
Til next time happy training and happy eating ~Turbobusa
**From the 2nd issue of the AnaSCI Newsletter