Training when you start to get older? I get some questions about it. And the answer? It depends.
If you played college athletics and it was a contact sport that you played, you most likely will have lingering injuries from those sports. If you powerlifted competitively or weightlifted competitvely, you are gonna be banged up some, so all training has to be adjusted accordingly. If you were not a competitive athlete, you can probably push hard and be fine.
If you just took some karate lessons and then talked about it forever and never put yourself out there, you'll be fine. Train like crazy.
I have known people who will, not under any circumstances, change things around in their training, meaning that they must squat, bench and deadlift no matter what. Although those exercises are beneficial, you can do variations of those exercises and still get a whole lot out of them.
Here is the deal- you must train what you can train. Put your ego aside. At some point these surgeries become worse than the injury itself.
I broke my elbow in 1987. over time it became more and more stiff, The surgeon was so cocky before surgery, After? "Your elbow is the most screwed up thing that I have ever seen. ", he said.
Whatever. I knew going in to playing football that I'd probably end up messed up. Didn't care at all.
But it changes the way that you train. Let me state this clearly:If you never try to do anything different than the citizenry , you will never get hurt.
I train Division One wrestlers. They are all always sore and hurting. Zero complaints, zero grimaces, zero quitting. It's amazing. They have been doing this stuff since they were so young that they just accept it. You can't be elite and be healthy. Think about it. Everyone that you know who did great things is messed up. I'm talking about heavy duty stuff. Everyone that you know that is an all america or something like that has crazy mental or physical trauma. I'm talking about football, mma, lacrosse, wrestling. Your body will never forgive you, but it was damn fun while it lasted and you were in the arena! Not sitting on the sidelines criticizing the amazing souls who ventured forward. Anyone who criticizes those that strive is a loser for sure. But I digress.
So train what is healthy, let the past go, realize your limitations. push when you can, kill negative thoughts, get rid of vampires who suck your life blood, realize that being strong comes in many ways, and train every day. Do something every single day even if it is doing 10 pushups when you wake up. that's nothing? Seventy a week, 280 a month. Better than not doing anything and starting Monday. Train when you can't, train when the days are short and the nights are long, train when your girl cheats on you, train when you can barely walk, train when the president is getting slapped by a terrorist organization, train when there are surgeries or deaths. Train when you are so hungover that the last thing that you want to do is train. Realize that will, only WILL is what matters. Let go of the BS and train, walk in and train, wake up and TRAIN, go in the woods and train.
So the moral is this: Get it done every day, get it done because you are better than everyone else who just talks. Pull your hat down low, put on Slayer's latest and grab it and go.
