60 is the new 40? Training Regimen for Old Farts

Discussion on the three big Chinese internals, Yiquan, Bajiquan, Piguazhang and other similar styles.

Re: 60 is the new 40? Training Regimen for Old Farts

Postby Alexatron on Sun Nov 23, 2014 11:34 am

This is a topic dear to my heart. I'm 51 and have watched my peers grow old around me. Most of them started in their 30's or 40's with statements like "Oh well I'm too old now to be trying that".

IMHO in addition to all the great stuff previously mentioned I believe maintaining a young outlook is extremely important. Don't stagnate. Take up new hobbies, try new things, create new memories. If you find your conversation consists only of relating old war stories then it's time to get out there and create some new ones. Don't hang out with 'old minded' people because they'll age you quicker than anything. I feel mentally and physically exhausted after a visit to my mother and sister because they're full of advise like "you're not as young as you used to be", "you need to slow down", "Don't over do it". Needless to say I limit those visits to once or twice a year and always hit the skate park afterwards. On the physical side I believe hitting the rock climbing gym is a great addition to one's overall fitness regime. You'll find muscles you didn't know you had there.

Inspiring to read what some of you guys are doing.
A boast is a gift to the enemy
- Chiun, Master of Sinanju
User avatar
Alexatron
Anjing
 
Posts: 228
Joined: Tue May 20, 2014 11:18 pm
Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Re: 60 is the new 40? Training Regimen for Old Farts

Postby amor on Sun Nov 23, 2014 12:13 pm

Alexatron wrote:
IMHO in addition to all the great stuff previously mentioned I believe maintaining a young outlook is extremely important. Don't stagnate. Take up new hobbies, try new things, create new memories. If you find your conversation consists only of relating old war stories then it's time to get out there and create some new ones. Don't hang out with 'old minded' people because they'll age you quicker than anything. I feel mentally and physically exhausted after a visit to my mother and sister because they're full of advise like "you're not as young as you used to be", "you need to slow down", "Don't over do it". Needless to say I limit those visits to once or twice a year and always hit the skate park afterwards. On the physical side I believe hitting the rock climbing gym is a great addition to one's overall fitness regime. You'll find muscles you didn't know you had there.

.


Getting old is a depressing time, one of The most actually and I do regret not having started my IMA training earlier in life. But I do vaguely recall a hsing-i master who started at 60 so that does fill me with hope -shrug-
Last edited by amor on Sun Nov 23, 2014 12:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.
amor
Wuji
 
Posts: 640
Joined: Thu May 23, 2013 4:40 am

Re: 60 is the new 40? Training Regimen for Old Farts

Postby dspyrido on Sun Nov 23, 2014 10:13 pm

There are some great life routines posted here but they deal a lot with the physical realm of good cardio, smart stretching & controlled weights (which is really really important).

But watching vids of old fellas like this always makes me wonder about the C word (Chi Gung that is).

http://rumsoakedfist.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=22581

Ok instead of Chi how about meditation, letting go of stress and feeling in the moment. I doubt there are any clinical studies (well maybe there are) but something tells me that this plays an important part in ageing well. I've know some angry 60 year olds that have moved on and have met 90 something year olds that just seem to potter on in life happy doing little things. For those who are 60+ does this matter? If so what are you doing to help this along?
User avatar
dspyrido
Wuji
 
Posts: 2474
Joined: Sun Jan 11, 2009 5:03 am

Re: 60 is the new 40? Training Regimen for Old Farts

Postby Ian on Sun Nov 23, 2014 11:26 pm

dspyrido wrote:Even though steve sometimes likes to fling mud at TMA & is loud about doing mma he probably owes a decent part of his aged ability to his TMAs heritage (or genetics or a ruthless view on training). Sure he is inquisitive and insightful which has led him to move differently to mma but it's unlikely from mma. MMA in the sense of the sports application is a terrible practice for longevity. Hell fun but very damaging especially when practiced with intensity.

But you seem to know steve - what would he recommend?


Your assumptions are off.

If you're interested, you should seek Steve (or his material) out directly, e.g One on One: HIT for Fighters, the isometrics dvd, private lessons if you visit the UK.

Steve goes deep into how to reach peak performance while remaining injury-free, which is something every martial artist, regardless of age or style, should be concerned about... you would think...
Last edited by Ian on Sun Nov 23, 2014 11:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Ian

 

Re: 60 is the new 40? Training Regimen for Old Farts

Postby dspyrido on Mon Nov 24, 2014 5:12 am

Sounds interesting - I'll start with the DVD's before booking a flight.

And yes I am very interested in remaining injury free. Well at least avoiding chronic injuries due to bad training habits. Luckily avoiding trips to the hospital in pursuit of a hobby still seems possible but alas injuries seem to be a part of training with competitive guys.
User avatar
dspyrido
Wuji
 
Posts: 2474
Joined: Sun Jan 11, 2009 5:03 am

Re: 60 is the new 40? Training Regimen for Old Farts

Postby liokault on Sun Nov 30, 2014 5:27 pm

I think testosterone loss is a big part of this.

Watch more porn, don't jack off, I read that watching porn every night, but only ejaculating every third day is optimal.

My wife was not impressed!
liokault
Great Old One
 
Posts: 1074
Joined: Fri Jul 09, 2010 8:00 am

Re: 60 is the new 40? Training Regimen for Old Farts

Postby Ron Panunto on Mon Dec 01, 2014 1:28 pm

I just turned 70 this past October and for the past few years I have concentrated on weight training for strength and bone density. I've never done much stretching because I don't think it's really good for you. I work a 3 day split routine: Upper body day: Incline barbell presses, 3 sets of 12; Incline dumbbell flys, 3 sets of 12; Barbell rows, 3 sets of 12; Standing dumbbell flys, 3 sets of 12; Hand grip squeezes, 3 sets of 25; waist twists, 1 set of 50; crunches, 1 set of 50. Lower body day: Leg extensions, 3 sets of 12; Leg curls, 3 sets of 12; Dead lifts, 3 sets of 12; Hack squats, 3 sets of 12; Calf raises, 3 sets of 30; waist twists, 1 set of 50; crunches, 1 set of 50. Aerobic day: 20 minutes on running machine on maximum incline at 3.5 mph.

So I typically do an lower body workout on day 1, followed by an upper body workout the next day, followed by an aerobic workout on the next day, ad infinitum. I do Chen and Yang taiji forms, Bagua circle walking and long pole work whenever I get a chance, usually on weekends.

Whenever I can get to 12 reps, I add weight. I used to do heavier weights for only 8 reps, but kept inflaming my tendons, so the Dopc said back off on weight and increase reps - it's been good so far. I also used to run quite a bit up to 1/2 marathons, but had to give it up because of sore knees.

The older I get the more I enjoy physical effort, because there really isn't much else to do at my age. I'm also still working an average of 20 -30 hours/week and will continue to do so until about 75.
Ron Panunto
Wuji
 
Posts: 1310
Joined: Tue May 13, 2008 6:33 am
Location: Langhorne, PA, USA

Re: 60 is the new 40? Training Regimen for Old Farts

Postby Taste of Death on Mon Dec 01, 2014 3:31 pm

47 years old

M - hindu push ups 5 x 20
one arm push up/alternate grip pull up/pistol squat 3 x 1, 2, 3 (18L/18R)
one hour run with negative split
han shi yi quan (zhan zhuang, shi li, bu fa, mo ca bu)

T - one hour run with negative split
han shi yi quan

W - hindu push ups 5 x 20
two hour run with 5 one arm push ups each arm every 10 minutes (60L/60R)
han shi yi quan

Th - han shi yi quan

F - hindu push ups 5 x 20
one arm push up/alternate grip pull up/pistol squat 3-4 x 1, 2, 3 (18L/18R)
one hour run with negative split
han shi yi quan

Sa - two hour run
han shi yi quan

Su - han shi yi quan
Last edited by Taste of Death on Mon Dec 01, 2014 3:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"It was already late. Night stood murkily over people, and no one else pronounced words; all that could be heard was a dog barking in some alien village---just as in olden times, as if it existed in a constant eternity." Andrey Platonov
User avatar
Taste of Death
Wuji
 
Posts: 1476
Joined: Thu Jan 23, 2014 11:07 pm
Location: Phoenix, AZ

Re: 60 is the new 40? Training Regimen for Old Farts

Postby liokault on Wed Dec 03, 2014 10:03 am

dspyrido wrote:Sounds interesting - I'll start with the DVD's before booking a flight.

And yes I am very interested in remaining injury free. Well at least avoiding chronic injuries due to bad training habits. Luckily avoiding trips to the hospital in pursuit of a hobby still seems possible but alas injuries seem to be a part of training with competitive guys.



I found this, it might be interesting to you:



http://www.excelsiorgroup.co.uk/blog/em ... eve-morris


I trained with Steve Morris at Arthur Meek's Bristol Gym on Saturday. There was a mixture of guys in the gym, some who had trained with Steve before, some who hadn't, and from a variety of Martial Arts backgrounds.

This was more of an Introduction to the Morris Method of training, concentrating on effective stand up fighting, and this involves a lot of learning by doing. Steve sets up the drill, explains the rationale and off you go. As you are doing something right or not so good, he will let you know, and why.

He has been writing on his blog recently about heavy bag work and also isometric work to increase punching power, I was doing some of this before the lesson started and he helped me with that. Another guy was doing some static stretching and Steve explained why this wasn't the most effective method of preparing for a session- so he showed us a way of stretching the leg using a pole or other hard horizontal surface. By rotating the shin along the pole and using the arms as you would when kicking and by coming up on the supporting foot you are: conditioning the leg; rehearsing the skill that is to follow; and increasing your range of movement. This is different from sitting on the floor in box splits and not rehearsing anything.

The key points that I picked up on are as follows- other people may have picked up on different things, Steve goes around the gym picking up people as a group and also as individuals, so there is a lot of information being processed.

•The session then started with some warm up drills - moving around the gym- mostly on the feet because it was a stand up session, but also some floor work to show what we could do before a groundwork or takedown session.
•5 minutes of emptying the tank work- punchbag carries, medicine ball throws, pulling and dragging another person, resisted sprints. Most fights end up being done in a fatigued state or the effects of adrenaline or fear alter what you can do, so you need to practice in that state. The session then reinforces simple, gross motor patterns that you can rely on when you need them, rather than being very intricate and it goes out of the window when it counts.
•skipping- not mindless activity, but co ordination, putting in bursts and more complicated movements.
•shadow boxing- a major part of the session. Visualising the fight inside your head , so you have to defocus your eyes, rather than focus on a point in the gym 5 metres away. The use of vocalisation of effort, in time, out of time, not a repetitive beat. Let the vocalisation set your body's tempo because it will make it move faster. This vocalisation later becomes a form of encouragement when you are fatigued, and also a way of contracting the body when you are getting hit. We also worked on footwork, using the excuse me step to adjust your position around the attacker and also to break rhythm from block to attack, or to move from punch to kick. It ensures that each attack is a separate bullet, not piggybacking from the previous attack and therefore being less effective. The movement has to be focussed on the attacker, not dancing around aimlessly- you have to go to where the attacker is, you have to fight him.
•Using the head to initiate movement- the head helps us move faster and in the direction we want to go. We threw a football at a wall using hip action, arms or violently throwing the head first- the head movement definitely makes the whole action more powerful. Compare this with standing still and being told to keep your head perfectly still and rotate around the hips. Try any kick or punch where your head is moving (always keeping your eyes on the opponent) and then when you have to keep it still.This is learning from feedback- you can see the ball bouncing off the wall faster when you are using your head action.
•Pad work- here the pad man is key, he isn't just a stooge, he helps replicate the fight, and he is training himself too. We started off with hand fighting, finding distance, then throwing shots at the pads or the body armour hard. The pad man can then initiate clinches or kick you with push aways, but obviously not with full power. We then moved to making the punches and kicks twice as hard by having the pad man attack our strike with their pads. This effectively doubles the impact of the strike. Steve used the analogy of having a car hit a tree at 60mph, you will fly out of the window. If you hit another car also travelling at 60mph, the impact is 120mph. Having the pad man hit your strikes with the pad means that you are both getting more conditioning.
•We finished off with clinch work, moving into the clinch, avoiding getting butted, and then looking to get the opponent off balance for throw downs. Throw downs are better for stand up fighters because they can look to strike when the opponent is off balance, rather than fight the floor. This was done with everyone in the gym, and as you know, wrestling and grappling is pretty tiring.
•But not tiring enough- as Steve said there were still a few vapours of gas left in the tank! 50 press ups, 50 sit ups, 40 pull ups (with a jump) using the girder in the gym, then neck strengthening exercise with a partner. Then the last 5 minutes of shadow boxing, putting everything together. Then the tank was empty.
Nearly 4 hours of training, in a hot gym (picture quality is poor) and buzzing at the end. The key is to take those points and maintain them when I next train. Then look to increase that again.
liokault
Great Old One
 
Posts: 1074
Joined: Fri Jul 09, 2010 8:00 am

Previous

Return to Xingyiquan - Baguazhang - Taijiquan

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 29 guests