Ageing and Heavy Lifting

[Gyakuto]

This is a very nice video about age-related muscle mass loss or rather how particulat fibre types are more susceptible to atrophy with age and how methods to stave it off and even reverse it.

 

[MetalBoar]

This is a very nice video about age-related muscle mass loss or rather how particulat fibre types are more susceptible to atrophy with age and how methods to stave it off and even reverse it.

That is a good video!

I like that he does say that you don't have to lift explosively to recruit the fast twitch fibers, which is a common misunderstanding. I don't like that he spends so much time talking about explosive exercise when this video is at least partially directed at the aging and the elderly. Sure, explosive lifting is safer than a lot of other kinds of exercise, but there's nothing about it that's superior to lifting slow, controlled, and heavy, aside from the novelty factor that he's keen on, and more controlled lifting is much safer.

I also keep running across articles and studies that seem to indicate that you can recruit fast twitch fibers even with relatively low weights and without explosive movements if you train to failure with high volume. I haven't really looked into it much because it sounds like masochism to me! If I'm going to train to failure I'd rather do it with a heavy weight and be done. Still, there are people who are afraid of, or simply dislike, lifting heavy weights who might benefit from a high volume approach, I'm just not one of them and I don't really want to train them either (not judging, it's just a lot more interesting for me to train people in a short duration, high intensity, protocol).