I have a difficult situation with my dad, that may or may not be needed acted upon.
My 70 year old dad has started lifting weights (barbells/dumbbells/machines) 2-3x per week for the past almost calendar year. He is in partial remission (diagnosed in 2019) for multiple myeloma, and has lost some muscle strength and muscle function since diagnosis and treatment.
He is consistent, which is great. I’m programming for him with a reasonable starting place based off his preferences and response to training.
Basically, he does not want to add weight to all exercises despite the sets being easier than when he first started. When I ask him why not, he says he’s good with not adding weight without clarifying why. I have attempted to ask the main reasons why, and how he came to that conclusion, etc. To no avail.
I don’t know if this is something that should be addressed considering he is lifting consistently, but I want him to become stronger over time and maintain his independent functioning (he consistently sits up out of a chair with use of his hands on his thighs). He wants to gain some upper body mass, maintain independent functioning, and become stronger.
I haven’t been able to gleam if he is worried about being injured or believes that maintaining his strength is good enough (which it very well could be enough).
Given your coaching experience with clients, are there ways you’ve approached this? On the other hand, maybe I should leave this be.
Would he be interested in adding reps and/or reducing rest periods? How about making the exercise harder by adding a pause or altering the tempo (much slower or much faster)?
You’re correct in wanting your dad to engage in progressive loading. However, there’s a small chance he’s teaching you something here…
Let’s say I’m coaching you and you have a 400 pound 1-RM squat. On the first week of the program, you squat 75% (300) for 4 sets of 4 @ RPE 7 for all sets. Next week, you squat 300 again for 4 sets of 4, and it’s about the same RPE. Fast forward 3 weeks and you’re still squatting 300 x 4 x 4, but now it’s RPE 5.
My thought here is that the intensity is still viable for improving strength, as 300 likely represents ~ 65% 1RM. I can’t make a strong case that doing 70% makes you stronger than 65%, or 75% stronger than 70%, or 80% stronger than 65%. In other words, I think as long as someone is in the range of “viable intensities” for the goal they’re working towards, small granular differences don’t matter that much.
Thank you for the thoughtful and detailed response.
Exactly. He kinda self organized his rest periods (I told him initially to rest about 3 minutes, but I think his approach is possible better for his context) so he performs the sets when he feels ready. I could maybe ask him to time his rest periods so they are shorter than they are now, but I don’t know if he cares enough to lol.
I think adding reps is a viable idea. Maybe I can program parts of his program (like isolation exercises) so he performs 3 sets of a certain weight till he reaches an RPE 8, as an example. For his “main lifts”, as long as it’s heavy enough a rep is a rep as you’ve said.
No right answer of course, but I think I can play with some things here like adding reps, and seeing how he responds!
I’ve just been listening to podcast [NODE=“264”]Performance-Adjusted Excellence v2[/NODE] which included a brief discussion on older person training, and I was thinking about making a general comment on this when I came across your post.
Speaking as an older lifter (67 years old), who started lifting about 4 years ago after a lifetime of inactivity and a sedentary job, and after a fatal heart attack and then dealing with prostate cancer; getting older puts a increasingly strong focus on longevity, which is perhaps why your dad has started lifting in the first place.
Self confidence and maintaining “face” in the eyes of one’s son may be something to consider, as well perhaps his belief that age limit’s one’s ability to progress, and that “this is as good as it gets”; that progress equals the fact that the effort expended in lifting is reducing over time.
As you’d be aware, motivation is driven by one’s perception of what is possible. Our generation has grown up understanding that it’s a down-hill ride after 40. But, it’s just not true that that age limits your ability to get stronger.
I know you want him to get stronger, but its more important that he want wants to get stronger, and believes that he can.
Small wins such as those suggested by Dr Feigenbaum might be the way to encourage progress without the risk to his self confidence or to the embarrassment of perceived failure, if these are the issue.
It’s great that you obviously care a lot about your dad, so be patient and positive and celebrate the fact that he’s been lifting consistently for a considerable period of time; this demonstrates a significant degree of commitment, and that’s a lot better than most our age! And don’t be surprised when he tells you he’s added some weight when you weren’t watching.