Setting goals for older lifters

Medical Q&A [Moderated]
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What kinds of goals should an older lifter set, and how should they (generally) be modified as one gets older? I know the emphasis that you put on gainzzz, but as a person who is soon to turn 60, I’m wondering how much longer I can push for those weekly (or so) increases in weight, either in terms of volume or intensity.

You may have heard the phrase that older folks are “volume sensitive, intensity dependent”. I’m not sure this is the case.

For example, I’ve been working out regularly for more than three years now. Recently I’ve been able to complete some training cycles, in which at one point, my deadlift ended up maxing out at 1x3x345, but at a later time, when I worked toward volume, I was able to do 3x5x325. So I could handle at least that kind of volume increase.

Frequently these cycles would come to an end when I’d have to travel or had some other (usually work-related) interruption in training for a few days or a week or so. Then I’d start again and work back up. I’ve had similar experiences with my other lifts.

I should add that I’ve recently had a job change that moved me from being mostly sedentary (at a desk all day) to one that’s got me walking pretty much 8 hours in a work shift, with plenty of movement and lifting.

As a result of this job change, I had an interruption in workouts that lasted for a couple of months, while I adjusted to the added stresses. I’d still get to the gym once or twice a week, but I’d miss some weeks, too, and it was hard to keep it regular.

I’m back up to 3x per week now for a couple of months, at somewhat lower weights than before, but I still want to lift heavier. I’m 6’2”, 203 lbs. As a young man, I was always lanky, but in recent years, my weight got up to around 240. Most of that weight was around my waist, but I’ve lost a lot of it. (Still around 42” at the biggest point). My recent lipid panel has shown quite a bit of improvement:

Cholesterol: 182 (has been as high as 204

HDL: 47 (in past years was 31)

Ratio: 3.9

LDL, Calculated: 118 (I eat lots of butter)

Triglycerides: 80 (has been as high as 247 in the past)

Non-HDL Cholesterol: 135

Glucose: 83

How should I prioritize my goals moving forward?

Thanks!

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Goals are generally arbitrary and highly individual (for example, wanting to achieve a certain performance or compete at a certain level). But if someone doesn’t hold any any of these sorts of goals, we’d revert back to setting goals based on individual health status and disease burden. We have strong evidence that increasing strength, lean body mass (including muscular hypertrophy), and improving cardiorespiratory fitness are all effective means of improving quality of life, reducing disease burden (i.e., morbidity), and reducing mortality. There may be other disease-specific considerations depending on the individual as well (for example, if they have osteoporosis, chronic heart / lung / liver / kidney / autoimmune disease, etc.).

However, as I’m sure you know, there are diminishing returns with respect to these outcomes as you get stronger, more jacked, and more conditioned, to the point where pursuing further increases provide negligible health benefits, and those incremental benefits may not be worth the cost in terms of time and effort invested for the individual – and that’s okay too. If you can deadlift 3 x 5 x 325 at age 60, I suspect you’ve nearly “maxed out” the benefits you’re going to get from additional increases in absolute strength, for example. But from the other information you’ve provided (particularly your waist circumference), it sounds like there’s still some work to do on that front. Your lipid panel looks great, as a non-HDL-C level of 135 is right around the goal for someone who doesn’t have a known history of cardiovascular disease.

Yes, we have heard this phrase, and we have discussed our disagreements with it at length before.

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Thanks Austin!