Raise your hand if you are slightly depressed that the Olympics are over.
Same here.
Technically I was alive for the 1976 games in Montreal but I was too young to remember them.
In 1980 I recall the controversy surrounding the US boycott of the Moscow games but given that we didn’t participate I don’t even know if they were broadcast on TV.
But by the Los Angeles games in 1984, I was all in. I remember watching Carl Lewis and developing a crush on Mary Lou Retton and wanting to collect those little enamel pins for each event that everyone seemed to be trading out in Southern California.
So, for the last 40 years (JESUS CHRIST!) I spend two weeks every four Summers huddled around my television watching sports I have no interest in watching at any other time and getting teary-eyed over some upset win, family celebration or just the majesty of it all.
It’s easy to get emotional over the Olympics.
Not so interestingly, the very first blog post I wrote for this platform was titled “7 Incredible Moments From The Olympics” and highlighted some of the lesser-known achievements from the games in Rio eight years ago. If it didn’t suck I would link it here. But it did, so I won’t.
One of the things that has become remarkably clear watching the games the past few decades is - in the words of Wooderson from “Dazed and Confused” - I get older and the athletes stay the same age.
It may seem obvious that the height of athletic development peaks much closer to your mid-20s than your mid-50s. So much so that if there was a 53 year-old sprinter or a 47 year-old gymnast it would absolutely be the top story of the event.
Even the arguably greatest gymnast of all-time, Simone Biles, has earned herself the nickname “Grandma” from her teammates for being the ancient age of 27.
Which leads me to the realization that, as hard as this may be to admit sometimes, I am on the shadow side of the mountain when it comes to performance in the gym.
At 52, it’s just not that likely that I’ll hit any more all-time PRs in the deadlift or bench press or 2k row for my remaining years in the gym.
Just as you won’t see any shot putters throwing their farthest distances in their 50s, same goes for me in the big gym performance markers.
Which begs two questions: is this true for everyone and everything and, if you aren’t improving, what is the point of continuing?
Like a pair of Chinese athletes standing on a 3 meter high springboard, let’s get synchronized and dive in.
Are you in the same boat as I am? Are you all but guaranteed not to hit your max lifts later in life?
The answer is a resounding (but perhaps surprising) “no”.
The biggest factor that determines your specific reality is your training age. Or, in simpler terms, how long you’ve been training.
If you are like me and have been training the major barbell lifts for decades then, sure, you were likely to hit your best numbers in the years when life stress was at its lowest, hormones where at their optimal and injury risk was reduced (which, for most men, is in their 20s or 30s).
However, if you started deadlifting 3 months ago, even though you are in your 60s, you will still see improvements and top end numbers increase for years to come.
And the reasons for this should be obvious. You are still learning the movement. And as you get more confident and experienced you will naturally see performance increase.
Finally, you also just don’t have a baseline from your earlier years to measure yourself against when you were potentially at your strongest. It’s kind of the meathead version of ignorance being bliss.
Another way you could possibly see improvements in your later years is an improvement in skill or technique, a resolution of an injury or a removal of a movement restriction.
If you never really learned to perform power cleans and all of a sudden you work with a coach who helps you improve that skill, your new technique can lead to a significant efficiency which then leads to a better outcome.
Same goes for finally rehabbing an injury or gaining mobility or range of motion you previously lacked. If you never really had the thoracic mobility to keep a proper position to deadlift off the floor and you fix that you can very likely see that manifest itself in heavier lifts.
But let’s say none of that is true. You’ve got a long training history, your skill and technique are as good as they are going to get and you have nothing to fix.
You can no longer overload your system compared to your past self so why keep going?
The answer is simple and important.
As you get older, strength qualities and energy systems decay very rapidly. Your ability to produce power, maintain muscle mass and create aerobic output fade faster than Soulja Boy’s career.
It truly is a matter of “if you don’t use it you lose it”. And if remaining mobile and capable and functional and injury-resistant is important to you (and it should be as longevity is about more than just staying alive) training these qualities and capabilities, even when they aren’t at your all time highest, is more important than it even was in the past.
If you are a lifelong gym rat is the thought of not seeing your maximum weights on the bar or your lowest mile time painful? Sure, it can be.
But I like to approach it differently. With gratitude that I can still be in the gym, that my body is still capable to move and be strong and that I get to be surrounded by people I enjoy training with.
I’m even getting to the point where I can tell stories about how I benched 170kg or won such-and-such a competition when I was “your age” and people have to politely tolerate it.
Unlike a planned retirement party where they give you a gold watch and send you on your way, the last day you walk out of the gym or have the ability to place your kid on your shoulders or lift your heaviest weights aren’t as predictable. Rather than a date to be circled on the calendar they roll by you like a fog. Almost unnoticeable at the time and only something to be reminisced upon once the moment is gone.
But whether you are on your way up or on the way down it doesn’t really matter.
The best advice I can give you is to simply enjoy the view from wherever you are on the mountain.