overly demanding poundages. Alternatively they might pursue different fit-
ness goals altogether.. Heavy weights are not the privilege of only young people. A well-trained
person who has trained most of his life may be able to lift heavier weights in
his fifties and sixties than nearly all drug-free gym members of almost any
age. Rise to the challenge of training yourself to do more late in life than
most people ever do in their youth.. Your value judgements may change as you age. You will probably strive for
different things during different phases of your life. You will not be young
forever, but the beauty of exercise is that you will never cease setting new
goals. If you set challenging but realistic goals, and set about realizing them
in an intelligent way, you will be lined up for a life of achieving goals with all
the accompanying excitement and satisfaction.. If you start training in middle age or later you can achieve a near miracle
in improvement of appearance and internal well-being, if you train appro-
priately, carefully and progressively, and make haste slowly. Over a year you
can transform yourself. But try to do it in just the spring to get ready for the
summer, and you will be on a road to ruin.. While you cannot improve indefinitely, if you train well you can continue to
improve long after you probably think you can. And even when regression
starts, by holding as much strength and conditioning as you can, you will
continue to improve relative to your peers who are deteriorating from an
already much lower base point.. e older you get, the more that time is pressing and the more urgent it is
not to make mistakes. While the young person has plenty of time for mis-
take making, the older trainee does not have that luxury. e older you get,
the smarter, more knowledgeable and careful you need to be.. Choose specific exercises, style of training, and aerobic work that you enjoy.
You may, for example, be a power person interested in short cycles, and bal-
ancing out your exercise program with some regular walking at a fast clip,
and stretching on alternate days. On the other hand you may prefer medium
and high reps, and long cycles, and prefer performing your aerobic work on
a ski machine while watching , and feel better from stretching every day.
e key is to find something you can do safely and enjoyably over the long
haul.