263. The Biggest Strength Training Updates in Years: New ACSM Guidelines

Okay, first I do want to point out before I get into some of the bigger differences, some of the findings that we've kind of already known, but the studies did help double down on.

So I love this one.

It is near and dear to my own heart because I often feel like I get clients or I see especially older women who they feel like they're too far gone, they're too far past, they can't see changes, you know, it's not worth it.

And And the research confirms that that's definitely not true, that you can build and maintain strength at any age.

Yes, you heard me, any age.

There is no age where strength training stops working.

So whether you're 25 or 65 or 75, your muscles can still respond, still adapt, and still grow stronger.

I really love that.

Now, here's the interesting piece to it that it did say, though.

Even though you can continue to get stronger no matter what your age is, you might need to adjust your training requirements.

So it did say the older you get that you need more recovery time and how important that is.

So basically what that's saying is for our older adults, you need more time between each session.

Now, on the flip side, this also means that what you did at 22 is not probably going to work for you the same as if you are 55.

If you were working out six to seven days a week, doing tons of cardio, doing all these lifts, and you try to do the same thing at 50, it's going to backfire.

I have a ton of episodes already on the podcast about this, about how recovery matters.

I'll link some of those in the show notes because you do need time to recover.

That is a huge piece, especially as you go into perimenopause and menopause, and the studies and research show that it matters a little bit more.

Now, with this said, obviously, as you get older, Your intensity can stay high, but your volume might need to come down because you need more rest days.

So you don't need to do less work, but it's just you don't need to do as much work per session to get the same results.

So if you are someone who's doing five to six days a week and you're older and you're actually feeling terrible, you can probably go to three to four days a week, give yourself a little bit more rest, and you're still going to reap the benefits of building muscle and strength training regularly.

You don't have to go as hard.

You can go as hard in each workout, but you might need longer rest between.

So I think that's really important.

So an easy practical takeaway from that is honestly don't let your ego write the checks for your recovery that you can't cash.

You need to prioritize your quality of your movements, the quality of your workouts, the quality of your recovery, especially as you get into your 40s, 50s, and beyond.