“The young man knows the rules but the old man knows the exceptions.”
- Oliver Wendell Holmes

Al Oerter was one of the greatest competitive athletes who ever walked the face of the earth. Oerter won four Olympic gold medals in the discus throw from 1956 through 1968, and he hit the biggest throw of his career (227'10) when he was 43 years old. Prior to competing in his fourth Olympic Games, an interviewer asked Oerter, then 32, how he had been able to continue improving his distances after so many grueling years of training. Oerter’s reply was simple: “Attention to detail.”

Whether the sport is discus throwing, Olympic weightlifting, cross-country running, wrestling or volleyball, Al Oerter’s response is a vitally important concept to all athletes who continue to train and compete into their older adult years. It is no secret that the aging process of the human body is counterproductive to most forms of athletic performance. This is why sixty year-old people don’t win Olympic gold medals. Every athlete experiences a period of time referred to as their “prime” when they achieve their greatest competitive results. For a vast majority of athletes in various sports, their prime occurs in their twenties. But then the years begin to pass; lower testosterone production, reduced flexibility, mental frustration, and an increased number of nagging injuries cause millions of athletes to stop training and retire from competition. This is the normal course of events in sports. However, there are also many athletes like Al Oerter who simply decide to dig in their heels and find a way to stay competitive as they get older. These are the athletes, like 41 year-old Olympic swimmer Dara Torres, who receive that special nod of respect from the media and the athletic community because they have defied the ultimate enemy of every athlete... old age. This article will focus on effective strategies for athletes who want to extend their athletic careers into their thirties, forties, and beyond.

Technical Perfection and Training Considerations

All athletic activities are dependent on proper technique. Some of these techniques, such as Al Oerter’s discus throw, are incredibly complex and require years of training to master. All athletes and coaches will agree that solid technique is essential for success, but older athletes will discover that technical mastery becomes even more important in the later years. The examination of sports technique could be individualized for any discipline, but the examples in this article will focus on Olympic Weightlifting.

Because of the nature of the sport, Olympic Weightlifting places amazing stress on the athlete’s physiology. The snatch and clean and jerk are movements that incorporate all of the muscles, bones, nerves, connective tissues, and joint mechanisms in the body. All of these components must work together with maximum exertion and precision to lift the heaviest weights possible. When the Olympic lifts are performed correctly, the risk for physical injury and damage is actually lower than the movements of many other sports. This does not mean that it is impossible to get hurt in Olympic Weightlifting, of course. It would be irresponsible to suggest this. The sport involves a combination of massive poundages and amazing force production, which are two factors that can potentially lead to injuries. However, it is obvious that the chances of muscle pulls, ligament strains, etc. are drastically reduced when the athlete’s technique is efficient.

When a snatch or a clean and jerk is performed incorrectly, the body is placed under greater stress. For example, suppose there is an athlete who has a technical problem with keeping the bar locked out overhead in the snatch. The athlete performs snatch after snatch where the bar is being held inefficiently over the head in a position that is either too far behind the ears or too far in front of the ears. Because the athlete has a strong upper body, he/she can “muscle” the bar and complete successful snatches. And because the athlete is completing successful snatches, it appears that the lifts are being performed properly. The incorrect position might even be minor and seemingly insignificant enough to escape the concern of the coach. Then the athlete continues to snatch, strength gains yield greater performances, and everything seems hunky-dory. The athlete may even be talented and determined enough to rise to a championship level using this inefficient technique. Furthermore, the athlete might be able to win a national championship, make an Olympic Team, and retire before this technical problem causes any significant injuries. So where is the problem?

This is exactly where older athletes need to be warned. Consider this hypothetical athlete with the snatch lockout problem and imagine that this athlete decides to continue training and competing on a long-term basis. The problem will eventually begin to surface because the athlete is performing year after year of heavy snatches with technique that is placing extra stress on the elbows, shoulders, and wrists. Even though the athlete is experiencing success, there are still tiny bits of unnecessary pounding on the upper body that simply accumulate over time. At some point, all of this pounding will add up to an increased risk of injury. This is why technical perfection is so important for older athletes. When the body moves in the correct positions, this chance of injury is greatly reduced. Good coaching and video analysis are useful tools for fighting this situation. If a technical glitch begins to appear in the snatch or clean and jerk, the athlete has to find a way to correct the problem before it becomes a permanent part of his/her technique.

Along with technical considerations such as these, the concept of training programs for older athletes must be examined as well. There are dozens of individual variables that must be addressed to plan a successful program for an older athlete, and this article will not attempt to analyze each of them. Instead, the focus here will be directed at one very simple idea that older athletes absolutely must reckon with: training at forty-five is much different from training at twenty-five. For a variety of different physiological reasons, the human body will usually have more obstacles to overcome in the older years. Testosterone production has slowed down and years of physical activity have stressed the body. The analogy of an automobile makes the situation easy to understand. A brand new car that has 200 miles on the odometer will require significantly less maintenance and attention than a car that is twenty years old and has 250,000 miles on it. And if the older car’s 250,000 miles have been hard off-roading miles that have placed significant stress on the shocks, suspension, and engine, much like twenty years of Olympic lifting places significant stress on the knees, back and elbows, then the end result will be a car/body with a great deal of rust, dents, and scar tissue.

If a forty-five year old athlete attempts to use the same volume, intensity, and workout frequency that he/she used when they were twenty-five, the results will probably be extremely frustrating. This one specific factor is the death knell for many athletes because they cannot believe that they will be successful if they reduce their training load. Athletes who trained six days a week when they were in their prime often refuse to accept the proposition that they could have continued success by only training two or three times a week. It simply does not seem like enough work is being done. However, older athletes who actually stick it out and attempt to train using a humbling two-days-per-week training program frequently discover that there are outstanding gains to be made by reducing the workload. Now, the concept of recovery enters the discussion.

Elements of Recovery

The physiological principles of muscle recovery are not the focus here. Miles and miles of scientific information have been published in the areas of cell repair, tissue restoration, glandular production, nervous system adaptation, and several other medical subjects. Any athlete interested in improved performance should have, at the very least, a fundamental knowledge of these areas. Once these principles are a part of the athlete’s training vocabulary, the next step is to find practical methods that will enhance the body’s ability to build itself back up after strenuous workouts. Clearly, supplementation is one of the most important and controversial methods in this realm. The consumer market is richly saturated with pills, powders, and creams that make impressive claims about their ability to rejuvenate the body and make training easier for the athlete. Their terminology, ingredients, and product names can be confusing and, in some cases, deliberately misleading.

However, one point that is still very clear is that the body has a strong need for protein to rebuild and replenish muscle tissue after hard training. There are many ways to ingest the appropriate amount of protein ranging from bland whole foods to nutrition bars that taste like candy. Most athletes, particularly in weightlifting, will likely agree that whey protein powder is an outstanding training aid. Whey protein can be mixed with a variety of different fluids such as water, milk, and fruit juices. Many athletes who are attempting to gain weight will scoop whey protein powder into a blender along with milk, bananas, peanut butter, eggs, and a wide range of other high-protein substances to make milkshakes. These protein shake recipes have been in use since Arnold Schwarzenegger’s bodybuilding days and beyond, and millions of athletes continue to take advantage of their benefits. Athletes who are not attempting to gain weight can reap the same benefits of whey protein powder by mixing it with water.

Along with protein to restrengthen the muscles, the last twenty years have seen a dramatic rise in athletes (and ordinary citizens) using joint-building supplements to enhance the long-term health of their connective tissue and cartilage. Supplements containing glucosamine and chondroitin have experienced a huge spike in their sales because many athletes are wisely seeking ways to not only build strong muscles, but also protect their joint tissue. Among older athletes, these substances have become particularly popular. They can be located at any Walgreens and are relatively inexpensive. As athletes make the decision to continue training and competing into advanced years, preserving the knees, wrists, elbows, and shoulders will be of paramount importance. These are the areas where the majority of nagging, potentially career-ending injuries take place. Using supplements such as Flex-a-min, which is a combination of glucosamine, chondroitin, MSM, and hyaluronic acid is a simple, effective way to stabilize these areas. Along with these supplements, fish oil is a tremendously beneficial supplement that not only regulates cholesterol but decreases overall pain and inflammation. Fish oil is a supplement that is popular not only with athletes, but with the general population. Various studies have connected it with improved cardiovascular health, brain function, and protection from strokes. There are major life benefits associated with it, along with the athletic benefits of decreased inflammation.

These products should be seriously considered by any athletes who plan to continue their sport’s demanding training into older adult years. Still, there are even larger lifestyle considerations that must be reckoned with once the athlete passes the magical age of twenty-five. To state it very simply, older athletes absolutely have to pay closer attention to good nutrition if they want to be successful. This is an area where younger athletes generally have a much larger margin of error to play with. Because the body is producing so many hormones in the younger years and the long-term joint stress is still at a minimum, younger athletes can often be successful despite using horrible nutritional plans. Massive natural testosterone production will sometimes allow the muscles to recover even though they are not receiving the proper nutrients. This means that achieving high performance while living on pizza, ice cream, hamburgers, Samuel Adams lager and tacos is possible for a twenty-two year old athlete, provided the athlete has strong genetics and hormonal output. There are even some extremely rare cases where an athlete with amazing genetics can continue performing at a high level into the older years while eating a poor diet. The legendary Norb Schemansky once said that he spent his competitive career living on hamburgers, pizza, and beer. Obviously, Norb’s accomplishments in his later years are historical landmarks in Olympic Weightlifting. However, it must be freely admitted that most athletes are not Norb Schemansky. Spending some time looking at photographs of Norb’s physique, along with a photo of him split snatching 362 pounds when he was 38 years old, will convince anyone that he was simply born different. This is one reason why he was able to get away with questionable nutrition and still win Olympic medals, along with his amazing work ethic and supreme mental toughness. The point here is that the vast majority of older athletes will have to look for every advantage to speed up recovery, and nutrition is the first item on that list.

Mind and Spirit

It may appear simplistic to discuss, but the mental issues of training as an older athlete are quite significant and cannot be understated. First, athletes have to assess why they want to continue training and competing in older years. These answers will be completely individualized. Some athletes will have tangible goals that they have not fulfilled, such as winning a national championship or competing in an Olympic Trials. Other athletes may set their sights on success in the masters division where they are able to compete against other athletes in their same age brackets. And then, there will always be athletes who continue to train and compete into their later years because they simply love what they do. These are the athletes who see their sporting life as an essential component of their souls. The idea of living a life without going to the gym every week and setting their sights on an upcoming competition is empty for these people. To them, training and pushing their bodies is not a chore. It is a spiritual experience where they feel more alive and joyful than any other place in the world.

Most athletes do not continue past their twenties. They decide to push their athletic lives as hard as they can while they are young and then retire from competition and get on with other pursuits in life such as career, family, etc. It is obvious that they will not be lifting as much weight when they are forty-five and they see no reason to continue training if they have no chance of competing at the sport’s highest levels. There is nothing wrong with this approach. It will certainly eliminate a large block of time, stress, and physical pain from life’s equation. However, if an athlete is mentally willing to accept going to a weightlifting meet at thirty-eight and snatching fifteen kilos less than he/she did at twenty-eight, then it is entirely possible to juggle the real-life areas of career, family, and training. It will require skillful time management, personal discipline, high pain tolerance, and more attention to detail than ever before. But it is possible. Al Oerter is not the only athlete who has achieved a shining moment in his older years. There have been others, and there will continue to be more. They will be the athletes who successfully attacked every conceivable element of their training, conquered their mental obstacles, and never lost sight of the belief that there were more mountains to climb.