Getting older, cross-training and recovery

Turned 50 last year, pretty sedentary, haven’t consistently exercised regularly in over a decade. I know that, if you’re doing an individual, specific exercise, you need to allow time to recover, but how does that work with different exercises? Gone a bit nuts at the start of April and doing loads of different things (20 minute run, simple weights circuit, boxing class, BJJ, cycle commute, swimming, walking), nothing more than twice a week but it means doing two things most days. Is that bad or at least counter-productive? It’s a quantity of exercise I’ve never done before, but also way more varied – if I feel really tired I’m not afraid to skip a session, but I really don’t want to miss anything (and I wish I had that state of mind 30 years ago!). Like, doing walking, running and cycling aren’t going to be detrimental to my legs, right? Or will I get better gains from doing less?

66 this year. I’ve been doing at least 30 minutes of exercise every day for almost a year now. Sometimes, that will be yoga, stretches, leg and core conditioning. I also bike (MTB, gravel and road) run, swim, do some weights and walk. Running has by far the largest impact on my body so I’m careful not to overdo that, keeping it to around 100km per month. Thankfully, we’re also told that lots of Zone 2 training is really good for us so I to make sure that everything else isn’t too intense, so easier rides and longer walks are a staple for me.

It is important to listen to your body though and, in my efforts to improve/maintain fitness, I’m also much better at making sure I get enough good sleep to aid recovery.

Simon Willis has a pretty good YouTube series on The Older Athlete. You’re not yet close to his age or mine but you might still find some interesting stuff there. Another recommendation would be the Joe Friel book Fast after 50. 

“Like, doing walking, running and cycling aren’t going to be detrimental to my legs, right? ”

IMO unless you are training to achieve a set goal in a particular discipline doing different things is better. Uses different muscles.  Less chance of over training or getting bored.   I would suggest having a full day off a week wouldn’t do any harm. Though I would count a day where I only did walking as a rest day unless it was hillwalking.

I’m in my early 60s and find the main things are it takes longer getting fitness back after you lose it. Don’t ramp up the amount you do too fast. The easiest way to lose fitness is injuring something  which stops you training.

The easiest way to lose fitness is injuring something  which stops you training.

+1 I turn 60 this year & like scotroutes try & do 30mins of some form of exercise everyday, a great believer in walking being very good for you but do need to up my aerobic exercise a bit at the moment without running myself into the ground.

OP sounds like they might be pushing themselves too much but then again they’re only 50

Thanks all – I’ll “steady as she goes”, then! 🙂 Have deffo had days where I’ve felt “that was too much”, but learning what combos of things to avoid to cut them out. Not sure I’m brave enough to test my V02 Max yet! 🙂

It is important to listen to your body though

This, and I can’t stress enough THIS.

It’s about balance. You do need to push yourself but at the same time you need to understand your limits, marginal gains is the way and should avoid injury or general over doing it.

There is also a big difference between your body saying “can’t be arsed” and “no”. Understanding this was a massive step forward for me.

I find that without booze and with plenty sleep I can recover from a lot more than I expect.

However, if my sleep is suffering at all or I’m boozing even a little then I can recover from a lot less than I expect.

This is definitely becoming more and more noticeable as I get older.  I’m fairly certain most people booze a little and/or don’t get as much sleep as they could and this possibly colours the conventional wisdom about how quickly you can recover from exercise.

However, if my sleep is suffering at all or I’m boozing even a little then I can recover from a lot less than I expect.

Kinda double whammy for me, I’ve just turned 50 and find that booze really affects my sleep, so I feel doubly rubbish the next day.

I’m only just still 58.

Find that I lose fitness quicker, and it takes longer to regain.

I use the cardio load and sleep info from my watch to endeavour not to overdo it. Frustrating as a big ride at the weekend can tell me I’m overdoing it for the rest of the week. I probs need to do a couple of shorter rides in the week so I can build my cardiac load a bit more evenly and get to those long rides not blowing me up.

I’m 73 and do 3 6k plus runs per week.  Not fast (6 min/kilometre) Other days or after running I XC mtb or cycle. I seem to have got in a rhythm, but was hard at first. If you stop at my age it takes a lot to get your fitness back.

Plenty of stretching or yoga etc always a good thing.

I’ve just turned sixty and this year am doing a total mix of cycling, running, walking and swimming. I’m also going to the gym more as they say resistance work is vital as you get older. Well that and the fact that while fit from the waist down I could barely open a can of beans.

I’ve found doing stretches (about 20 minutes) each day is great, and recovery days essential. They can be a gentle walk or easy swim.

I’m no longer very fit at one specific thing, but on the other hand my general fitness is better than it’s been in years. It’s also a great excuse for being slow at any specific discipline. “Sorry chaps, I know I’ve been off the back all day but that’s because I’ve been doing more running/swimming/walking etc this year”.

I’ve not long turned 42 so came in here to see what the other old people were saying.

Having read all of the above I’ll go away again🤣

I’d try things and see what works, particularly with recovery. For me, combining a resistance session and a hard bike ride/interval session on the same day works because it means I can use the next day to recover from both. If I try to do one on one day followed by the other a day later, it screws up the recovery from the first and the execution of the second. As you age, your recovery worsens, so you need to punch a little bit more clever, particularly after anything intense.

But generally, yeah, mix it up and do some resistance training or you’ll basically lose muscle mass as you age.

Joe Friel’s book – as mentioned above – Fast After 50 – is really good on the basics of what happens to your body as you age and how you can mitigate the impact with exercise, diet, recovery etc. All of that comes with the proviso that everyone’s slightly different and doing what you enjoy and will keep on doing is always going to be better than mindlessly banging your head against the brick wall of what you ‘ought’ to be doing,

will I get better gains from doing less?

Ooooh, a can of worms. It depends on what you mean by ‘less’. You might get better gains in some areas by doing less volume but more intensity then recovering better maybe using active recovery – gentle stroll, super easy spin – than by simply slogging away doing high volume day after day. As per the Joe Friel book, you should be doing some proper intensity once or twice a week or you’ll lose that top-end.

Some of it depends on what your goals are. General health? Kicking your mates’ butts on a group ride? Strava KOMs? A particular event? Putting on more muscle mass? Losing weight? So… maybe 🙂

But generally doing something and doing something you love doing is pretty much always going to be better than doing nothing with the proviso that doing too much is also a bad thing…

49 on monday, and T2 diabetic following COVID, who controls it with diet and exercise.

You have to remember that your body gets fitter in the recovery phase, you work hard, you recover, you (should) get fitter.

I tend to do 3 turbo trainer workouts working on specific things in the week after work, VO2, or low cadence work etc, 2x strength sessions and 2 long rides or hikes at the weekend always with one day off in the week.

I also work on a pattern of one hard week, one medium week, one hard week, then fourth week is always easy, give the body time to recover.

Listening to your body is very important, but there are some great watches and things like Whoop band to, that show your quality of sleep and set you then a target next day for how hard you can push yourself for the how well you’ve recovered from yesterday, and whilst they are not perfect, i find they are good and making you have that mindset of quality sleep, good recovery etc (and it is scary watching how 2-3 beers effects sleep quality)