Exercise recovery time for older adults?

[CherawGirl]

I've been exercising regularly since I was 22 years old.  I'm 56 now and feel like it takes longer to recover from strength training workouts.  I searched the internet for information on exercise recovery for older adults and was not able to find much.

Does anyone have ideas on this?  I don't want to too much exercise to wipe out the benefits.  I strength train 3 days a week and do cardio, yoga, biking, golf, or walking my dog on most other days. I'm sure it's unique to each individual, but wonder: is there is a sweet spot in the balance between exercise and rest?

A lot of fitness articles dicuss that more it less when it come fitness (mostly with bodybuilding).  I do not have any weight to lose, but would like to keep lean and fit.

I'd love to learn more about this topic if anyone can share their knowledge.

Moderator: Format edited

[James_R]

It really does depend on what your end goal is, but there are a few things to consider. 

If you're resistance training three times a week and hitting the cardio each day in between the a rest day each week would be of benefit. 

It would help if you gave a bit of info on the areas of resistance training you hit in your regime, whether you target different muscle groups, and on which days. Configuring which muscle groups you target in a day with resistance training will help you to recover quicker, as trying to hit all areas just leaves you sore and fatigued and limits the gains you will achieve. 

Speraking as an aspiring bodybuilder, there is a sweet spot but it all depends on your ambition. I would hazard a guess, at this point, that a little rebalancing of your resistance training regime should help to ease your recovery (unless you're currently lifting/pressing to muscle failure - this is what I do to encourage muscle growth). 

[Maxit]

I am 64. and I have been weight training using New Rules of Lifting For Women - I am in Stage 3 towards the end.  This program involves lifting progressively heavier weight doing full body exercises, and relies mostly on dumbbells, body weight,  and oly barbell w/ plates added.  I also walk 4-6 miles a day.  What I found was that in the first two stages of this program I could maintain 3 strength training sessions a week.  With this current stage, I have been doing 2/week - it is, in fact, taking my body longer to recover and yet despite dropping to two sessions/week, I have continued to make strength gains.   Probably every few weeks I have a day when I am not moving around much but it's not planned - just happens due to life obligations.   The walking seems to really help with soreness, and most of it is 3-3.5 mph so is not stressful at all.  

Since you have been active throughout your life, I would suggest listening to your body - if you continue to feel energetic and are sleeping well, then you are probably not over-training.

[CherawGirl]

Hi MaxIt, I'm going to check out New Rules of Lifting For Women.  Thanks for the tip. It sounds like an interesting approach.

[loveabull]

I'm 53 this year and have always been active daily even as a kid. I feel there is a definite difference as we age. I still have the stamina to walk for miles. But often the day after either ankle, knee or back will be tight, the muscles will be tight and painful. I still exercise daily and always have Aleve, Icy Hot and Aspercreme available...even at work.

[Heybales]

Longer when older than younger.

Numbers are so totally dependent on you and your workouts and what you've done through the years and on and on and on.

If you've kept up a good level of fitness through the years, recovery will be faster than if you didn't.

If you keep a smaller deficit recovery will be faster than if you have a larger deficit. Again, that amount of deficit depends on you and how much fat to lose to healthy level.

Genetics, good farm stock with super tough moms and dads - or not.

You've likely noticed warmups for the ligaments and tendons is more important, there is generally less blood flow to them as you get older, so repair takes longer, and doing the spur the moment stuff can have a lasting dumb effect on you.

While soreness from lifting eventually goes away, despite the fact you can still cause damage that requires repair time, while you have it it's a good indicator.

Lifting with same sore muscles that attempting to repair is not good idea. Unless you want to kill the repair and waste part of the workout that caused the damage.

And unrecovered muscle constantly used starts to not be able to put out as much - so now your workouts just get weaker.

Even though it of course still feels like giving it your all.

For comparison, and it's usually a good idea anyway - take an exercise break week. Nothing hard or intense, just walking or biking slow or swimming easy, ect.

Then come back refreshed and strong and see how a workout really can feel, with likely progress.

Now you have something to compare to.