Four Ideas to Push Your Fitness Up in your 40's and Beyond.

Let’s face it, none of us are getting any younger - I’m writing this blog the day before my 54th birthday (what the absolute f&%k. How did that happen?). But, what can you do to increase your fitness, whether you’re just starting out with cycling or triathlon, or you’re a regular racer?

When I’m out cycling or in the gym I frequently bump into people (not literally) who don’t realise I am mid-50’s. I’m still racing and just hanging on - by the skin of my teeth - when I enter elite races with youngsters in it. I want to show people that you can still compete, ride/run/swim faster than you did before, increase your strength, and look younger than you are. Older athletes often ask me what they can do to improve their level.

So, here are the four key aspects that you need to focus on, whether you’re a cyclist or triathlete in your 40s or beyond, whether you’re aiming to win an age-related race, increase your fitness and health, or just beat your Strava PRs!

Intervals
Look, I know the internet is littered with advice on doing zone 2 training, or doing either polarized or pyramidal training, and they’re not wrong. However, you do need to go hard at some point to increase your fitness and build your VO2max (MAP) as well as your FTP. As we age there’s a tendency for our VO2max to decline with each decade that passes. However, with careful training we can reverse or increase our VO2max especially if we didn’t train when we were younger (i.e., you can be fitter when you’re older). On the other hand - for me - who has raced every year since I was 14 I am just maintaining my peak VO2max from my 20’s. Both (peri)menopausal women, and men can benefit from doing VO2max type intervals. Five x 4-minutes at 115% of FTP or 80% of MAP up a hill (doesn’t matter whether you stand or sit on the bike) with 4-minutes easy between efforts is a great session to build your VO2max. Hurts like hell, but if you really want to improve then this is for you. Of course, if you haven’t exercised in a while, or haven’t done any intensity recently, then please don’t attempt to bang these out just yet. And, of course if you don’t want to improve I’m not sure why you’re reading this?

Strength Work
I’ve covered this in a few blog posts recently, and I make no apologies for mentioning it again. Strength work will have a positive impact on your health as well as your fitness - whether you’re a cyclist or triathlete and across multiple durations (from very short to long efforts). As with the intervals don’t just bang out the heaviest efforts you can manage if you haven’t done any strength work recently - you’ll need to build to that. For both males and females, strength work can have a positive effect on health, hormones, bone density, lean muscle mass, ageing, and performance, and the idea is to lift as heavy as you possibly can with a rep range of 3 to 6 reps. Squats, single less press, bent over rows, push ups and some core specific work are a good starting point. Start light with 10 - 12 reps, and make sure you’re doing the movements correctly. Then build to heavy weights with less reps.

Nutrition
One oft he things that a lot of people in their late 40s and 50s ask me about is “how can I recover quicker?”. Put simply, as you age, due to a change in hormone availability and other factors your ability to recover between sessions starts to slow down. Of course, you could start skipping days (which I realise many people have to do - but this can often be due to work or social commitments) but this just means doing less training than that which might be optimal. The one key idea I want to get across to you is that you should consume more protein. Look, I was sceptical too. I didn’t think it would make much difference, except that it did, and it continues too - not just with myself, but also with my athletes. The recommended nutrient intake for protein for a 50 year old in the UK is 0.75g per kg of body mass per day which is about 55 grams for a 75 kg person. If you’re training in both endurance and strength work, and want to improve you’re going to need about 1.6 - 2.5 g per kg body mass per day (or about 120 - 190 g/day for that 75 kg athlete). If you’re losing weight or train 15 hrs/week or more, or train twice daily, or a plant-based athlete then aim for the higher end of the range. Not sure how much you’re eating, and let’s face you really don’t if you don’t do the next part: you need to analyse your diet to see where it’s lacking and how it can be improved. There’s lots of nutrition tracking apps (I use myfitnesspal), use them and log everything you eat and drink. Everything. Yes, it’s a bind, but oh my it can make a huge difference.

Recovery
No beating around the bush here. As you age recovery becomes more important. In general this means getting more and higher quality sleep. If you’re a female then (peri)menopause might mean you have “brain fog” (essentially less ability to think and concentrate) and this may also occur to a lesser extent in males. Gone are the days where I could work until 4 in the morning to complete work on a tight schedule, go to bed, and get up 3 hours later and crack off a decent training ride. At least 7 to 8 hours every night and some destress time (yoga, mindfulness, etc) every few days can help you recharge and feel better.

Ageing is a faff, health and performance can (but don’t need to) decrease, but with a considered and consistent routine that incorporates some hard efforts, endurance work, strength training, nutrition, and recovery you can either stave off the age related declines or increase it and feel much better - whether that’s for thrashing your mates on a Sunday group ride, or aiming for the win in a race.

Check out some of our other blog posts on ageing and performance, here and here or start improving with our new Membership Coaching (designed for time crunched masters athletes).