Body Building As You Age

As you mature in your years and continue to train you will want to be mindful of some of the following issues. How often you train, how many sets, repetitions you perform for a given exercise and most important the kind of diet you follow. Another important question is: Should you use supplements'

As I age I have resorted to training less. Call it the curse of old age but I've noticed that I develop more soreness, and take longer to recover from workouts. I use this as a gauge to determine how often I should train. Sometimes I have to rest up to six days between training sessions! One interesting thing I've observed is when I train with clients, the sore feeling disappears shortly after starting the work out.

A few hours later soreness erupts, increasing during the night and presents itself full blow the following morning, and depending of the severity of the workout, lasts for as long as 5 or 6 days. Sometimes I'm sore going into a workout but it fades as the workout ensues. It's best to let this soreness resolve itself and heal itself adequately, this is how growth occurs, time must be allowed for recuperation and healing. With this in mind I don't rush from one workout to the next, unless I have to.

When you rush to go back to the gym you will likely experience persistent soreness and could even get injured.

As a professional body builder who has spent most of his time training, I now have to contend with training a lot less. The question is, how do I fill my time' By doing creative things that do not require lots of energy.

I wrote Fabulously Fit Forever in 1992 at age fifty. I was in the best shape of my life since my competition days but I realized that age was taking its toll on me and I could not do as much as during my competition days. Now that I'm in my mid 60's I've slowed down even more. What follows is a set of general guidelines for how often you should train at a given age.

This article first appeared in Frank Zane's Building the Body publication and has been re-published here with his permission.