Is this true?

[seizer]

I was talking to this guy the other day who was quite big and had a respectable bp of 405...anyways, he and I were talkin about gaining strength with respect to age. He said that once he stoped growing around 20, he got alot stronger because he said he got what he called "grown man strength". His claims were that he made more gains more often after this point. Is this true that you attain a certain something thats helps your strength once your body is done growing?

 

[BOOEY]

I don't know, but I'm pretty sure males testosterone production are at their highest during this period (18-24). That may have something to do with it.

 

[mad_monkey59]

Im not sure of the science but it has something to do with muscle maturity.

This is similar to reaching your athletic peak, imagine a flow diagram where your body is developing (moving up slightly), then the middle part is where your body is finished growing (your athletic peak) and then the last part, where the line starts to slope where you start to age.

So yes, the guy is pretty correct, although you wont suddenly be benching 50kg more then last chest day... there is a gradual increase in performance.

Look at how profesional footballers (soccer) peak between 23-27 and then gradually decline until they are useless at 35.

 

[seizer]

ok, so what you are saying is that you have a greater potential in your early twenties?

 

[Tom Treutlein]

I would think that you would have more potential, since you're more fully developed as you age. I'm eighteen, and I'm sure I still have some growing to do. There might not even be a whole lot of science behind it, but it seems true.

 

[Beachbum1546]

just cuz your 20 doesn't mean your done growing. your done growing in height but this is when your body grows in size. you fill out your frame at that age.

 

[mad_monkey59]

ok, so what you are saying is that you have a greater potential in your early twenties?

Your early to late 20s are considered to be the period when you are at your highest sporting potential.

 

[ChinkNasty]

I dunno but I once visited the Budweiser plant in St. Louis and these fat old men were walking around with full kegs like it was nothing...someone pointed out that was old man strength...

 

[6_pak]

I dunno but I once visited the Budweiser plant in St. Louis and these fat old men were walking around with full kegs like it was nothing...someone pointed out that was old man strength...

"old man strength" is this the scientific terminology. I think what you witnessed is strength that these men obtained through heavy lifting throughout a long period. You just dont wake up one day and become strong due to your age. Have you ever seen a man haul hay, im talking like throwing 50lb haybails up four rows on the trailor, but looks like he's never lifted much more than the weight of his pecker. Of cource, this man has been hauling hay for years. I recognize it as strength aquired from lifting a familiar object. I dont know if that has any scientific merit, but that same man that could throw the hay like a pebble, couldnt however, out bench me in the weight room. GO FIGURE..

 

[ACEHOLE]

old man strength is very real

 

[Madcow2]

You guys can't be serious. Obviously you do get stronger and more muscular once you are out of your teenage years but this "old man strength" is too much. This is possibly the biggest training board disgrace I've ever come accross in a multitude of boards over a span of 5 years.

BTW - I have several bottles of "old man strength" that I'll throw in if you buy this bridge I've been trying to unload. Very heavily trafficed and centrally located in NYC.

 

[ACEHOLE]

lol

 

[ChinkNasty]

You guys can't be serious. Obviously you do get stronger and more muscular once you are out of your teenage years but this "old man strength" is too much. This is possibly the biggest training board disgrace I've ever come accross in a multitude of boards over a span of 5 years.

BTW - I have several bottles of "old man strength" that I'll throw in if you buy this bridge I've been trying to unload. Very heavily trafficed and centrally located in NYC.

relax bud

 

[Madcow2]

I am not understating in any way how stupid a concept 'old man strength' is. Between this and some of the posts on the 'widening the arm' thread, where apparently after 20 years of hitting bis hard in the mirror with every conceivable combination of super sets and isolation work the noodle arms have finally stumbled upon the magical formula that will not just grow the arm but actually widen it, I'm considering this training board might well be a lost cause. Bodybuilding is full of voodoo training beliefs and methods as it is (take enough drugs and you will grow in spite of very suboptimal workouts) but even the muscleheads wouldn't buy into this stuff.

EDIT: I'm not saying in any way that everyone here is crazy but just that there is a higher % of crazyness and the extremes with which they manifest themselves are further out.

 

[b fold the truth]

Most of the top powerlifters in the World are 28+.

I'm 27 and stronger than I've EVER been...and I plan to hit my peak in a few years.

B True

 

[gymtime]

... This is possibly the biggest training board disgrace I've ever come accross in a multitude of boards over a span of 5 years.

Easy tiger.

The majority of heavy lifters in my gym are late 20s to mid 30s, some even older. Not sure if age is a factor until maybe late 30s, as years of training can often more than make up for the slow process of strength loss due to aging.

In other words, the "older" guys are gonna be stronger simply because they've been at it longer.

 

[AirWolf]

I sincerely believe in old-man strength. Its the reason I could never kick my dad's ass growing up - he was older, wiser, and had been using his muscles for a solid 40 yrs...meanwhile I was just getting used to having some.

Guys typically are able to put on a lot more muscle once they hit around 18-24...but by no means is that the peak of their strength, its just the period of most explosive growth. After that you will still be able to add strength for years...typically, once again, most guys will peak somewhere in their early 30s and then slowly taper from there. Look at the best powerlifters in the world or even someone like Lance Armstrong who won his first tour at the age of 27 - they are all late twenties, early 30s.

 

[Madcow2]

Okay, everybody knows strength peaks in the early 30's. Everybody knows that the more you do something and the smarter you are about it the more one conditions oneself to perform the activity. This is apparent in virtually any activity and most pertinently here in muscular strength and CNS efficiency. This is all common knowledge and grounded in fact.

Old man strength - which I'm guessing means that strength keeps increasing regardless of activity enabling 'old fat men' to throw around kegs like nothing is the issue.

Obviously if you are throwing around kegs at 50 years old, you've been doing it for quite a while - not a new position on the corporate ladder for you. There's an obvious adaptation and training effect. Plus, there is a population and survivorship bias in that anyone who can't move kegs around the floor easily doesn't get hired and those that loose this ability are no longer useful to employ.

This is all black and white - as a matter of fact, I can't even believe I'm sitting here involved in discussing this. There are rational explanations for all of these things. There is also an explanation for 'old man strength' in that it has no grounding whatsoever and any supposed witnessing of it is really a composite of other very commonly known factors that I went through an explanation of.

Given that this is a training board and that there is already more than enough misinformation and outright bullshit spread over the weightraining world to rationalize a circus size pair of stilts, there should probably be some effort to stick to science, facts, and logical methodology rather than using voodoo-like terms and explanations for commonly known and well established processes.

 

[H_T_]

all of the olympia winners for the past ???? years were in their 30's.............

 

[seizer]

All i really thought was that once you were in your early twenties, your body will have matured and you would have more potential to gain strength and handle higher load.

 

[Madcow2]

All i really thought was that once you were in your early twenties, your body will have matured and you would have more potential to gain strength and handle higher load.

You were on the right track. Go back to your 10 year high school reunion and you will see how much thicker and heavier even the skinny guys have gotten - this is without lifting. They will likely have a bit more fat on them but as they've matured they've become stronger. Strength will peak in the early 30's and then begin the decline to 'dirt nap' phase. In PL/OL you will see athletes move to higher weightclasses as their careers continue. If one an athlete was already fairly large and competing in the upper classes you will see him reach the superheavies where he will then load up since the only way to lose on body weight is to fail to best someone elses lift by any margin. So if 50lbs gives you even a .05% increase - there is competitive value in that.