Training After 40: Flatten the Decline, Don't Fight It | Darren Ellis

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Translating Nutrition: Clinical Nutrition, Sports Nutrition, & Health Coaching with Dr Cliff Harvey

Training After 40: Flatten the Decline, Don't Fight It | Darren Ellis

Health & Fitness

Nobody gets stronger forever, yet most fitness advice acts as if we will. Cliff sits down with Darren "Daz" Ellis, founder of New Zealand's first CrossFit gym, former Masters CrossFit Games athlete and his co-author on Awesome After Forty, for an honest conversation about training when you're past your peak, short on time and carrying a few old injuries.


Read Awesome After Forty (Cliff Harvey and Darren Ellis): https://books2read.com/u/mBpNKR


In this episode we cover

  • Why Daz now puts mobility under strength at the base of his training pyramid
  • The "glide path": accepting decline and working to flatten the curve
  • Residual activity, and why less training volume can also mean less mobility
  • Why "good enough" form is good enough for most lifters
  • Progressing without adding load: range, tempo, reps, density
  • Choosing exercises that suit a busy season of life
  • Sport as cardio, daily steps, zone 2 and where VO2max fits
  • Why some ageing athletes get better results by doing less
  • Talking about wear and tear without making it your identity
  • What both would tell their 25-year-old selves


Chapters

00:00 Intro

02:18 Training around family life

04:20 Seasons of life and the best time to train

08:33 Shorter, more focused sessions

09:24 How Daz has stayed fit into his 50s

14:23 The honest side: tendons, niggles and old injuries

17:08 The glider analogy: flattening the decline

17:37 The "age is just a number" myth

21:21 Mobility moves to the base of the pyramid

23:23 Residual activity and lost mobility

27:38 Form: good enough is good enough

31:09 Decline, comparison and the pull-up reel

36:31 Progression beyond adding load

37:53 Skewed strength standards online

41:15 Picking exercises for busy seasons

43:03 Autoregulation and training to failure

47:21 Cardio: sport, steps and zone 2

52:26 VO2max and Norwegian 4x4s

54:37 Cyclic cardio vs lifting

58:12 The optimisation fallacy: big rocks first

1:01:07 A 10 bpm drop in resting heart rate

1:04:03 Subtracting junk volume

1:06:27 Diminishing returns and athletic identity

1:11:42 You at 48 is not you at 24

1:13:12 Injuries, wear and tear, and identity

1:18:32 Reasons vs excuses: it's never too late

1:21:01 Advice to your 25-year-old self

1:25:47 Peaking early and youth specialisation

1:27:56 Where to find Daz


About Darren Ellis

Darren "Daz" Ellis (MSc Exercise Physiology) has coached for more than 20 years. He opened New Zealand's first CrossFit gym, qualified for the 2015 CrossFit Games Masters (40-44) division, and now coaches strength, mobility and movement for people over 40. He is Cliff's co-author on Awesome After Forty.


Links mentioned in this episode


Holistic Performance Institute


Thinking about coaching people through this stage of life professionally? Grab the free Practitioners Roadmap above: scope of practice at each level, career pathways and what practitioners charge in NZ and Australia. If this episode helped, follow Translating Nutrition and share it with a mate who still trains like they're 25.