- Are there certain exercises you shouldn't do as you age? Are some movements inherently more dangerous than others? In this video, I'm gonna talk all about that and how we should think about exercising as we age. Welcome back team to the Building and Lifelong Athletes podcast, thanks for stopping by, I really appreciate it. For those who don't know me yet, my name is Jordan Rennieke and I'm a dual board certified physician in family and sports medicine. And the goal of this podcast is to keep you active and healthy for life through actionable, evidence and form education. So this article came from my mom, shout out to my mom, I love it very much, thanks for listening. And it came from her and it is coming from Yahoo. So obviously Yahoo is a big name, big article, big publication, and specifically from a cycling website, but Yahoo found it and kind of gave it some more credibility but it's looking at that. It's talking about exercises and what we should do as the age and does it actually make sense though? So let's talk about that. So the starting article, I really like how it starts off. It talks about chronological age versus biological age. Whereas chronological age is how old you are, just straight up, like you're 70 years old. Biological age is how you feel, right? So we only let 70 year old who looks amazing, right? They can do everything they wanna do, they look amazing. So they don't really fit the 70 year old picture, but they're quote unquote 70. So they're chronological ages there and biological age is probably a lot younger. And the one thing I also really grew with this article is they had to talk about their goals, right? It talks about aligning your fitness goals regardless of age and I love that. It recognizes that there are multiple ways to stay in shape. I really think that's great. And they also recommended there are definitely some age related changes. They did a good job recognizing that there are changes as we age and I'm sick of people pretending that like age doesn't matter, it does. I see it every single day in my clinic and it's just inevitable that things will happen. On the internet these days, we see people who are just jacked out of their minds at 50 and 60 sometimes, you don't get the whole story. What are they taking? That's not the normal process of aging. And so you probably will not be able to do in your 70s what you did in your 20s. That's just like a straight up fact of life. And so it's cool they recognize that, say, hey, there are things in the matters. And in this beginning intro, they also say that, there's lots of wear and tear as you age and stuff and it may not be as much as you think. And that's what they mentioned as well saying like the wear and tear that you see might not be as much as you think. And I agree with that. And the one thing I've really enjoyed their intro, I thought it was a great article. I mean, I'll link obviously the article in the show notes below. I loved everything until the last sentence and last sentence says, however, some older cyclists, right? I, you know, I shop like the athletes. Some older cyclists may need to eventually swap their routine exercises for more anatomically favorable movements that minimize injury risk and ultimately yield better results. This is the million dollar question statement. This is the one we're gonna talk about the entire video pretty much. You know, this is written by a strength coach specifically. I mean, the articles they pull, they get all their recommendations from a strength coach or a writer talking to the strength coach. But the strength coach says that when you're young, you can handle doing things the quote wrong way. But when you're older, you can't do that. Is that really true? Like why do they say that? They're pretty much saying, hey, when you're young, sure, do whatever you want, do whatever dumb stuff. Doesn't matter, you're fine with it. But as you're old, you can't put up with that anymore. And there might be a little bit of truth to that, but we're gonna dive a little more here. But first I wanna talk about the actual like quote unquote naughty list, right? So these are the exercises that they say you shouldn't do. You know, first one being inversions, like the thing where you put your ankles in the straps and just tilt upside down. Inversions, plyometrics, barbell back squat, barbell deadlift, barbell bench press, barbell bends over row weighted Russian twist, barbell overhead press, walking lunges and crunches. So those are the naughty list right there. And I'm gonna kind of go through a couple of these and talk about my overall ideas. You know, first they talk about doing inversions. They say they don't like it because it leads to like headedness and pressure in the sinuses. And at the end of the day, like this is just, it's not a good exercise for anything. I know people are like, oh, I do it for my spine decompression, but it's certainly not for anything like physical capacity wise. It's not improving cardiovascular fitness, not improving strength. So we wouldn't really use inversions for anything. And so I think that's fine. Anything is pretty much gonna be better than this pick. And so I agree with them right away. Inversions, not that they're inherently dangerous. I just think they're almost inherently worthless. They don't really do a lot. So, but that I agree, you know, I don't think it's necessarily to the point where, you know, causes like headiness and dizziness. Yeah, I could, but that one's just like, we don't need to do that. So next, moving on to plyometrics. They do say there are some caveats though. And they say it depends on your situation, which I really appreciate. I do think this person who wrote this and the strength coach said, hey, a lot of this comes down like your personal situation. I agree with that. But they said like, if you're ready for it, it's probably reasonable, otherwise potentially too high risk. And overall, I think I do genuinely agree that for most people, it's probably not needed to do a bunch of plyometric work, especially if they're just starting out. And I do agree with their list of replacements, things like medicine ball tosses, which achieve most of what plyometrics is looking for in terms of, you know, high power output. I think that's a reasonable to do. That being said, if someone is capable, has been doing them and wants to continue to do plyometrics, not a problem. But yeah, is it like the highest priority for someone who's in their 60s to be able to do a bunch of box jumps? Probably not the most important thing. That being said, I'm not saying it's inherently dangerous, but one's gonna have to work up to it. And I will say that is generally this person says, but I just don't like saying this is bad, this is good, without a little more nuance, that's sad. But that being said, you know, I'm not a master marketer. That's probably why, you know, they get lots of views on Yahoo News, 'cause polarizing is always good for the views. And so other things they talk about include the Russian twist, walking lunges and crunches. And for me, like once again, I don't think anything is inherently bad here. You know, I agree that, you know, Russian twist and crunch, like, okay, maybe not the highest yield thing, but like, I don't think they're inherently bad. Once again, I think as long as your body is ready for the demand, you can handle pretty much anything. I don't think they're terrible. I think they said an older person, they're worried about their spine and whatnot. And I don't know, man, I think we're pretty capable as humans. That's the biggest takeaway is like, you're pretty capable, you can do a lot of things. And, but I do think there's probably easier ways to do core. And I think that's fine. From a walking lunges perspective, they said that one was bad 'cause of balance and all that stuff. But walking lunges to me seem like a great exercise for strength, mobility, and balance. If you think about it, you know, I know they talk about risk of falls and elderly, but for me, man, like, what does that incorporate? It's single leg stuff, it's strength, it's locomotion. So you're working on moving their balance. Like it's a pretty good exercise to me. So that's one where I was like, I don't know about that necessarily. Once again, building up to it, maybe start with a split squat. So you get used to that unilateral thing. Maybe you have a hand support, need to be, but overall, I think it could be useful in the right situation. I think they said replace it with just static, either reverse lunges or split squats, which are also fine, but like, I don't know, man, like just telling someone they can't do something for the sake of that doesn't necessarily sit with me. And then they go into the barbell back squat. They say the problem here is the way the bar rests on the shoulders specifically. They say it leads to compressive forces in the spine and says that only people who should be squatting are power lifters because that's their sport. And they said you should use other squat patterns instead of the barbell back squat. And like this one right here, I kind of have a problem with, you know, I think if, you know, yeah, should someone who's like never squatted jump straight into barbell squat? No, like probably not. 'Cause we're not gonna do that with a 30 year old, right? Like most likely we're gonna work on the squat pattern. Maybe do body weight and then work into goblet squat and just a bunch of different ways. And then we get in there, but we can definitely ease them into that at any age and get them to use a barbell. And additionally, as you age, actual load is actually like really important for bone health and there's no data saying that necessarily it's bad for your spine having load on it. And so this one, once again, I'm sure this person who wrote that, I'm sure they have a caveat saying, hey, you gotta be used to it and not just throw people into it. So maybe that's what he's getting at. But overall, I don't think the barbell back squat is inherently bad. Yeah, if you watch someone and there's like folding in half while they're doing the squat, then yeah, maybe we have to consider something else and we have to kind of say, okay, maybe we'll have a replacement there until we get a better movement pattern. But to like say that like is a bad movement for someone who's older, I just, I don't agree with that. And then that kind of goes hand in hand with all the other barbell movements to talk about, right? They picked up, pick on like six other barbell movements not to do and I overall get what they're saying, but it's just not that simple. But I know that, I know that in articles, things that are black and white are better. Better for marketing whatnot, but hey, guess what? I have a podcast and I can talk as long as I want about this so we have nuance and we have time to do it. But all the movements he lists, including deadlifts, bench press, bent over row, overhead press, it all can be performed safely, absolutely. But like just said before, it's all about progression, right? So it's all about progression. And if you think like a senior should not do something because it's dangerous, then we probably shouldn't program for someone younger either inherently. Catch my drift. What I'm saying by this is like most things, movement quality and progression matter most. So there's no reason someone can't do a quality barbell movement if that's what they want to do and have geared up for it. You know, just as I said before, for a young person, we're not gonna say, hey, let's dive in right away and do all these things. Are you maybe a little more, you know, have a little more leeway in terms of, hey, I can start them on a barbell 'cause they have better mobility and all that stuff. Yeah, but I mean, I don't think there's anything that's inherently dangerous for someone and exercise. I'll say this time and time again in this podcast, the human body is incredibly resilient and can do amazing things. And as long as you accustom it to the load, then it's amazing, can do awesome things. But yeah, once again, we have issues when we just jump there. And this article was filled with like reducing injuries, like reducing injuries, decreasing injury risk. Man, let me tell you, if it were that easy, that would be awesome. Reducing injury risk is like my job, literally as a sports medicine doctor every single day. How do I decrease that? And the unfortunate answer is that we're just not very good at it. In the sports medicine world, it's just really hard. And I hear all the time that certain movements are high risk of matters. And I question that statement. If you look at the data, for example, it says running is a really high injury sport in terms of, not necessarily collisions and all that stuff, but most people who run have some high level of injury. And it comes to just wear and tear, right? Should we stop running though? 'Cause we have injuries. No, once again, it all comes down to high prepared. Why is there such a high incidence of injury with running? Well, it's probably because people who aren't working out say, "Hey, I'm gonna start running." And they run and they do too much and they get hurt. And so if you've never worked out in your life, then we don't probably start with running, right? We kind of start with walking and then a little bit of jogging then to get more. But I think it's unsafe to say that you can't do it and then it misses the point. I don't think it's nice to say, "Hey, we can't run." 'Cause I would never say that. And so that's the same idea with weightlifting. Overall, the data seems to show it's very safe, whether it's weightlifting, powerlifting, bodybuilding. And so I would not discourage someone who wants to do something because it's "risky." But that being said, it all comes down to the intended stimulus, right? You can alternate movements all you want and that's totally fine. You can substitute motions. You don't ever have to pick up a barbell if you don't want to. That is totally fine. You can get strong, you can get big, all those things without ever doing it. That's totally fine. I just wouldn't straight up discourage everyone like, "Hey, you can't do anything barbell. "I just don't think that's necessary." And so for me, at the end of the day, what did the article get right? Well, overall, I think it was very well-intentioned, right? I think the person has experience and sees that certain exercises are typically problematic and don't agree with his population. So I think that's very valid, right? I can't fault that and it's valid. And I also respect that their expertise, right? They see this, this is their lived experience. But I also respect that they talk about modifications, right? So that's a huge thing I talk about. Modifying activities to fit your body type, your anatomy, your movement, your preferences, huge. I think that's one of the biggest things is that a lot of times people get hurt 'cause they think they have to do something. And so I do agree that we can get away from the barbell stuff saying, "Hey, there's lots of other stuff over here." So if I had to choose barbell or no barbell, I'd probably go with no barbell because overall I think that you have a lot more options and yeah, it does allow some more freedom of range of motion and get to better positions. But I wouldn't pigeonhole saying you can't do those things. But I think that I just wanna keep as many options open for as many people as possible and then eventually they can find what works for them. But overall, I think the biggest thing people was talking was like, "What's the number one exercise "that I shouldn't be doing as age?" And the number one exercise that you shouldn't be doing is no exercise. That is by far and away the most important thing. I really don't care what exercise you're doing, just that you're doing exercise. Time and time again we see that, man, you need to be exercising for the entirety of your life. You should hopefully be exercising all the way up till you're old and till your route's about to pass away. But the most important exercise you can do is just exercising. And I would never say don't do this one exercise. If someone says, "Hey, my exercising is running "and pushups and sit-ups," which is like half the people I see in the military, that's what they think working out is, and they say, "I really enjoy it. "That's all I wanna do." And I have to say, "No, those aren't here and they're bad. "They're bad for you." It's like, well, shoot, would I really have them do something that's quote unquote bad for them or be working out? The answer is working out because we don't necessarily know if it will lead to any injuries. And so that's me ranting, I apologize. But this one, I really enjoyed. I enjoyed the nuance that I saw in there. There's little bits and pieces of it. I'm sure it got edited out 'cause that's what always happens. So overall, I really respect the, trying to get people in their elder years to work out. I think that's the most important thing. And so by no way, shape, or form, I like disparaging this article. I just thought it was a really cool conversation point in how I think about it. But overall, this does conclude the podcast. Thanks so much for stopping by. I really appreciate it. I hope you found today's episode helpful. And if you did, it would mean the world to me if you left a five star review on your podcast platform of choice, or if you share it with a friend. And if you never wanna miss a piece of information, consider signing up for my mailing list in the description below. I'll send out content when I release it. And I promise you never spam me because I hate spam just as much as you do. Now that's it for today. Get off your phone, go be active, and have a great rest of the day. This podcast is for entertainment, education, and informational purposes only. The topics discussed should not solely be used to diagnose, treat, or prevent any condition. The information presented here was created with an evidence-based approach, but please keep in mind that science is always changing. And at the time of listing this, there may be some new data that makes this information incomplete or inaccurate. Always seek the advice of your personal physician or qualified healthcare provider for questions regarding any medical condition.
