A few weeks ago I learned a childhood neighbor passed away. She was in her late 50s and had suffered from some sort of seizures her entire life. My recollection and observations lead me to believe she was severely de-conditioned as an adult. Social media posts showed an old junior high school year book with her photo from back then and I began thinking about those hot August high school pre-season football practices more commonly referred to as, “2-A-Days”. One practice in the early morning when the temperature and humidity were lower and one in the late afternoon, for the same reason.
The first three or four days of those were a nightmare because you were generally out of condition and with all the ballistic stretching we did back then combined with the wind sprints and school yard perimeter laps, your thighs, hamstrings and calves were absolutely wrecked. Football coaches on Long Island weren’t too sophisticated back then in the 70s regarding hitting the weight room (usually one Universal Machine with, maybe, a squat rack and a bench for chest presses – if you were lucky), and all of the other methods used today. Focus, then, was on hitting the sled (sometimes a 1-man sled, sometimes a 2-man sled, and sometimes, the dreaded 7-man sled – all of which usually had one of the assistant coaches standing on it blowing the whistle) to increase leg strength and conditioning. They were the most hated part of the morning and evening workouts. My point here is discuss the fact that you were practicing (let’s convert that word to “training”) twice per day.
In between those training sessions, back in the 70s, you went home and more or less napped for the rest of the day. Well, not really. Some of us had paper routes, had to mow the lawns for our fathers, jumped in the pool to cool off – but mostly watched a lot of television in the living room (because there was usually only one television per household). Or, you hung out in your basement den or bedroom listening to music.
A childhood friend of mine who lived around the block and I rode our bikes to practice every morning and evening. It was only just more than 2 miles from my house to the practice field but it felt like 10. It probably only took 15 minutes by bike to get there but when your thighs were shredded to begin with, it felt like an hour. And, the way home was slightly “up hill” so the ride home was a workout in and of itself.
Last year my oldest son got married. Starting 9 months out I decided to revisit the 2-A-Days. And, by that, I mean I would do some form of conditioning in the morning, like barbell complexes, and a strength workout in the evening, like basic squats, deadlift and benchpress. I started off full steam. I made it two weeks. I just couldn’t do it. Between work, family, relationship commitments, taking care of the house, and all of that other “adult” stuff combined with the fact that Arizona afternoons remain in the 100s well into the evening, it wasn’t happening.
The general answer is NO, where you’re in your late 50s / early 60s, 2-A-Days are not happening. I guess we need to figure out an acceptable alternative. Prior to doing that, let’s think about what we should seriously consider as being our goal. At this point in my life, only a few months from 60, I’m thinking more health and safety rather than fun and fitness. That is, I need to be able to jump out of my lawn chair, run across the patio, and jump in the pool should my toddler grandson and my aging dog fall in. I need to be able to lift my own luggage into the ceiling storage rack on a plane. I need to be able to push my own supply filled wagon at Home Depot. I need to be able to pull heavy Christmas decorations off the garage shelves. I need to be able to push a young punk away from me in the event of an attack.
All of those movements are functional and they require functional training: bench press; shoulder press; pull ups (or some kind of mechanical pulldown machine); deadlifts; squat; and some form of bent over row. I would throw in the hang squat clean just for power training.
Now, I don’t want be a commercial nor am I advocating one method over another but for the fact that through my own personal bodily research I have found the Starting Strength Method by Marc Rippetoe to be an excellent place to start.
But, I don’t think I’ll be doing them 2-A-Days.
Kevin’s Rusting Barbell 