How old is too old for crossfit

Yet physical activity has been proven to have myriad benefits to control, slow down or minimise the effects of aging. For Roy, starting CrossFit meant better mobility, stronger knees, vastly improved overall strength and sharp weight loss.

Our gym closed for a few months during the pandemic, but I continued to work out at home with a trainer who emailed WODs. I was only sick for a short period of time, which I credit CrossFit as playing a role in my quick recovery.

I am now back regaining my strength and stamina […] using the Assault Bike and the rowing machine. A post shared by Roy Wooley oleroy Roy is now averaging to calories on the Assault Bike and 2, to 3, meters on the rower each day. In normal times he trains CrossFit four evenings a week and trains Beagles over the weekends, which involves a fair amount of walking.

The way we achieve that is by practicing constantly varied functional movements at high intensity. Applying this to an older client should be no problem because we use a principle of relative intensity where the stimulus is modified to match current levels of physical and psychological tolerance.

Then I loved that the mental challenges in training and competition actually carried over into life and made me a better person outside of CrossFit. Those who are able to combine continuous exercise with good nutrition and avoid risk factors such as smoking , can delay and minimise the effects of ageing.

While we have to accept that some changes are inevitable, it is possible to elevate health markers to above average through an active lifestyle. Lifelong exercise may also be the key to reducing the risk of dementia Brown et al. Combating the negative effects of inactivity combined with ageing should be priorities for all masters wishing to lead a healthier and happier life. As you age, the focus of CrossFit training might shift from performance to longevity. Put another way, if you gave an orthopaedist a random selection of MRI scans showing normal age-related joint degeneration, they would be unable to reliably say which ones were from people experiencing pain.

So even where degeneration exists, the source of pain has to be somewhere else. So, with respect to our joints, CrossFit actually seems like something to encourage as we get older, consisting as it does with a good mix of aerobic and resistance training, generally over full ranges of motion.

Just what our joints need! We just need to develop a different attitude toward our pains. It can be an unpleasant minute period during warm-ups before I can get going. In my case, my knees and back can take a while to warm up and I often dread the first ten or so air squats, lunges or similar. So, putting our niggles aside, is there something else about ageing that puts CrossFit Masters over 50 at risk? At the same time, our blood vessels and arteries become stiffer, which means our hearts have to work harder to pump blood around the body.

Similarly, our lungs and airways become stiffer. What about our immune system? So we are basically at a higher risk of becoming ill and taking longer to fight off illness. Of course, we need to take that research into context since there is nothing average about the strength of someone who has been doing CrossFit for a few years. Our potential will diminish as we age and will at some point meet our actual strength at which point we can expect our strength to decline despite further training.

According to strengthlevel. This is about the same as advanced lifters which strengthlevel. In general, the data on strengthlevel. That sucks but that rearguard action is still vital.

Strength not only helps us avoid falling but muscle mass acts as an additional cushion when we do. In fact, Howard J Luks argues that falls are often the ultimate cause of our demise [ 9 ]: a fall causes an injury which leads to inactivity leading to muscle loss leading to greater frailty in a downward spiral.

And as exercise and strength drop away, chronic conditions take hold. This cycle can be exacerbated by the impact a fall can have on our confidence. In fact, evidence shows people who exercise in groups tend to be more consistent and consistency is key. What is certainly true is that we masters are more prone to injury and injuries take longer to heal as we get older and this may suggest we need to take a different approach.

As every coach will tell you, strength gains are achieved through progressive overload: gradually increasing the stresses on your body to trigger a positive response. But stress your body too far too fast and an injury is inevitable, which then not only prevents further improvement while you heal but also results in some muscle loss while you do. And since our time to both recover from injury and rebuild muscle lost during our recovery goes up, injury is something we increasingly want to avoid.

This is particularly the case if we continue to aim for one rep maxes 1RM against the inevitable backdrop of reducing strength noted above. This is perhaps where CrossFit Masters over 50 can be at risk. It is ultimately a fairly new sport dominated by younger athletes and coaches.

Consequently, there is very limited experience or evidence base out there relating to how to program CrossFit for masters. To some extent, us older CrossFitters are a petri dish experiment. Recovery days are up to us too. We probably want to take more of them per week and take those rest days seriously. As CJ DePalma points out, as a physiotherapist and head coach of WODprep Masters , the majority of his clients fall into two camps: the chronically inactive and the optimistically overactive. We need to plan in de-load weeks and take those seriously too.

We should have less ego and more wisdom. Whereas the thirty somethings may feel the need to kill themselves rather than finish after us, even in the warm-ups, we should be sage enough to focus on the long game. We also typically have more time. Our kids are likely to have left home or are at least able to take care of themselves without our constant supervision.

We can plan to modify or alternate between WODs and our own masters training. It would seem that the exercise regime espoused by CrossFit, far from being a risk, seems to embody much of the health advice for older people. The combination of aerobic and functional resistance training ticks all the boxes for delaying the effects of ageing on our joints, immune system, connective tissue, muscle loss etc to name just a few. Indeed, when reviewing the exercise advice for older people, about the only thing missing from CrossFit is balancing exercises to further reduce the risk of falling.

Until then, we can look to add a little yoga to our recovery days. As the sport continues to develop, we might expect to see more and more support for Mega Masters. For now, we just need to act our age.

Are you a Masters athlete? We have our very own private coaching group where you can follow along with our daily programming, post videos for feedback from our coaches and join in our weekly virtual 'Coffee With Coaches' call. We also hold events, giveaways and - along with the other members - provide support and guidance on your CrossFit Masters journey.

We'd love to have you join us! Campbell and James E. Turner, She credit that fearful moment to getting her 5 CrossFit workouts in every week. She got strong enough to break her fall and was able to get up on her own. Now she has enough energy to walk miles per day aside from her showing up Monday-Friday at am to workout with us.

Cathy is another Silver athlete that is consistently at our am class during the week. Her motivation is to not be on meds in her later years she is not on any now and tends to keep it that way and be able to move around freely with her new grandchild.

But the great part about their training is that they are still able to train because our coaches modify the workouts when needed. The point of working out is to feel better, get stronger, and stay healthy and we as coaches help facilitate that every day. Older age should not be a hindering factor of why not to start at training, it should be the motivating factor to start.

Come see what you have been missing and how guidance in your training will make your everyday chores that much easier. You have read two sides of the spectrum, which will you choose?