What is the "kernel" for a 4 decade training program for physical fitness?

Question

Almost all training programs or workout routines are focused on the very short term, e.g. 90 days, 12 weeks and similar.

My questions is about the "kernel" (key elements in a wide sense) for a training program that can work throughout at least half of an expected life time for most people in the developed world. A long term training program that manages the changes in care taking situations (children, ageing parents), injuries (permanent, temporary, ..), physical capability, income, moving to different countries/regions and work situations.

On Google Scholar, it seems like the topic "lifelong physical training" generates interesting results, see "life long physical training". Habits seems to be important for people to maintain long training programs. See for example, "Physical activity and muscle training in the elderly." a 20 year study on male "orienterare". However, I know many in that sport that have changed to other sports or - in most cases - stopped training.

On the commercial side, there are a number of gyms in the US that promises "life long fitness" but their methods seem to be the same as other gyms

Answer 1

Ok, as fredob requested, this is an n=1 style of writeup, for my experiences and what I consider to be the core kernels of a lifetime fitness program. Note, this is not a design for specific competition, this is fitness in general. Obviously if you compete, you would need to tweak the physical component and nutrition components to support that.

NUTRITION

This is the first component, and arguably the most important. You can be running 75 miles a week, throwing around heavy weights, whatever your activity might be, but shoveling big macs and fries down 4 days a week with pizza and ice cream chasers. If you don't supply your body in a healthy way, you can't expect it to perform consistently. Note I say nutrition, and not diet. In my mind, diet implies a process. The problem with a process is that it has a beginning, and an end. There is no end. You either have good nutrition planning or you don't. Doesn't mean that you can't have cheat days, fall of the wagon a bit, etc., but overall your nutrition plan is sound and based in your needs for daily existence plus your activity.

MENTAL ACTIVITY

This is the second component. Protect your mind. Play games, play an instrument, read a book, do puzzles, whatever floats your boat. Keeping your mind active and well rounded will enable you to still be sharp and on top of things well into your twilight years. The more active you can be, the better.

PHYSICAL ACTIVITY

Get out. Do SOMETHING. Walk, ride a bike, swim, play horseshoes, move around, anything. Get your heart rate up, sweat a little, make your body work. Find something you truly enjoy doing, because like a diet, "getting in shape" or doing something you don't like for the sake of activity is a dead end process. Ok, so you got in shape. Now what? But, if you truly enjoy what you're doing, you'll keep on doing it.

RESISTANCE TRAINING

More and more, studies are showing that resistance training can help preserve muscle as we age. Take a look at what you do in your physical activity, and plan your resistance training to supplement that, and keep your muscles in balance. A lot of back problems, for instance, could be alleviated if people trained their spinal muscles as much as their trophy abs. You don't necessarily have to heave around small cars, but especially as you age, resistance training can help preserve muscle.

BALANCE

Keep your life in balance. Make time for your sports, family, work, personal time, etc. When you start sacrificing one for the other, your life eventually starts spinning out of control. There will be times when you HAVE to sacrifice for a bit, but let those be as short as possible.

Now, I have been in sports for 41 years. This includes 17 years swimming, 9 years cross country (HS/College), 2 years wrestling, 4 years competitive cycling, almost 20 years in martial arts. I've competed at every level from local clubs to a handful of Nationals and a couple of Worlds. As soon as something stops being fun, I find something else. (I walked out on two years of scholarship in swimming because I was burned out. Still hate swimming.) I play D&D, board games, poker, chess. I have an outstanding wife and wonderful family. I recognize my capabilities, and I'm still not sure if I've found my limits or not.

In those 41 years, I've had one injury (Ruptured achilles 6 weeks ago) that kept me sidelined for more than a week. I attribute this to a lifetime of athletics, lucky genetics, and enough sense to monitor myself and sensibly push my limits, and staying within the above categories.

Hope this is what you were looking for.

Answer 2

Check out the book "Practical Programming for Strength Training" by Rippetoe and Kilgore. It is aimed at the college educated professional strength coach and covers every aspect of developing training programs. While overly detailed for the likes of us, it is the basis for lifetime learning. BTW I'm over 60 and started lifting in my teens. I've always put my education, career, and personal relationships first so I've taken many lay-offs - some of them long. The key attitude is wanting to lift when you have time/energy as opposed to feeling you had better start lifting now.

Answer 3

Lifting heavy weights. Everything else you might do depends on strength, so if you don't have that, you'll be limited. If you do have it, everything will improve for you. You'll be more flexible, have better endurance, will be less injury prone and will recover from injuries faster.

It's also very sustainable. You can do one short, high intensity lifting routine per week, not have any significant (or any at all) soreness the following days and make gains (or, once you start hitting the peak of your potential, sustain them). 5 minutes, to do one set of squats or deadlifts, one set of presses and one set of pull ups with sufficient weight to keep you under 10 reps will keep you going, and it's something you'll be able to fit in, even with a changing schedule. Not included in the one set is doing 1-2 warmup sets of 5 reps with lower weights. The best thing is, within a half an hour cooldown after the set you'll still be in shape to do any physical activity that's necessary for your life, and you won't have worn out your muscles that you couldn't move furniture for the next two days.

Obviously there will be some scenarios in which a weight room just isn't available, but there really isn't anything else that could make up the core of your program that can adjust to the changes in life. There's bodyweight routines and rope skipping, but those end up taking a lot more time, which makes them a lot harder to sustain over weeks or months (unless you're doing handstand pushups).

The other answer is walking. 30 minutes per day (or at least 3x/week). That has been shown repeatedly to significantly reduce the risk of most illnesses, compared to being completely sedentary. I have a hard time calling that a fitness routine though, it's really more of a bare minimum. I can't really think of a scenario in which 30 minutes of walking isn't possible.