Tactical Barbell Presents: Ageless Athlete

206 Pages·2017·1.733 MB·English

by  Jim Madden Ph.D.

Copyright © 2017 Jim Madden
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or in any means – by
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without
prior written permission.
Consult a physician before beginning this program or any new fitness
regime.
Thanks to K.B. The best guy I never met.
Table of Contents
Part 1: Possibilities
Chapter 1: Ten Years To Multidimensional Fitness
Chapter 2: Psychological Pitfalls
Ageless Athlete Profile: Don Wildman
Part 2: Why You Should Train Like An Operational Athlete
Chapter 3: Achieving Balance By Moderation
Chapter 4: The Ageless Athlete
Ageless Athlete Profile: Middle-Aged Mixed Martial Artists
Part 3: Strength Programming For The Ageless Athlete
Chapter 5: How Strong Do You Need To Be?
Chapter 6: Strength Templates For Ageless Athletes
Chapter 7: Clusters, Accessories, And Kettlebells
Chapter 8: Programming Recovery
Chapter 9: Putting It All Together
Chapter 10: Training Maxes And Testing
Chapter 11: The Old Warhorse Template
Chapter 12: Back “Break” Templates
Ageless Athlete Profile: Fred “Dr. Squat” Hatfield
Part 4: Conditioning And Diet For The Ageless Athlete
Chapter 13: The Ageless Athlete Base Building Template
Chapter 14: Two Novel Base Building Applications
Chapter 15: Apex Hill Sprints, Duku-Duku, And Hic Intensity
Chapter 16: Some Diet Strategies
Ageless Athlete Profile: Barbara Buder
Part 5: Persistence
Chapter 17: Discipline
Chapter 18: Guarding Against Doing Too Much
Concluding Thoughts
Notes
PART 1:
POSSIBILITIES
Those who devote themselves exclusively to
physical training turn out to be more savage than
they should, while those who devote themselves to
music and poetry turn out to be softer than is good
for them.
Plato, Republic1
CHAPTER 1:
TEN YEARS TO
MULTIDIMENSIONAL FITNESS
I
turned thirty in 2003 with a tremendous sense of satisfaction on that
birthday. I had a great marriage (and thankfully I still do), a healthy son,
and a good start on my career as a professor of philosophy. I felt like I had
finally arrived somewhere as a bona fide husband, father, and professional.
My twenties had been a whirlwind: college, graduate school, and moving
around the United States as my wife and I started our careers. In the end, it
had all worked out, and we had landed firmly on the ground. Suffice it to
say, I had much to be happy about at the close of my third decade on earth.
There was, nevertheless, an eight-hundred-pound gorilla I had been
ignoring. In fact, you could say that it was more like a three-hundred-pound
gorilla, and the ape was me! I stand only 5’8”, but at the time I probably
weighed over three hundred pounds. I’m sure that I don’t need to inform
anyone that, whatever you think of the standard BMI scale, that height-to-
weight ratio is bad news. I say “probably three hundred pounds” because I
just didn’t have the guts to step on a scale and face the humiliating truth. I
could dodge the scale, but I could not ignore the mirror: I had arrived at my
thirtieth birthday very fat. I resolved at that point in my life to change that
fact. With the really important things (family and career) progressing with
good momentum, it was time for me to work on the obvious problem I had
been ignoring. My self-imposed ignorance had to end.
Up to a certain point, it was actually pretty easy to deceive myself about my
obesity. Like a lot of American kids, I started playing organized sports
when I was in primary school with baseball and basketball. I struggled at
those sorts of sports (and I still can’t make a basket to save my life). All that
changed when in middle school I was introduced to football and wrestling,
which rewarded brute strength. The summer before seventh grade I started
lifting weights, and by the time I was a freshman in high school I weighed
200lbs and could bench press 275lbs. Brute strength and size were reaping
great dividends for me both on the field and socially. I started to identify
myself as “a big strong guy.” As I mentioned above, I’m pretty short, but I
did go on to play NCAA Division III college football. I kept getting bigger
and stronger, and at that level I did pretty well (I started for three seasons
and was captain of my team). By the time I finished playing in college I
was a solid 250-pound fireplug.