Hail to the Dinosaurs!
Who's stronger?
A 20 year old who clean and jerks 300
pounds at a bodyweight of 200 pounds?
A 40 year old who does 260 pounds at
the same bodyweight?
A 50 year old who hits 240 pounds at
the same bodyweight?
A 60 year old who manages 200 pounds
at the same bodyweight weight?
Or a 70 year old who lifts 155 pounds
at a 200 pound bodyweight?
Well, the 20 year old obviously lifts
the most weight - but if you factor
age into account, who's the strongest?
In master's weightlifting, they use a
formula to determine the strongest
lifter on an age adjusted basis.
It's called the Mentzer-Malone formula.
You can find it right here under the
heading "Forms and Formulas":
vhttp://www.mastersweightlifting.org/
To use the formula, you find the
coefficient for the lifter's age
and multiply his or her top lift.
The result gives you an age-adjusted
maximum for the lifter - which allows
you to compare the relative performance
of lifters of different ages.
So let's go back to our original
questions.
Who's stronger?
Well, the 20-year old is too young to
have an age-adjusted coefficient. So his
lift of 300 pounds rates as - 300 pounds.
The 40 year old has a coefficient of 1.136.
Multiply his 260 pound lift by 1.136 and
you get an age-adjusted result of 295.36.
The 50 year old has a coefficient of 1.243.
Do the math. 240 pounds x 1.243 = 298.32.
The 60 year old has a coefficient of 1.509.
So we get an age-adjusted result of 200
pounds x 1.509 = 301.80.
Now look at the 70 year old. His coefficient
is 1.933. So you get: 155 pounds x 1.933 =
299.615.
In other words, on an age-adjusted basis,
they're all almost identical - and the 60
year old with the 200 pound clean and
jerk is the strongest!
That's pretty interesting - and it leads to
some very important ideas about effective
training for older Dinos. We'll cover them
tomorrow.
As always, thanks for reading and have a
great day. If you train today, make it a
good one.
Yours in strength,
Brooks Kubik
P.S. Older Dinos need to train a bit differently
than younger Dinos. I explain why - and I tell
you exactly what to do (and not do) - in Gray
Hair and Black Iron:
http://www.brookskubik.com/grayhair_blackiron.html
P.S. 2. You can grab my other books and courses
right here:
P.S. 3. Thought for the Day: "Up to a certain age,
the iron makes you stronger. After a certain
age, the iron makes you younger. Iron is magic
that way." -- Brooks Kubik
