Still climbing hard after 50?
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OK, I never actually climbed that hard, but I am passing the mid-century mark, and had my first bad climbing season last year. Interested whether other "mid-lifers" are seeing performance wane, and if not, why not? And yeah, I know, I should use my feet better. |
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Good questions. |
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Well, Lee Sheftel sent his first 14a at age 59. |
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There's a gentleman at my local gym who is in his 70s, and regularly climbs .10's and easy .11's. |
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Or you could die at any moment. Fuck it....Jump up there and try, eh? |
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Not sure what a bad season is. At 54 I keep being able to get up routes that are as hard as the hardest I have ever climbed. Which means when I was younger I should have tried to climb harder routes than the hardest I do now. |
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If you can improve your technique then you can improve your climbing. Age is unimportant given that. Then would come weight. If you can shed some weight you can probably climb harder. Then you can blame age on the rest, but there's two other more important things to address first. |
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One of my primary partners keeps extolling his idea of bolting up some 6's, 7's and 8's for our 60's and 70's. I respond by telling him that if that would be my limit to shoot me in the face. |
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Bill Flaherty wrote:had my first bad climbing season last year.Define "bad climbing season". Did you not have fun? I'm 60 this year and recently had heart surgery. Yeah, my body doesn't work the way it used to. But, I'm still climbing, still having fun. Just not climbing as hard as I used to. |
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It is often said that there is about a 10% decline in strength (what climbers often call power) per decade after one's peak (late 30's). I (age 58) think I have seen that translate into a number grade decline (I never climbed 5.12 and have decent footwork). I have also seen a slight decline in balance the last couple of years. Sure there are certain exceptional athletes (George Lowe - age 71) still climbing real hard, but they are the exceptions. Injuries (back, elbow tendonitis for me) don't heal as fast. I think the having fun mantra should prevail. |
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I hear that Lee Smith guy can still send like a muther... |
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Doug Redosh wrote: Sure there are certain exceptional athletes (George Lowe - age 71) still climbing real hard, but they are the exceptions.There are plenty of men and women aged 50-69 climbing 5.12 and up in the Front Range. If you want to climb hard there are many normal people examples. Climb as hard or as easy as you like, but middle age is not a valid excuse. |
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For inspirational & informative stories about older climbers, see John Gill's section on senior athletes: |
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For males, I think power peak is probably around mid-20s (just search for Olympic records and the age of the record holder in events like sprinting, long jump, weight lifting, etc.) But athletes peak later in endurance based and more skilled events. But unless you've reached your genetic potential at some point, I think you can still improve later in life, you just need to work harder than you've done before. |
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How about after 60? |
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Was doing near my best at age 57 yet,,,but a definite downward turn since 60. Never was a 5.12 climber sort of person, so my goals are some nice friendly 5.10 to 5.11+ if possible once again. Hope some testosterone treatment this spring will help me wind up and swing for the fences once again in a few weeks. |
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Nobody mentioned Fred Beckey.....? |
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Sure are a bunch of old farts on this forum ;) |
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As Mark said there are plenty of folks climbing fairly hard in their 50's around the Front Range. At 54 I climbed the hardest I ever have last year and hopefully will be able to say the same this year. I will say that gaining strength is a slow process at this age. Gotta be smart about your workouts and stay after it - this is no age to let yourself go or you might never get it back! |