You CAN Improve Athletic Performance After 40

Here’s a series of threads on how I did it.

Part 2: How To Start, With Zero Equipment:
🧵 The first @atgexercise training program I followed after discovering @kneesovertoesg a little more than 4 years ago was "Knee Ability Zero".

Zero because you don't need any special equipment to do it.

This was a perfect introduction, especially since it was during the Covid period and most of the gyms were still closed.

Must Read For People Who Sit A Lot

4 Common-Sense Tips:
🧵 This is Part 10 in a series on how to counteract the effects of too much sitting.

This thread will shift focus to habits you can adopt outside of the gym to combat a sedentary lifestyle.

Desk Workers ⬇️⬇️

Here's a 4-Part Stretch Circuit to Help Counteract Too Much Sitting:

(Sitting Solutions, Part 8/10)
1. Butcher's Block Stretch x 45 seconds

This is my current favorite upper body stretch.

It's great for opening up tight lats, triceps, and upper back muscles.

Hold a weight plate or a stick with your hands wider than the line of your elbows to keep your shoulders externally rotated.

Engage your core muscles and keep an anterior pelvic tilt for more stretch on your upper back.

For more challenge, extend your knees into a full plank as shown.

If you don't have a weight bench, a coffee table can work too.

Sitting too much?

Sitting every day at a desk can lead to weak/tight abdominal muscles.

Lengthen + strengthen your core with the 3 moves in this thread.

(Sitting Solutions, Part 5 of 10)🧵


1. We all probably spend too much time sitting—looking down at a phone or a computer with rounded, hunched shoulders.

The abdominal muscles can often become shortened as a result.

My go-to move to change that is called the pullover, and it scales to ANY strength level.

How to Use Weight Training to Counteract Excess Sitting

Part 4 of 10:
🧵
The last thread in this series was on my favorite anti-sitting exercise for the upper body, the full-range dip.

Today's thread is on my go-to exercise for the posterior chain—the Romanian deadlift.

As an English teacher for 25 years, I made my students sit a lot... 🤦‍♂️

But now I help people undo the effects of too much sitting.

Sitting Solutions: Part 2 of 10 🧵 In this thread, I'm going to break down what I think is the best lower body exercise to counteract the negative effects of excess sitting:

It's called the ATG Split Squat.

The average person sits too much.

Research shows sitting for 8+ hours per day without exercise corresponds to a risk of dying similar to that of smoking.

Scary stuff! But what can we do about it?

(Sitting Solutions, Part 1 of 10) 🧵🧵 As a kid, I never wanted to sit.

Every time I went through a doorway, I had to jump up and touch it.

My parents’ house had handprints on the ceilings and over all the doorways.

When you’re a child, it feels good to move.

Running and jumping is natural and fun.

(I'm trying to get back to that feeling now at 47.)

My Plan to Be Stronger and More Athletic at 50

(Part 8 of 10) The last thread in this series covered cardiovascular exercise.

Today's topic is diet.

Part 3 of 10:

My Plan For Even Greater Athleticism at 50

(6'1; 47 years old) In Part 1, we covered the fundamental ATG principle of building from the ground up.

Part 2 addressed training in a FULL range of motion.

Today’s topic is simple: “No weak or tight links”

What's the single best way to impact mortality, cancer, and cardiovascular disease rates?

Exercise

Nothing else even comes close.

Here’s 5 of my favorite ways to exercise for longevity at 47: 1. Sled and/or Resisted Treadmill

Pushing and/or pulling a weighted sled or using a human-powered, resisted treadmill provides great cardio while also putting money in the bank for long-term joint health!

I use these daily with great results with my clients and in my own training.

Stiff and Tight Hips?

Use this quick routine if you sit a lot for work: 1. Wall Pullover x 20

Painful lower back strain?

It might be a weak and/or tight quadratus lumborum muscle.

Read this thread to learn what to do about it: 1. Have you ever experienced a lower back tweak on one side, directly above the hip bone?

That could be your quadratus lumborum—a deep, four-sided core muscle located on either side of the spine.

I used to sometimes strain this area of my lower back very badly.

Every time I did it, I would freak out—convinced that I had “blown out” my back and would never be the same—might even need back surgery, etc… 😀

Understand that I don’t want to diminish a lower back strain. It can be very painful—even debilitating.

I remember once when I did it 5 or 6 years ago, it was so painful that even getting in and out of my car was an ordeal.

At that time, I didn’t know what it was or how to fix it—let alone how to prevent it from happening again, but I've learned a lot since then.

If you do tweak this area, try these steps below to fix it fast:

In this 🧵, I’m going to show you 3 exercises I used to get more explosive and eliminate tweaks and nagging injuries at 47. 1. Nordic Hamstring Curl

I patiently worked on nordics for almost two years before I had the posterior strength to do my first full rep.

I usually do sets of low reps of these with slow eccentrics. 5 sets of 5 is a good protocol.

This is how I used strength training to restore lost range-of-motion in my 40s
🧵
People don't believe me when I tell them I've had very average flexibility for most of my life.

I could (barely) touch my toes when we did static stretching for sports in high school, and I would have never dreamed of being able to drop into the front splits like I can now at 47.

6 ways to use a cable machine for stronger and more mobile hips
🧵
1. Cable ATG Split Squat

The split squat is a diagonal movement, not straight up and down.

Loading with a cable can help some people speed up their split squat progress.

Elevate your front foot on something as needed if the stretch on your back hip flexors is too intense.

Here I'm using a bumper plate.

Got Dumbbells?

6 DB movements for improved strength and mobility from the ground up: 1. Standing Calf Raise 2 x 12, per side

Be sure to stand on something like a box or a step for a full range of motion.

Got Bands?

8 Band movements for improved strength and mobility from the ground up:
1. Spanish Squats x Max

I like to warm up for every workout with sled push/pull or resisted treadmill.

But if you don’t have either available, banded Spanish squats are a decent alternative for a good quad pump to warm up the knees.

Got A Wall?

6 wall exercises to start improving your mobility right now:
1. Wall Piriformis Stretch x 30 seconds, per side

Push into the wall with your foot for more stretch.

5 Exercises To Unlock Your Hip Mobility:
1. ATG Split Squat

Here's a full-body, stretch-strength workout using only gym machines:
A1. Standing Calf Raise Machine 2 x 12

I love this machine for heavy standing calf raises in a full range of motion!

Do You Walk Daily?

Have a goal of at least 10,000 steps? Bookmark this thread.

4 exercises to help you correct common imbalances and get more from your walks: 1. Backwards Walking, Resisted Backward Treadmill, or Backwards Sled

A traditional Chinese proverb says that "A hundred steps backwards is worth a thousand steps forwards."

Walking backwards, or retro walking, strengthens the muscles and connective tissues in the knees and feet differently than walking forwards does.

Find a flat space with no obstacles or walk backwards with a partner to avoid running into anything.

Dragging a sled backwards on turf or grass works great too!

In the second clip below, I’m using a machine specifically designed for the purpose with adjustable resistance—The ATG Backward Treadmill: bit.ly/3RrvKxA

For more information about the proven benefits of backwards locomotion, check out this article: goodrx.com/well-being/mov…