Ask the Ageless Lifter: What’s the Most Important Muscle Group?

by Charles Staley

Where should your priorities start in the gym? Our Expert on training for older lifters says it all starts with a single muscle group that can have the most impact on body composition, quality of life, and overall functionality.

Q: Are there any muscles or muscle groups that older lifters need to pay extra or special attention to? This is great question, and no, it's not an easy one to answer. The most accurate and useful answer will vary from individual to individual, depending on their lifestyle and injury history, of course. For example, if your posture is terrible and you're in constant back pain, well, that's the most important thing to fix! But generally, I believe leg musculature should be prioritized above all else. I have a few different reasons for this opinion.

1). Self-Sufficiency: First and perhaps foremost, healthy and strong legs are what allow you to be ambulatory and, hence, self-sufficient. While a bum shoulder isn't any fun either, a bad hip or knee has much more impact on your overall quality of life. By developing and maintaining good glute, hamstring, and quadriceps strength, you're much more likely to keep these important joints healthy and well-functioning.

Speaking of ambulation, a strong lower body helps you safely navigate your environment. A few months ago, I was walking into the grocery store wearing flip flops, and it had been raining earlier, so my feet were wet. As I approached the slick tile flooring inside, I remember thinking that I should be careful, but despite that awareness, I slipped and fell anyway.

I was fine as it turned out—more embarrassed than anything else—but it was the first time I'd fallen in years, and it struck me as a much more significant event than times I had fallen in my 20s. Bear in mind, I'm a guy who was in the best shape of my life at 55, lifts regularly, and has even competed in powerlifting in the not-distant past. But a single fall definitely got my attention and made me think about what could have happened.

I was grateful for being strong enough to minimize the effects of the fall, but also aware that a similar fall when I'm 70 or 80 would potentially be a serious event. The stronger your legs are, the more steady you'll be on your feet in challenging circumstances, and even if you do slip and fall, you'll be more likely to emerge unscathed.

2). Leg Strength Provides "Margin" Here's an analogy I often share with clients: Think about rising up from a chair, which is essentially a bodyweight squat. Next, imagine two individuals doing that with loaded barbells on their back, which is basically a box squat. One can barely squat 350 pounds while the other can barely squat 50. Obviously, the 50-pound squatter only has 50 pounds of margin between his current capacity and being unable to rise from a chair while the 350-pound squatter, is much further away from being incapacitated.

To be clear, this isn't necessarily a reason to chase limit strength forever, though. It's not necessarily better to become a 700-pound squatter, because the orthopedic costs of getting that strong would likely outweigh the benefits. And when you have that many pounds on your back, you're only a split second from being incapacitated at any particular time.

3). Strong Legs Can Make Everything Stronger The leg muscles, particularly the calves, believe it or not—are sometimes called your body's "second heart" because they help to return circulating blood back to the heart. The stronger and more muscular your legs are, the better they can serve in this role.

If done correctly, strength training your legs will improve not only strength and size, but also mobility, all of which translates to healthier knees, hips, and lumbar spine. As an example, properly-performed RDL's can play a significant role in lengthening the hamstrings, which helps to bulletproof your lower back, because you'll be able to perform squat, hinge, and lunge patterns without flexing your lumbar spine. Similarly, performing full-range squats promotes improved ankle range of motion, and when the ankles move freely, the knees, hips, and spine are spared compensatory adjustments.

4). Leg Training Builds Muscle and Burns Calories! Given their (at least potentially) significant size, the leg muscles have a strong contribution to overall metabolic rate, and by extension, your body composition. Leg-powered activities also tend to burn the most calories, and have the potential to send the most powerful anabolic signals throughout your body.

Put another way, some curls may help you add a bit of muscle to your arms. But squats along with curls will set you up for not only bigger arms, but a leaner, more muscular physique from head to toe. It's no coincidence that I like to put the leg work first thing in full-body workouts. It's the main course! You can see an example of what that style of training looks like in my article "This Is Full-Body Training Done Right."

5). Don't Forget You Have Choices! One final note about leg-training strategy, especially for older lifters: If you have good orthopedic health and relatively normal proportions, you'll have the benefit of at least two different "ground management" strategies—hinging from the hips, and squatting. On the other hand, if your knees are shot, you'll get more reward and less risk from hip hinging, so embrace that, and get good at it. Bad hips or back? Front-loaded squats and lunges may be more your speed than deadlifts or barbell back squats.

Having a full arsenal of movement substitutions, like my friend John Rusin offers up in his guide Unstoppable: The Ultimate Guide to Training Through Injury, is a no-brainer.

My big point here is, do what you can to improve your strength, mobility, and muscle mass, but within reason. If you have arthritic knees, sure, do your best to maintain your strength and mobility, but don't set a goal of squatting 400 pounds. Even if you manage to accomplish it, the risks are too great. Similarly, if you have a herniated lumbar disk, ease up on those heavy deadlifts, as much as I hate to be the bearer of bad news.

Especially when you're older, smart training isn't only about improving. Sometimes it's also about damage control. When considering your training goals, think not only about the benefits, but also the costs.
Keep moving forward a little at a time, and just as importantly, look to minimize the amount of time you spend moving backward!

Dr. Debra Lieberman — That’s Disgusting! Objection: Disgust, Morality and the Law

Why do we consider incest wrong, even when it occurs between consenting adults unable to have children? Why are words that gross us out more likely to be deemed “obscene” and denied the protection of the First Amendment? In a world where a gruesome photograph can decisively influence a jury and homosexual behavior is still condemned by some as “unnatural,” it is worth asking: is our legal system really governed by the power of reason? Or do we allow a primitive human emotion, disgust, to guide us in our lawmaking? In this wide-ranging conversation Dr. Lieberman considers disgust and its impact on the legal system to show why the things that we find stomach-turning so often become the things that we render unlawful. Shedding light on the evolutionary and psychological origins of disgust, she reveals how ancient human intuitions about what is safe to eat or touch, or who would make an advantageous mate, have become co-opted by moral systems designed to condemn behavior and identify groups of people ripe for marginalization. Over time these moral stances have made their way into legal codes, and disgust has thereby served as the impetus for laws against behaviors almost universally held to be “disgusting” (corpse desecration, bestiality) — and as the implicit justification for more controversial prohibitions (homosexuality, use of pornography).

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Joint Functions When We Move: Mobility & Stability

Human movement is an amazing orchestra of muscle contractions controlled by the central nervous system to create joint actions to accomplish specific tasks. The motor tasks can be as simple as raising a glass of water or as dynamic as an explosive golf swing.
When you look at all the muscle and joint actions the body is capable of, there are countless movement patterns that can be created. In order to allow the body to have such a vast amount of movement possibilities, the 10 main joints (listed below) of the human movement system have specific roles and responsibilities. Starting from the ground up the joints are:

• Foot 
• Ankle
• Knee
• Hip
• Lumbar Spine
• Thoracic Spine
• Cervical Spine
• Shoulder
• Elbow
• Wrist

When evaluating the movement system, these joints can be categorized as either a stability- or mobility-based joint.

Mobility: The ability to move freely and easily,
Stability: The ability of the body to maintain postural equilibrium and support joints during movement.

When the joints are looked at individually, each joint can be classified by their main responsibility. Of course, every joint will have some overlap in roles, but each has a primary function. 



     Stability joints are the foot, knee, lumbar spine, cervical spine and elbow.

The mobility joints are the ankle, hip, thoracic spine, shoulder and wrist.

A clear pattern emerges in that the kinetic chain is a series of joints stacked on top of each other in an alternating pattern of stability then mobility. This sequence creates the ideal platform for dynamic human movement.

Unfortunately, a disruption in this pattern can occur, creating movement dysfunctions. The most common causes of this alternating pattern disruption include previous injury, chronic pattern overload, muscle imbalances or bony malalignments. When issues like this occur, it can affect the normal function of the joint. If the dysfunction is severe enough, the joint, or in many cases joints, will then begin to lose the ability to maintain their primary stability or mobility function. Quite often the joints that are stability-based become more mobile (less stable than they should be) and the joints that are mobility-based become more stable (more stiff, fixed in position than they should be).

When the joints within the kinetic chain lose their primary role due to dysfunction and change roles, human movement becomes compromised and the chance of injury increases significantly.

A Mysterious Change of Mind: Why Do People Die by Suicide?

Anthony Bourdain (age 61). Kate Spade (55). Robin Williams (63). Aaron Swartz (26). Junior Seau (43). Alexander McQueen (40). Hunter S. Thompson (67). Kurt Cobain (27). Sylvia Plath (30). Ernest Hemingway (61). Alan Turing (41). Virginia Woolf (59). Vincent van Gogh (37). By the time you finish reading this list of notable people who died by suicide, somewhere in the world another person will have done the same, about one every 40 seconds (around 800,000 a year), making suicide the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S. Why?

According to the prominent psychologist Jesse Bering of the University of Otago in New Zealand, in his authoritative book Suicidal: Why We Kill Ourselves (University of Chicago Press, 2018), “The specific issues leading any given person to become suicidal are as different, of course, as their DNA—involving chains of events that one expert calls ‘dizzying in their variety.’” Indeed, my short list above includes people with a diversity of ages, professions, personality and gender. Depression is commonly fingered in many suicide cases, yet most people suffering from depression do not kill themselves (only about 5 percent Bering says), and not all suicide victims were depressed. “Around 43 percent of the variability in suicidal behavior among the general population can be explained by genetics,” Bering reports, “while the remaining 57 percent is attributable to environmental factors.” Having a genetic predisposition for suicidality, coupled with a particular sequence of environmental assaults on one’s will to live, leads some people to try “to make the sh*t stop,” in the words of Winona Ryder’s character in the 1999 film Girl, Interrupted. […]

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Collagen Protein: Is It What You Think?

Collagen supplements are everywhere!  In news articles, television doctor shows, and all over your social media feed.  Collagen has been all the rage for the past year and a half.  No surprise that, as the demand for collagen keeps increasing, stores may have a hard time keeping this “magical” substance on their shelves.

But why? What is actually in this product, and is it really making a positive impact on your health? No doubt, the idea of a “do everything” miracle supplement that has the power to build our muscles, our joints, and even make us more beautiful, is certainly appealing!

What is collagen? Collagen is a tough, fibrous protein found in your hair, nails, bones, tendons, ligaments, and skin. It helps your skin stay toned and supple and it gives tendons and ligaments their toughness. As you age, your body begins producing less collagen, which is one reason why skin starts to sag and joints become achy and grumpy.

To further understand what collagen is and why companies have so many different health claims for it, we need to dissect what actually makes up collagen, what actually creates collagen protein?

The answer…amino acids.  All proteins are created through the bonding of amino acids known as a peptide bond. Each individual protein has its own specific arrangement of the amino acids.  This determines the type of protein and location in the body. Collagen itself is created by 4 specific amino acids, whereas most proteins contain 20. Collagen’s peptide bond contains the amino acids glycine, proline, hydroxyproline, and alanine.

Protein molecules are most often too large for our body to absorb in their whole form.  As part of the digestion process, our body breaks the protein down into its individual amino acids, allowing for easy absorption and utilization.  Each amino acid has its own biological function, and once absorbed, will perform that function.
Of course, there are a few other biochemical factors needed for the production and transit of collagen. Without fibroblasts, the assembly of collagen and its amino acid structure would not be possible. These cells produce certain enzymes and cofactors that are required for amino acids to construct collagen and all its components. Fibroblasts create the precursors necessary in collagen synthesis.  The same way an auto mechanic might repair a car using different parts and tools, fibroblasts are the repairmen for collagen. They create different parts and structures to restore our collagen as a whole. 

Along with amino acids, there are a myriad of vitamins, minerals and nutrients which are needed for the production of collagen.  Fat soluble vitamins like A and D are necessary in aiding amino acid functions and for building collagen, as well as supporting the hydration and structure of cellular walls. Vitamin C and other antioxidants also have roles in the production and functionality of collagen as well as maintaining its strength.  How well of these elements work together determine how well your body builds, hydrates, and protects its own collagen.

How Do Collagen Supplements Work? The collagen in our body is no doubt important and something that we want to build and protect, which led to the flood of collagen supplements popping up all over the place.  Since plants do not make collagen, these supplements are produced from animal sources. In fact, collagen supplements begin as the waste products of industrial meat production. For the meat industry, collagen supplements have become a sudden and unexpected financial bonus.  After the prime cuts of meat are sold as steaks and the sub-prime cuts are made into chicken nuggets or hot dogs, what's left?  - the bones, cartilage, skins and other scraps. These animal parts are cracked, boiled, ground up and processed with high heat and chemicals to yield 
something called gelatin —a waste product of meat production.

Over the years, the food companies figured out how to sell the gelatin as a filler ingredient to make everything from marshmallows to beauty creams.   The newest market for gelatin is the supplement industry where it’s been further processed into collagen peptides (aka: protein fragments) and sold as an all-purpose elixir.  Remarkably, some of these companies are selling tubs of this gelatin/collagen for over $40!

There is limited research to support whether or not the incomplete protein found in animal collagen is useful as a supplement.  There are also the safety and ethical issues that go even deeper.  Understanding that the key players in producing collagen are amino acids, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, will put you in a much better position toward improving collagen health within your body.  It can potentially save you some hard-earned money too.