Tip 5 Best Exercises for the Over-35 Lifter Search Skip to content Menu Menu follow us Store Articles Community Loyal-T Club Loyal-T Points Rewards Subscribe to Save Search Search The World s Trusted Source & Community for Elite Fitness Training Tip 5 Best Exercises for the Over-35 Lifter Been lifting hard for years Add these joint and spine-friendly movements to your program and keep making gains by Scott Hansen December 9, 2018August 18, 2019 Tags Bodybuilding, Tips, Training The longer you're on the planet, the more wear and tear you're bound to accrue. It's like compound interest, just the opposite. Years of heavy barbell work, sports, and being behind the desk can lead to spines like railroad spikes, and shoulders and hips that could use a generous dose of WD40. While you should be addressing all of those issues with sound mobility work and whatnot, it doesn't mean that you can't be improving your strength and athleticism while building muscle at the same time. Here are the five best exercises to hammer into your program: 1 – Push-Up Variations There are a million options and they all have value. But to keep your joints happy, use push-up handles, parallette bars, or better yet, gymnastics rings, to keep the shoulders and wrists in the best positions. You want to hammer muscles, not further beat up your joints. 2 – Ring L-Sit Chin-Up Heavy chin-ups are great, but if you've got some shoulders that are less than optimal, using gymnastics rings to let the shoulders rotate more naturally is a must. Add in an L-sit and you've got a governor switch to keep the reps perfect and controlled, without needing much, if any, additional load. If you want to overload the upper body further, throw on a weighted vest, or stick a medicine ball between your feet if you're looking for an extra core challenge. 3 – Sandbag-Shouldered Deficit Reverse Lunge Everyone could probably use more single-leg work in their programs. With these, you get: Half the loading of bilateral exercises, which saves your spine To work on balancing out any asymmetries A more posterior dominant exercise than forward lunges, making them easier on the knees An increased range of motion An uneven loading tool that adds a serious core challenge 4 – Box Jump It's all fine and well to get brutally strong lifting, but being athletic requires more. Since we lose power at twice the rate of strength as we age, training that quality would be wise. Box jumps are a great power exercise that doesn't have as heavy of an eccentric component as other jumping options like burpees or jump squats, so they won't beat up your body or nervous system. The caveat is to not do them with the intention of garnering as many Youtube likes as possible and jumping on boxes so high that you have to tuck your knees into your chest to clear them. These are about a soft landing in the same position that you start your jump from, ensuring you get maximal power production and quality work on your landing mechanics. 5 VersaClimber Gyms have 50 treadmills, 30 stationary bikes, and maybe 1-2 VersaClimbers, at best. The reason? They're really hard, but brutally effective. The VersaClimber is a beast but it's especially smooth on the joints and allows you to really go hard without the pounding of a traditional sprint. Shoot for 100 ft on the VersaClimber in under 40 seconds, let your heart rate come back down to 70% or so, then repeat 3-5 times. No heart rate monitor? Rest twice as long as you worked, unless your performance plummets and you need more. Get The T Nation Newsletters Don' t Miss Out Expert Insights To Get Stronger, Gain Muscle Faster, And Take Your Lifting To The Next Level related posts Training When Should I Change My Training Change up your workouts or you'll stop making progress. But change them too often and you'll never get good. Here's how to find the balance. Bodybuilding, Powerlifting & Strength, Training Charles Staley April 26 Training Tip 3 New Ways to Build Abs Here's an easy way to strengthen your abs. And a hard way. And a ridiculously hard way. Take a look. Tips, Training Mike Sheridan January 17 Training How to Lift Forever 6 Bulletproofing Exercises Constantly injured? Here's why and what to do to lift better and get bigger. Ben Mudge & Andrew Coates June 9 Training Tip How to Train Your Calves Without a Machine Here's how to hit your calves in your home gym without having to buy a calf machine. Bodybuilding, Calves, Tips, Training Ben Bruno August 23