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How to Keep Strength and Power as You Age — Training Smarter After 50 | Eric Horst
Description
What actually needs to change in your training as you get older?
Eric Horst has spent nearly five decades climbing, coaching, and studying human performance—and in his 60s, he is still climbing at an elite level. But he’s also candid about what changes with age: power starts to fade, recovery matters more, nutrition becomes increasingly important, and training mistakes can carry a bigger cost.
In this conversation, Eric explains how he has adapted his own training to keep performing as he gets older.
We cover:
- Why power tends to decline with age—and how to keep training it
- Why athletes over 40 may need to pay more attention to protein
- How recovery and injury risk change as you get older
- Why introducing new training methods too aggressively can backfire
- How to balance strength, power, endurance, and climbing-specific work
- What Eric changed around age 50 to support performance and longevity
- Why staying in the sport matters more than hanging onto your absolute peak
Eric’s larger message is one I love: performance eventually changes, but that doesn’t mean you have to stop being an athlete.
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Ageless Athlete is a podcast about healthy aging for people who want to stay strong, active and capable for life. Conversations explore strength, endurance, mobility, recovery, VO2 max, muscle and bone health, and what it takes to keep doing the things you love as you get older.
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