Old man strength is, bro science-wise, muscle memory. To develop it, you need to master techniques while also strengthening primal movements.
Have you ever played basketball against an old guy who doesn’t look strong, but can somewhat ball?
So, you think you can take advantage of him because he’s old?
But when he posts up against you, he just crushes you in the paint? And every time you try to go for a rebound, he out strengths you with solid box-outs?
And after every game, he just makes you question your youth and life and all you feel is misery?
No? You’ve never felt any type of “misery” after a game? Oh, yeah, neither have I…
Anyway, what this old guy (and many others) has is called old man strength.
What is Old Man Strength?
Scientifically, old man strength is explained as a final sprint in a person’s testosterone production. During this time, a man will produce a bunch of hormones before the production of it starts to decline.
But we don’t care about the actual science of it.
We only care about the bro-science definition of it, which refers to old man strength as muscle memory.
What this essentially means is that old man strength (or old woman strength, we don’t discriminate here) is built via many years of repeatedly doing and practising a movement.
So that old guy who hurt your feelings (or mine, whatever) by dominating you down in the post, he’s been doing those movements for many, many years.
He’s been perfecting his technique since you were a toddler (probably). He’s also been weight training too, which only made his form shatterproof.
And that’s why you (or me, whatever) weren’t able to rattle him.
And also why he was able to own the low post.
Why You Should Work On Your Old Man Strength
Now that you know what old man strength is, here are a few reasons why you (yes, you) should start building it:
1) It will benefit you on defence presently and in the future.
If you start working on strengthening your body while also improving your defence right now, you can immediately start to use your improvements.
It’s not like you have to wait 15 years before you can start using the strength and technique you built.
In addition, if you continue to improve your technique and condition your body throughout your golden years, your skills will age like a fine wine –they’ll get better as time passes.
2) It’ll be super fun to own youngsters on the court when you’re older, like how that old dude owned you.
Some kids just run their mouths a little too much because they think they’re so awesome.
That’s why you need to teach them a lesson. But you won’t be able to do it effectively without old man strength.
And that’s why you need to build it. You need to develop muscle memory so that you can shut those little brats up.
3) The old man strength is a perfect companion to the old man game.
As you work on your old man game (or the fundamentals of basketball), you can also work on your old man strength (or core strength exercises).
So as your game improves, so will your conditioning.
And gosh dangit, that’s just awesome!
How to Build Old Man Strength
If you’re convinced, here are two resistance workouts you can do to get that old man strength:
Med Ball 200
The Med Ball 200 is a full-body circuit workout. It’ll train and strengthen your ability to do the primal movements (push, pull, bend, squat, lunge and twist).
It’ll also challenge your core and cardio since it’s a circuit (you’ll have to do multiple exercises in one set with little to no rest).
To learn more about this workout, click here.
The Randy Couture Workout
The Randy Couture Workout is similar to Med Ball 200, except the equipment is different and there aren’t as many core exercises.
Again, it’ll train your primal movements (and cardio) in a circuit.
To learn more about this workout, click here.
Final Thoughts
These two workouts are great for building overall strength.
I suggest that you swap one for the other every couple of weeks so that you don’t hit a plateau.
Other than that, if you do these two workouts and work on your fundamentals, you’ll be schooling youngins in no time!
Well, in some time because you’re probably not that old yet.
