Episode 105: Want to Learn How to Stay Strong and Manage Joint Pain? Guest Physiotherapist Chris Tiley Tells Us How!

Hola amigos! Welcome back —–

Is there a way to avoid aging? Not exactly, but Chris Tiley shatters the myth that frailty and weakness are fate with age. Sounds too magical? Not really!

Highlights of this episode:

• Weight Lifting Over 60 Years Old
• Common Myths of Aging: What You Can and Cannot Do
• Common Challenges to Weight Lifting
• Weight Lifting with Mental Conditions
• How to Avoid Injuries during Weight Training
• Weight Lifting and Nutrition

Introducing Our Guest 

Chris Tiley is a physiotherapist in the UK. (In the USA, he would be a physical therapist.) He has worked in various settings including hospitals, rehabilitation units, sports teams, including British snow skiing members of Parasnowsport, and currently in private clinics. Within all these roles, but especially within British ParaSnowsport, he has routinely incorporated strength programs whilst adapting them around various disabilities and injuries. He is passionate about introducing strength training to those who never thought that they would be able to do it. He loves seeing the results that people can achieve, seeing their confidence grow and seeing how much it brings back to their everyday lives. His blog, Never Too Old to Lift, is an outlet for him to share his passion and aims to inspire more people to get stronger so that they can continue to enjoy all the activities that they love.

FULL DESCRIPTION (not a transcript): 

[00:00] David met Chris through SPI Pro, an entrepreneur program. David used to help his aging father go to the gym, which may have given him extra years. However, David is concerned he may have made some mistakes working with an adult over 65 years old. David and Chris talk about the best strategies for older adults who want to gain strength.

[5:34] Chris’ Approach: Never Too Old to Lift

Chris earned his physiotherapist qualifications in 2008. Like many physiotherapists, he started in hospitals. Later, working with sport ski teams provided the opportunity to travel overseas for competitions. When he started his private practice, he saw numerous clients over the age of 60. This led to building his niche. Many of his new clients lack confidence and Chris helps them achieve what they thought impossible.

After any person turns 30 years old, the aging process begins. Sarcopenia causes muscle loss and loss of muscle strength. Basic daily activities like getting up and down from a chair or walking up the stairs slowly becomes challenging. The quicker we give up, the more rapidly sarcopenia develops. Falls happen, and recovery can be so slow.  Another common aging condition is osteoarthrosis is loss of muscle mass and loss of muscle strength. If our muscles are not taking the impact, then our joints take the impact. Joints get angry and sensitive, and movement becomes difficult.

Why does this happen after age 30? Since the physical growing process is over, the dying process begins.  When anyone loses weight, that can include muscle loss, which is alarming, especially in older adults. The percentage of muscle tissue loss increases incrementally after 30 years old.

Muscle loss leads to weaken bones. Theros, the Royal Osteoarthrosis Society in the UK, encourages weight training at any age. Older adults are often told not to weight lift, but doing it can slow down the aging body’s natural sarcopenia and osteoporosis. Frailty is not automatic with age; we can turn this around. It is possible. Some older adults find new physical accomplishments, like the people over 80-100 years old who just won a marathon. Diseases like sarcopenia and osteoporosis is not a death sentence.

15:20] Common Myths of Aging: What You Can and Cannot Do

Chris explains that too often, a person tries a routine, and one exercise didn’t go well, and the whole process is stopped. Yes, there are many reasons why older adults don’t do weight: pain, flare ups, injury, or the threat of those reasons.  Family members can become overly protective and then the older adult becomes conditioned to being weaker. Chris argues that weight lifting does not have to look like someone with a barbell behind their back. When you push yourself to fatigue, you get muscle strengthening. He likes to ask, could you have done more? There is science to weight lifting repetitions and building back up strength. However, Chris acknowledges that any activity is good, but you have to fatigue the muscle to strengthen it.

[20:19] What Does a Weight Lifting Session Look Like?

Let’s say a theoretical client says she had knee surgery, what do you do? Chris establishes the moving parts and focuses on functional patterns. The seven functional patterns are: squat, dead lift, lunge, push up, pull up, rotating against resistance, and gait. He helps clients by finding their base and plan a progression. You find what someone can do and build from that. Gradual progression is the goal.

How long on average does it take to see improvement? What defines improvement?

When a person find they can do something that they thought they would never do without pain.  During Chris’ program, he explains that the brain works to help the muscles find the most efficient way to use their muscle. When clients hit a plateau, it may be temporary, but may be viewed mentally as a permanent state of being. This is just a mental game, because by doing, the muscle is being built.  Chris likes to see his clients build confidence. Confidence is just a matter of doing, starting small and feeling safe.

[29:27] Weight Lifting with Mental Conditions

It is rarer to see clients with mental conditions, such as Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, Parkinson’s, Multiple Sclerosis, and others. Chris says that as long as the client is not too progressed mentally, weight lifting may be possible. The family is educated on being involved as well. Slower progress may be necessary with these conditions.

[33:47] What are Challenges to Starting or Maintaining Weight Lifting?  

Chris sees plenty of clients who have not enjoyed weight lifting, or the idea of it. He loves to create motivation through the client’s personal goals. For example, helping grandchildren, overcoming fatigue, gardening, can be motivators. A standard gardening watering can is 10 liters or 22 pounds.  Picking up children, who widely vary in weight, can be weight lifting. Chris helps clients start to visualize how the exercise could benefit common activities, that becomes motivating.

To help clients see success, Chris built a 12-week program. Online programs can be so generic, so if one or two exercises cause pain for the client, then the client quits.  Chris’ E-book focuses on concepts of the different moving patterns, a suggested starting point (with adaptations if that’s too much), then a progression timeline. He proudly shares that one client started at lifting 13 kg to 70 kg, the equivalent to his own body weight. Chris said this is the gold standard goal, whatever you weigh, being able lift that off the floor can be vital.

[41:35] How to Avoid Injuries during Weight Training

Chris shares that by simply having a plan significantly lowers the risk of injury. One question he often gets is, “Is the exercise good or bad?” His go-to response is, how does your body tolerate that exercise? He models marathon training programs, which increase your performance by 10% each week, into a 3–4-month period. He warns that if someone doubles up for missed time, that can lower your tolerance and creates a risk for injury.

[43:45] Chris’ Services

Chris’ private practice is Never Too Old to Lift. His website provides many free resources like, “What are Reps and Sets?’ and “Muscle fatigue and Why We Aim For It”. He build a social page called, Adapting to Pain Lifter for Life, so adults over 60+ could share stories about their progress. For example, one client with Type 2 Diabetes at age 57, within 6 years, reduced her insulin from 40 units 14 units.

[48:00] Weight Lifting and Nutrition

When we build strength, we need protein to rebuild that muscle. Diet culture and restrictive diets are harmful in a weight lifting program. People want to lose fat, but the scale is not an indication of that. Becoming bulky is a common fear, but that requires very specific training. I focus on whether or not you feel better. If there is a scale weight focus, that easily becomes a vicious cycle of seeing weight not go down, then they restrict, then their performance suffers. In my practice, I often see that people don’t eat enough food or lack variety. Diet culture can literally kill us. 

Where do I go from here?

I can’t wait to have you listen in and let me know what you think! If you like this episode, hit that subscribe button so you won’t miss an episode, wherever you listen to podcasts Apple, Spotify, Castbox, Google, or Stitcher. While you’re there, let me know what nutrition or health topic you’d like me to cover or leave a review.

Links from This Episode: 

From Chris Tiley:

Free Goal Planner & Workout Template

First 2 Chapters of eBook for Free 

Lifter for Life Story -Susan 

Facebook – Never Too Old to Lift

YouTube Channel – Never Too Old to Lift 

Twitter — Never Too Old to Lift 

Instagram -Never Too Old to Lift

Other Resources:

Emory Brain Health Clinic

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