I started CrossFit at age 62, after a sedentary office career, and a huge loss of flexibility and mobility. Getting up from a kneeling position was painful and torturous. My experience has been soft tissue injuries from trying to do too much too fast.  Most L1 coaches don't seem to have the knowledge that older participants need more scaling and/or modification of movements. My injuries didn't appear in the moment of the movement, but rather hours or days later. Older bodies heal slower, sadly. The added strength has been wonderful, a welcome byproduct. But the adage "don't get hurt today, come back tomorrow" seems to me to be an important approach especially for those over 60, or maybe even younger, when getting started in any consistent athletic endeavor, including CrossFit.  I loved the article, learned several things, and want to apply what I learned to my efforts to improve my overall health.  Thanks for a great article and all the work that went into it. 

Great article!! Just for a slightly different perspective, I'm only 57, so maybe take it with a grain of salt, but personally I have actually been able over the past 5 or so years to set new strength PRs, such as my deadlift last year, and for the next little while any Oly lift will be a PR because I am just learning them -- although the metcon pace stuff has been going down, so I am still playing with the recovery ratio re: things like running pace. The PRs are largely due to fixing some asymmetries and reducing some functional scoliosis, so my injury rate is going *way* down and I am not losing as much time overall and I can now concentrate on the actual lifts more instead of as much rehab. So I would say don't necessarily give up hope on that aspect - although maybe my performance "bar" was just lower than other people's to start with. Anyway, awesome article, and thank you.

Manion (Women's Intermediate)
5 RFT
400m run
29 Back Squat 75#
19-20 min

My legs were pretty sore today but there was no way I wasn't going to do something in honor of First Lieutenant Travis Manion (though I did anticipate that hero WOD to be programmed).  RIP 1LT!

Thank you for an interesting and fact-based article.  I can attest to the changes that the author described when you go from a sedentary life to one filled with movement.  I started CF at 51 because I was having issues with sitting down and standing back up and wasn’t able to lift my arms fully overhead.  How things have changed for me in the last 5 years to performing a squat below parallel and having a push jerk PR of 105!  It took me a couple of years to overcome my embarrassment of not moving like the younger members but over time I learned to focus on just me and to stay consistent with 5 times a week, which resulted in greater metabolic conditioning than trying to appease my ego. 

This article is so spot on. I love the concept of erasing PRs. When I started CrossFit at age 48, I had dreams of getting back to my college PRs in squat and bench from 25 years ago. I’ve now happily accepted that I won’t get there, don’t want to get there, and that it was unrealistic to think I could get back there. 

I train six days a week for the past two years, I got sober, I lost 9% body fat, my mental health has improved. Those are my new PRs. 

What a great article Lon.

"The majority of us are broken only if we accept or believe convention and simply, voluntarily, stop."

If you keep going, it may kill you, but if you stop, you will surely die.

Nice work Lon! Andy

Hey Andrew.

I am 62. I started CrossFit at 45. I am currently on seminar staff teaching level one's and a CrossFit box owner for 17 years. I tell all my 50 plus athletes to erase their PR's every 5 years. I can not come close to what I did at 45, let alone what I did when I played in the NFL in the 80's. By starting from scratch every 5 years, we have a chance to set new PR's and staying positive with our fitness experience. As we get older nutrition plays a huge roll. Make sure you are getting enough protein to maintain protein synthesis in your body. We are in catabolic state and need to keep up muscle tissue. Someone once said, "I never met an 80 year that said I wish I had less muscle". This conversation could be endless, but I will leave at this. Stay in fight and make yourself hard to kill!

Sincerely, Andy

I totally appreciate the need for people to "continue to move" as they age. It only ensures greater long term mobility and overall fitness...as the article describes. What I do find frustrating is when you are fit and you are able to do many of these movements into your 50's, you do start to hit the 'downhill' side of fitness. You can't lift as much as you were able to previously; the ease of many gymnastic movements is reduced; cardio capacity is more limited; etc. No matter how fit you are, it is increasingly difficult to get off the floor as you age into your 60's. Yes, Crossfit (and HIIT training in general) is good at keeping you mobile and able to do things well beyond what my parents could do but psychologically, I think it is almost more difficult to deal with the loss of mobility and strength as you get older. Articles like these are great for people who are less active (re: sedentary) but from my own perspective, it is difficult to read as someone whose max lifts, erg times, etc. have diminished. Learning how to accept these changes, because of aging, is not easy. It would be nice to read an article that reviews this particularly perspective as I'm sure I'm not the only one and as one's body 'breaks down' (arthritis, old injuries, and simply age), it would be reassuring to know that, from the perspective of this community, it is normal and 'OK'.