In the years I’ve spent training Jiu-Jitsu I’ve come across many older team mates and competitors that had some sort of super human grip and tendon strength that was hard to explain and that I hadn’t experienced when rolling with guys in their 20?s. The famous 'Old man strength'. This article looks what causes 'old man strength':
http://www.bjjee.com/articles/understanding-old-man-strength-in-jiu-jitsu/
Please share your experiences with 'old man strength' :)
I'm kind of disappointed I was hoping for something more in depth. Do you have a link to the original report you cited?
Old Man Strength/Farmer Strength come from the same thing. The more labor you did growing up and as an adult, the stronger your ligaments and tendons. They allow you to put on muscle easier and make it seem like people with less muscle are stronger than they are. Theres a book called Manthropology that talks about it.
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I have a guy in my school who is doing BJJ for about 3 month and is nearly 60 years old. Sucessful buisness man never worked as a farmer or labour stuff...
He is a seasoned runner but has no background in Grappling or strength training aside for 3 month BJJ and a few more month in the regular gym doing basic mainstream stuff (no heavy lifting).
The guy is around 160 pounds.....
His holding and grip strength is insane. Basically he grabs everything he gets and even so he has no idea what to do he is holding like there is no tommorow.
He has no technique but his isometric holding is much better than from the typical 20 or 30 year old.
Maybe it has something to do with holding constant tensions in your body over the years and decades. Kind of permanent isometric contractions that lead to this kind of strength.
The guy has a hard time to relax at all so his tension is always visible......
So at what age (if any) is considered old man strength late 30's, early 40's? 
Soulroller - So at what age (if any) is considered old man strength late 30's, early 40's?
Holy Crap! I'm an old man I guess. Don't know about the strength part.
pretty shallow article but I'm gonna give a thumbs up since I'm approaching 40 myself :)
I believe there is something to old man strength( I'm approaching 44 so maybe I'm grasping at straws). But the strongest grip I've ever felt was a 197 collegiate wrestler, , he's 23. His grip is pretty uncanny. 2nd would be a guy that just turned 30 that I roll with a lot. He wrestled from 1st to 12th grade and now trains a lot in the gi. His grip is pretty crazy to.
But I agree more often than not the stronger guys seem to be older except for the guys who have grappled from youth.
Maybe old man strength is a trade off for having to deal with the wild bushy eyebrows and crazy nose and ear hair that seemed to sprout from nowhere about about 38. You old cats will know what I'm talking about
Old man strength- An excuse younger grapplers give gor getting their asses handed to them by older grapplers.
We've all encountered crazy strong grappling guys, some of whom are older. But then again . . . some of them are younger.
So I'm not sure I've seen a reason to conclude that there is some age-related biological process at play. Especially one that applies across the board.
It could just be that the super strong older guy has great genetics, or has technique refined over many years of not having speed-based explosive athleticism. Or if he's a new guy, he might just be focused on grips because he doesn't know what else to focus on and he knows he's not fast or explosive.
There also may be some selectivity at play. How many 45 to 60 year-old weaklings stay with grappling for any length of time? If you've got an older person who regularly attends something as strenuous as BJJ class, chances are he's probably a better athlete than most men his age.
So I don't know . . . it just seems like there are a lot of potential explanations for why we BELIEVE "old man strength" is some sort of special edge that develops later in life, but it really may just be part happenstance and part our perception.
But . . . I will say that there are aspects of certain sports that don't seem to degrade very much with age.
My wife is a triathlete, and many men and women over 50 put down KILLER times. Especially in the longer distances. They might not have the best sprinting abilities, but when it comes to maintaining a steady (and high) pressure, they can do it. It's not unusual to have people over 50 in the top 10 finishers in pretty competitive regional triathlons.
How that translates to grappling, I have no idea. But it seemed worth mentioning.
ha. i find this article.....less than convincing.
Older grapplers explosive power and flexibility appear to degrade but their isometric strength can be insane.
I have always joked that it is "Dad strength", formed from years of bodily tension from dealing with your crazy wife and needy child.
MTH - But . . . I will say that there are aspects of certain sports that don't seem to degrade very much with age.
My wife is a triathlete, and many men and women over 50 put down KILLER times. Especially in the longer distances. They might not have the best sprinting abilities, but when it comes to maintaining a steady (and high) pressure, they can do it. It's not unusual to have people over 50 in the top 10 finishers in pretty competitive regional triathlons.
How that translates to grappling, I have no idea. But it seemed worth mentioning.
yeah thats true. there are some freakily fast older endurance athletes. I think its a combination of things; many are retired or semi retired, kids grown and out of the house, money to train, more commited and the biggy in my opinion, Hormone replacement therapy.
I was a cat 3 roadie when you 1st started seeing those Low T commercials on television. Almost over night the masters 40+ went from the old pot bellied guys just out for a group ride with friends to the second fastest group behind the pro 1, 2, 3 class. And everyone of them shredded. god bless science.
Soulroller - So at what age (if any) is considered old man strength late 30's, early 40's?Really? What are you 16? Just wait friend. That elderly age of" late 30s" will be upon you soon.
I feel with the old guys at our school they grip like its the last grip they will ever have. However, I feel like so much of it is just the old guys having so many different things going on in life and that 1-2 hrs practice session is their only outlet for the week so they grip like there's no tomorrow. not to mention they know they are old men in a young man's sport. They need to kill first before they know they are killed.
there may or may not be something to old man strength, but there is definitely, as noted above, a heavy selection bias. the guys fit and healthy enough to still be doing bjj at an older age are more likely to have above average strength than a randomly chosen 20 year old white belt who just started.
If the sport of jiu jitsu is a young man's game, then the art of jiu jitsu is a man's game.
sebastard - If the sport of jiu jitsu is a young man's game, then the art of jiu jitsu is a man's game.
Love it!