Functional Fitness and Weight Training for Masters Athletes: How It Differs from Training in Your 20s

At Lodestar, we believe fitness is not just about chasing numbers—it’s about building strength, resilience, and confidence that lasts a lifetime. Whether you’re in your 20s or embracing the journey as a Masters athlete (ages 35+), functional fitness and resistance training play a crucial role in improving health and performance. The training looks similar across age groups, but the “why” and the “how” often evolve.

Why Functional Fitness Matters at Any Age

Functional fitness focuses on training movement patterns—squatting, hinging, pushing, pulling, carrying—that translate directly to everyday life. Combine that with resistance training, and you get stronger bones, healthier joints, better posture, and improved metabolic health. For someone in their 20s, these benefits often feel like “extras,” since youth is on their side. For Masters athletes, these same benefits are vital to maintaining independence, preventing injury, and extending quality of life.

The Young Athlete: Building Capacity

Athletes in their 20s and early 30s are in their physical prime. Hormones, recovery rates, and muscle-building potential are at their peak. For them, training often centers on maximizing capacity—chasing personal records, improving speed, and pushing limits in endurance and strength. Recovery is typically quicker, meaning they can often handle higher training volumes and intensity.

For younger athletes, resistance training is about building the foundation for peak performance. Heavy squats, Olympic lifts, sprint intervals, and gymnastics skills come more naturally and progress faster. The body adapts quickly, and setbacks from minor tweaks or overtraining are often short-lived.

The Masters Athlete: Preserving and Progressing

For Masters athletes, the story changes. Recovery slows, lean muscle mass naturally declines, and joint wear-and-tear becomes more noticeable. But this is exactly where functional fitness and resistance training shine.

• Muscle Preservation & Growth: Strength training fights the natural decline of muscle mass (sarcopenia). With consistent resistance work, Masters athletes not only maintain muscle but can still build it well into their 60s and beyond.
• Bone Density: Weight-bearing movements like squats, deadlifts, and presses strengthen bones, reducing the risk of osteoporosis.
• Joint Health: Properly scaled resistance training improves tendon and ligament strength, helping joints stay stable and pain-free.
• Longevity & Independence: Unlike a 25-year-old, a Masters athlete isn’t just training to compete—they’re training for life. Being able to pick up a grandchild, move furniture, or climb stairs without limitation is performance at its highest level.

Comparing Training Styles

While the younger athlete thrives on intensity and volume, the Masters athlete thrives on intentionality and balance. Masters programming often emphasizes:

• More recovery time between sessions or heavy lifts.
• Prioritization of mobility and prehab to avoid injury.
• Scaling with purpose, choosing movements that support longevity instead of risking setbacks.
• Lifestyle integration, aligning nutrition, sleep, and stress management closely with training.

That doesn’t mean Masters athletes train less seriously. In fact, many discover a renewed drive and discipline in this stage of life. The difference lies in the focus: while a 25-year-old may be training to peak for competition, a 50-year-old may be training to peak for the next 30 years of life.

The Lodestar Approach

At CrossFit Lodestar, we design training that meets you where you are—whether you’re chasing PRs in your 20s or protecting and enhancing vitality as a Masters athlete. Functional fitness and resistance training aren’t just for the young; they’re the keys to thriving at every stage of life.

Because in the end, it’s not just about lifting more weight. It’s about lifting more life.

‍