The Benefits of Strength Training As You Age

Have you heard the news? Our bodies change as we get older.

Yeah, I know that’s probably not breaking news, but how about this?

“Aging is an overrated concern when it comes to overall health and physical condition.”

I’ve trained hundreds of people from 14 to 92 years old, and I can tell you I’ve seen nothing to indicate that getting older automatically means getting worse.

On the contrary, I’ve seen great results from people of all ages. That when they exercise, they keep and build muscle.

What allows you to get down on the floor to play with your grandkids?

What allows you to carry your groceries to the car with no help?

What protects your joints from injury?

What helps you recover from injuries you do have?

What sustains your body if you get sick?

Muscle!

Muscle is more important than flexibility and much more important than losing weight. (Just about everything is more important than losing weight, by the way.)

So, how do you build and keep it?

Strength training.

I know it can sound intimidating, but strength training isn’t always some big guy picking up a heavy barbell. It can be, but most often at our gym, it’s done using bodyweight, bands, or dumbbells.

Like all exercises, the important thing is to adapt it to you and the great thing about strength training is that it’s very adaptable.

Strength training does more, too. It’s the best thing you can do to prevent and treat osteoporosis and other bone density issues as well as to prevent falls.

It really is the holy grail, huh?

As we get older, it kind of is.

Lastly, I want to allay some of your fears by telling you that while strength training should be challenging, it should NOT hurt. You SHOULD feel some strain in your muscles, that’s what you’re working after all, but you should NOT feel pain in your joints.

Your knees shouldn’t hurt when you do squats, your shoulders shouldn’t hurt when you do pushups, and your back shouldn’t hurt when you do planks. If they do, it means your form needs to be adjusted.

There are too many variables for me to effectively or safely write a plan for you here, but if you have any questions about how to do that, please feel free to drop me an email anytime.