Hey guys! Quick introduction – my name is Luke and I am the Head of onboarding, experience, and education here at Reason Fitness.
Today’s blog is about building strength in the later years of life and learning how to sustain it for the benefit of the most important things in life like your family, grandkids, safety, and/or the longevity & quality of life!
We’ll be talking about 4 rules that need to exist if it’s important for you to build AND keep strength in your later years. My hope is that this blog would be inspiring, practical, and a great resource for you to use in your own life.
Let’s dive in!
If you are an older-aged adult beginning your fitness journey here, the first thing I’d like to say to you is you are an INSPIRATION. In my time coaching at a local gym for the last 10 years, there are few older aged adults who have the courage to start a new journey with their fitness – especially since they (and probably you) have seen a lot under the sun.
So I want to take a moment and say thank you. Thank you for taking care of yourself and in turn, taking care of your kids, their kids, and your closest friends. They will all benefit from the changes you make for yourself.
Today we’ll be covering the 4 rules of building strength in your 60’s and how to sustain it!
Rule 1: Learn the Proper Positions & Address Mobility and Limitations
The foundation of all strength (especially in the later years of life) begins with proper positions. Proper positions really just means, are we doing the exercises we want to become stronger at, correctly?
In order to ensure you are performing movements properly, you must address your body’s limitations and mobility for the desired exercises.
If a joint is in pain and you don’t have a professional to give you in person feedback or personalized modifications, we would recommend to avoid using it or to explore different variations of the desired exercise to continue exercising without pain.
Ensuring you’re performing the movements correctly comes down to understanding the points of performance for each movement, for example, the box squat.
Here’s a sequential video of the box squat: LINK
The points of performance include
- Begin the movement with the feet at shoulder width stance, toes slightly turned out, and arms in front of the body for counter balance.
- Initiate the movement with the hips descending back and the knees turning out.
- Slowly control the descent until the hips make contact with the box.
- Once hips make contact with the box, stand until the hips and knees are completely extended and the body demonstrates a vertical line of action.
Learning the proper positions ensures a SAFE and HIGH QUALITY exercise session! This is the foundation of all great exercise.
Rule 2: Progressive Overload
Simply put, progressive overload is consistently and incrementally adding more challenges (like reps, sets, or weight) to your training plan each week.
This does not mean you need to be lifting 100lbs starting on day 1. This really just means that if you begin your training plan with 10lbs on week 1 then week 2 needs to be at 15lbs.
This also does not mean that you should be challenging yourself to the max on week 2, but rather you could do the exact same workout on week 1 but instead do another complete set on week 2 – increasing the total amount of sets.
The bottom line is that as you incrementally increase the challenge on a week to week basis, you are guaranteeing your body’s ability to overcome the challenges in the most attainable format!
Could you imagine a world where you can guarantee results?
When you take the time to progress, building strength becomes less of a dream and more of a plan.
Rule 3: Use It or Lose It
Image of Sedentary vs. Active 70 Year Old Triathlete vs. Active 40 Year Old Triathlete
In the image above there are 3 different types of people’s leg anatomy being compared. The top image shows the muscular anatomy of a 40 year old triathlete, the middle image is the muscular anatomy of a 74 year old sedentary man, and the bottom image is one of a 70 year old triathlete.
Don’t get the message wrong: You do not need to be a 70 year old triathlete to see progress.
However, if you do not have habits, routines, and goals throughout your fitness journey that keep you motivated to stay consistent in your exercise regimen, you will quickly lose all the muscle you currently have.
Use it or lose it!
Rule 4: Recovering Is Just As Important As Training
Recovery is an incredibly important topic in this because without it, you cannot guarantee a sustainable journey of progress for building strength.
If you exercise 7x/week but lack sleep, your progress will plateau.
If you exercise 2 hours per day but under-eat in protein, your stress levels can drastically increase, and potentially cause a loss of strength output.
The big 3 themes of recovery are:
- Sleep: Ideally 7-9 hours per night
- Nutrition: To start, consuming some lean protein with each meal can help with rebuilding the muscle you challenged in your training session.
- Stress: Ensuring you have margin to decompress, are managing your time with work and life, and feel an overall sense of excitement to exercise are all big priorities in ensuring this is sustainable for the long term.
So, here’s the big takeaway from today’s talk:
Learning how to perform movements the proper way, having a progressive overload plan, use it or lose it, and recovery as much as you exercise!
When you implement these 4 things consistently, you will see transforming change.
At the age of 60+, these are 4 non-negotiable ways to ensure you are consistently seeing change that is sustainable.
Thanks for taking the time to read this and start to make change!
If you thought this blog was helpful, check out our FREE Guide and Practical Plan for Aged Adults. This is a guide specifically designed for adults over the age of 60 to start training today with no experience.
CLICK HERE FOR FREE AGED ADULT EXERCISE PLAN. (link)
This plan is a free resource for anyone to use to start somewhere and ensure that they are hitting their checklist of starting STRONG when getting STRONG 😉
If watching a video version of the blog is more helpful for you, click here to access the full youtube video to train with us from home.
See you in the next one!
Coach Luke
