Working out sucks. You hate it.
You’d rather be home sitting on the couch, reading a book or watching mindless tv after a stressful day at work.
You’ve never worked out and why on earth would you begin in your 40’s, 50’s, 60’s or later? And besides you have NO clue what to do!
You finally have time to yourself because the kdis have grown and flown but really…me? Workout? I’m too old for that!
Don’t be the person that doesn’t want to leave the house to go see a show in the city b/c you don’t think you’re going to be able to get from the parking garage to the venue.
Don’t be the person that won’t go see your grandchild perform in a team sport or musical event b/c you’re afraid you won’t make it to your seat.
Don’t be that person who chooses not to go to the beach because you can’t lug my chair or dare to walk in the sand.
Don’t be the person that can’t walk through the airport to hop on a plane to get to that tropical island or cross country to see my kid or grandkids.
“When an individual is no longer able to perform basic, everyday activates, his or her functional ability is greatly affected!”
The goal in working with older adults is to improve their quality of life!
Functional aging is the term for it. Research indicates that Age-related loss of muscle, also called sarcopenia, begins after age 35 and progresses at an average annual rate of 1-2 % until age 60, then accelerates to 3% per year after that. In addition to age-related muscle loss is loss of muscle strength, which is even more detrimental to our functionality and declines as much as 50% with increasing age.
So how do we fight back? What can we do so that we can keep doing the things we love to do?
The three best ways to keep going:
- HIIT training which is training that includes both cardiovascular and resistance training. This means getting your heart rate up with activities that also include resistance training. For example, stringing together exercises such as pushups, dumbbell rows, quick body weight squats, planks and continuing these activities for 10-30 minutes. I call these my puker workouts and they are my favoriteJ
- Heavy and moderately heavy resistance training working the total body focusing on larger muscle groups versus working smaller muscles in isolation. For example, working your chest and back, versus just your arms. Or working your legs while standing versus sitting on a machine. Performing exercises in sets of 3-5, doing anywhere from 5-12 repetitions, where the last couple of reps are pretty darn challenging!
- Walking is a great activity for older adults because it puts little to no impact on the joints and is also sustainable for longer periods of time, not to mention the mental benefits.