Strength Training for Older People

Strength training for older people is usually handled improperly by the gym community and by fitness trainers that are not educated about the most recent discoveries in human biology, senior and elderly health, and longevity. 

Older people are treated by most trainers in corporate gyms like they can't do meaningful strength training anymore, and that's simply not true. Most gym trainers simply don't understand how to keep people safe during meaningful strength training.

BUT we can get the absolutely get the highest health and longevity benefits of exercise (strength training) in a completely safe way for seniors, elderly, and all assumed physical limitations.

I'll explain further - 

The more meaningful the strength training, the more health benefits we gain.

See, just in the past 15-20 years humanity found that muscle tissue is actually not just benign tissue. When muscles are contracted in a very meaningful and intense way they excrete powerful proteins called myokines.

We've found that these myokines are responsible for all of the health benefits that have been attributed with exercise in the past. They're responsible for decreasing the risk of cancer, decreasing dangerous fat, increasing bone mineral density, increasing the immune system, lowering blood pressure and cholesterol, and much more.

The deeper we are able to fatigue our muscles with meaningful strength training, the more of these myokines are excreted by the muscles into the whole body and all of our organs.

Strength Training for Older People - Body by Science

The book about strength training for older people that is most important is the book Body by Science written by Dr. Doug McGuff and John Little. 

The last chapter is about the ideal training program for seniors and the problem is addressed in the beginning - 

Older people, Senior citizens, and elderly people are all treated similarly, that you are somehow different and your body works separate than the rest of population. 

We know this isn't true - biologically all humans respond to the stimulus of strength training in the same way. 

What these ignorant fitness trainers don't understand is how to do this in a safe way. 

Many mistakenly think that if strength training is deeply intense then it isn't safe.

That simply isn't the case. 

Intensity is simply a measure of how much work we currently doing compared to how much work we are currently capable of doing. And intensity is not unsafe by any means - 

What is unsafe activity? Ballistic movement, jerky fast movement, and high impact movements like jumping all over the place with weights. 

A great example of unsafe activity is crossfit. I'm always shocked to find that a group of people thinks that it's a good idea to constantly beat a tractor tire with a sledge hammer and mistakenly call it exercise. It's truly absurd. 

People mistake crossfit as exercise. It is merely a physically taxing activity because of the dangerous nature of it. 

So I want to give a better picture about what IS safe and what constitutes as real exercise from a biological perspective -

Safe Strength Training for Older People - The Better Way to Health and Longevity

SAFE strength training for older people has one specific quality -

we eliminate momentum. 

This is truly just basic physics in practice, applied to the human body.

If you've ever been to a gym and seen a bunch of people throwing and jerking weights around you have a perfect example of exactly what unsafe movement is. 

Some of those very fast movements may not be dangerous on their own but once you load the muscles with weights it is very dangerous, as these ballistic movements rip the connective tissue from the skeletal structure of the body.

Safe Strength Training for Older People Principle #1 -

1.  Speed - Move as slowly as you're able while lifting and lowering the weights. Ten seconds up and ten seconds down is absolutely ideal for getting the safe results we want from exercise. 

This also creates the stimulus we need to get the maximum health benefits from exercise.

Why would people move so quickly during strength training since it's so dangerous on the joints and connective tissue? One of the reasons is that most people are perceiving strength training in a way that isn't useful. They're likely thinking in terms of "if I lift this weight up and down more times I will get better results".

This is simply not the case. 

Muscles can't count how many times you've raised and lowered weights up and down while doing resistance training.

Muscles only know how productive and meaningful (intense) the exercise was. 

When we think of exercise as it truly works biologically then we can align our actions with what can keep us safe and still get the maximum health results. This is extremely important when we are talking about safe strength training for older people.

In exercise we are wanting to create a maximum stimulus on the muscles so we can get all the benefit from the adaptive response (muscle growth and myokines for greater health).

If we are thinking incorrectly about simply moving weights up and down then we will do anything we can to move those weights in an unsafe manner (too fast and sacrificing our form) which will inevitably lead to injury. 

In exercise we are creating a stimulus on our body that will give the adaptive response we want. We are merely using the weights (or any other resistance) as a tool. 

Safe Strength Training for Older People - Speed, Form, Breathing

Safe Strength Training for Older People Principles #2 & #3 - 

When lifting anything heavy or doing any form of resistance training (strength training) people also have tendency to throw our neck into by scrunching up our shoulders and hold our breath. 

Both of these are to be avoided. 

2. Breath -  We want to breathe freely and deeply through the practice of strength training

3. Form - We want to keep our shoulders down and only use the target muscles we are stimulating with the proper exercise. 

These 3 important beginning principles are the basis of staying safe through any type of strength training that will help get the maximum results for older people's health, longevity, and long term life expectancy. 

This is at the very core of these important strength training principles and are the most important three pillars. 

Strength Training for Older People

I've been working with strength training for older people for quite some time and there are a lot of ways to get started learning either the Body by Science method or a very similar meaningful strength training methodology that will keep you safe as you strengthen your body over time. 

To really be able to perform the exercises properly and learn everything in the most precise way, my highest recommendation is to hire a trainer who knows exactly how to keep people safe while teaching you exactly how to do all of this properly. 

There are some exercises here you can begin doing today to begin your journey into a longer life and better health.

Or check out my video below to see what we do at The Perfect Workout and how we can help you stay safe and begin changing your life today! I hope you live a longer life through strength training. You can when you apply this method!