Strength training is essential to age strong with freedom and autonomy.
But you need to own the weights.
As a middle-aged woman (wait, what?)
I believe that we are living in an exciting time. With scientific research, we now have so much more information and many things to do to age stronger and disassociate the words frail, useless, and weak to an older adult.
We are mature and wise; we get more wrinkles and grey hair, yes, but frail, no; to be frail is now a choice (obviously, if you are healthy).
I want to live longer but keep my autonomy and freedom as long as possible.
One of the most powerful tools to achieve that is building muscles.
Our muscles keep us straight, support our body, keep our metabolism going, and keep our balance.
As we age, we naturally lose muscle; if we do nothing and watch, we can become weak, lose our balance quickly, increase the risk of falls and break our bones, diminish coordination and not be able to open a jar.
The good news is if we use science and act on that, implementing strength training and adequate protein consumption in every meal, we are suitable for a solid, bright future.
As we age, we must lift heavier weights to challenge our muscles to keep building and back up with protein to not break down and lose all the work.
It is primordial that we eat protein in every meal specifically after exercise.
When you first start, if you haven’t done this type of training, start with light weights and many repetitions to create volume and prepare your body to increase the weights safely with quality of form and motion.
Once you have enough time for strength training, you start decreasing repetitions and increasing weights.
But don’t get me wrong, even when you start, you need to increase the weights slowly; the rule is if it is not challenging you if you can chit-chat during the exercise, it is too light for you.
Which weight should I choose?Do the first round with a lightweight, then measure from that if it is too easy - increase if you find it too hard -decrease. You need to be able to execute the number of repetitions prescribed without losing the form and quality of movement, but ideally, when you have two repetitions left, you must be struggling; I mean wanting to end, if you could keep going for more than two or so reps after the prescribed, most likely is too light and not challenging you.
If you are a total novice, start with a few sessions of professional Personal training to understand your body and your needs and help you with a program that progresses and is balanced around every muscle group.
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