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Weight Training For Seniors: A Beginning Guide

January 29, 2014

Frank’s Comments: Pretty basic stuff – read if you’ve never done this before.

So you’ve made the decision that you’re tired of sitting on the couch all day and letting your body to squander away and your bones to get more brittle . You’re ready to do something! Weight training is the perfect method in which it’s possible to get back to your previous self, with strong bones and healthy muscle mass. Yet weight training for seniors can be challenging if you don’t know how to start. This post will make it a snap for you to get going! Keep reading and learn how strength training for seniors is often quick, fun, and also addictive

Understanding Weight Training Lingo

The first place to start with is actually with your mind. You need to know the basics of the way weight training works, as well as the fundamental process through which your muscles develop

Sets Versus Reps

The simplest way to understand reps and sets is to try to visualize somebody doing push ups. If he or she does ten push ups one after the other, that is 1 set, consisting of ten “reps.” If they then rest for half a minute and go on to perform 10 additional push-ups one after the other, that’s considered two sets of ten repetitions

Intervals Of Rest

You need to take very short breaks in between your sets to permit the muscles to recover. That generally ranges anywhere from half a minute to two mins. Your stamina will end up better when you spend a smaller amount of time for your rest intervals

Free Weights

Free weights are weights which aren’t a part of a machine. Fitness professionals love these kind of weights, because the body has to exert more effort to stabilize the barbells, which a machine will do automatically

Atrophy

When you’re injured or aren’t doing exercises often enough, the muscle mass can waste away by atrophy due to the deficient use of your muscles

Breakdown Of How Strength Training Works

Everybody knows that over time it’s possible to generate muscle mass using a basic piece of equipment like working out with a three to 5 pound bar bell a few times per week. So why and how does this happen?

As an example, we can utilize the bicep curl. With a bicep curl, you hold a free weight in 1 or both of your hands, with your arms extended before you. You then bend your arms upwards toward your shoulders. Whenever you do this action, it makes tiny rips in the muscle of your bicep. Amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) then swoop in and repair and reinforce the ripped muscle fibres, causing them to be resistant against possible future damage

This process of tear down and repair begins instantly, but because it’s microscopic, it will need some time before starting to notice visible results in the form of stronger and bigger muscles. Right here is when atrophy comes into play: after about 2 weeks without use, you’ll lose much of the new muscle that you’ve formed

Weight Training : Getting Down To It

Since you’re ready to go, let’s start with a few the fundamental weight training exercises you can do

I recommend you start with the Super Senior Strength Training videos, which will walk you through each activity that will truly benefit the body, and at the end of the program gives you a full strength training workout you can do for amazing strength gains in just thirty days.

How much weight do you want to start out with? Find two full one-liter bottles of water, and keep them in your hands. With the water bottles in your hands, perform the moves below eight times each

Raise your arms out towards your sides, so that your body looks similar to a lower case “t.

Lift your arms straight above your head, keeping your shoulders down

With the legs about 2 feet apart from each other, go into a squat, keeping the knees in line with the feet, your back straight, and looking in front of you

Stand with your feet about two feet, or a shoulder’s width, apart from each other. Stand up on to your tip toes

Now how did you feel about those drills? Pick from the options underneath, and implement our recommendations accordingly

  • I couldn’t finish an entire set of at least 1 of the exercises: Drain the water bottles half way and use those for the time being. You can bit by bit fill up the water bottles with additional water when it becomes easier to do
  • The muscles felt really sore following each exercise: Stick to the completely full water bottles and then move on to the barbells (see below) until it becomes easier
  • My muscles ended up a bit tender after each exercise: Purchase some three lb and 5 lb. dumbbells and perform the drills once again with three lb barbells, eventually graduating to the five lb. weights
  • I thought that the exercises were actually pretty easy: Purchase five lb and seven pound dumbbells and perform the same exercises with 5 lb. dumbbells, graduating eventually to the 7 pound ones
  • This was a piece of cake! That’s wonderful! Find some 7 lb and 10 pound barbells and then do the exercises previously mentioned beginning with the 7 pounders and graduating to the 10s

Have a go with alternating the exercises every so often to prevent “plateauing,” which is when your muscles have the tendency to stop building new muscles, a natural occurrence during resistance training. If you can, include one fresh weight lifting exercise each week to your strength training routine until there’s up to twelve

Keep going with it slow and steady, and soon you’ll begin to notice real advancements as a result of your new strength training for seniors workout

Ron Krayewski

Ron Krayewski

The author publishes articles about weight training for seniors at SuperSeniorFitness.com. Ron is a weight training professional who has been training clients for more than 40 years. Now that he is 65, he is giving coaching and fitness tips to seniors, and creating a series of video courses about senior weight training.

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