Fitness After 50 - Seven Strength Training Tips Every Mature Adult Should Know About

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Fitness After 50 - Seven Strength Training Tips Every Mature Adult Should Know About
October 02, 2006

If Not Now, When?

Fitness-After-50 - Thomas D. Manfredi, Publisher
tom@fitness-after-50.com
http://www.fitness-after-50.com
October 2, 2006; Vol. 2, Issue 10
Published the first Monday of every month

THIS ISSUE: Seven Strength Training Tips Every Mature Adult Should Know About

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Editor's Note

Hi,

Fall is upon us. Here in the US we are getting ready for our time change (except in Arizona, where we stay on the same time all year round). In most parts of the country the temperatures are starting to cool down. Even here in the desert we aren't going over 100 degrees as often as we did just a few weeks ago. This is actually one of my favorite times of year, especially back in my home town of Chicago, where the weather is becoming cool, dry, and crisp. Unfortunately, we won't be going home until the Christmas holidays, so we'll miss the nice fall weather of the Midwest.

As many of you know, one of my hobbies is riding my Harley Davidson motorcycle. Well, my bike had a fuel problem and it took me about two weeks to get someone to fix it. Boy have I been frustrated! You see, riding my Harley on a remote road out into the open desert is one of my favorite forms of relaxation. I plug in my Ipod, turn on some old time rock and roll, and ride for about an hour into the desert. The road I usually take has very little traffic on it. On an hour ride, I generally don't see more than 5 or 6 other vehicles over the entire time. I got my bike back on Saturday afternoon, and I've already been out on it twice. It sure feels good.

As I told you last month, I took a trip up to Toronto a couple of weeks ago. It's been a few years since I've been there. It's a very nice city, but I didn't get to see much this time around. This trip was the first one I've taken since they increased the security measures and wouldn't let you have any liquids, etc. in your carry on luggage. I have been flying frequently for business for the past 14 years and I never check any of my luggage. This time I had to do checked luggage, and guess what? They misplaced my luggage on the trip home. I guess it's better than doing it on the outbound leg, but it's still very frustrating. Now that they've relaxed the security a little again I'm hoping I can go back to carrying everything on with me.

I guess I've been rambling a little bit, but that's one of the advantages of publishing your own newsletter - you get to write anything you want. But I think it's time to get down to business.

This month I'm writing an article about strength training for mature adults. Quite often when I read articles about strength training I get the feeling that there are a lot of questions and misconceptions about how to do this type of training safely and intelligently. Also, many mature adults don't seem to realize the benefits of strength training, and they think that it is only for young, strong, athletic people. I am going to try to clear up some of the confusion.

I hope you have a great month. I'll be talking to you again in a few weeks.

Best Wishes,

Tom Manfredi

PS - Those of you who get this newsletter in HTML format might notice that the background color has been changed. I decided I didn't like the yellow background so I thought I'd try blue. Let me know what you think.

tom@fitness-after-50.com

fitness-after-50.com

Food for Thought

You can't try to do something; you either do it or you don't.

Feature Article - Seven Strength Training Tips Every Mature Adult Should Know About

by Thomas D. Manfredi, MS

Each decade after our 20's we start to lose some of our muscle mass. This not only means that we may not be as strong as we once were, but it has an effect on our metabolism. Since muscle is more "metabolically active" than fat (that means muscle burns more calories), we find that we need fewer calories to maintain the same weight. That's why, as we age, many of us find it harder and harder to keep our weight down. Keeping our muscle strength and tone not only helps us maintain a healthy weight, it allows us to perform many daily activities more easily and safely.

Strength training is a form of exercise we should plan on doing for the rest of our lives, just like aerobic exercise (walking, biking, swimming, etc.). These two forms of exercise will help us stay more healthy and active as we age.

So what are some of the things we need to keep in mind when planning and doing our strength training? Here are some pointers that can help you develop and perform strengthening exercises in a safe and sensible way.

Practice good posture by learning to do the exercises properly. Stay relaxed. Slow down to make sure your posture is good. Concentrate. Make sure you breathe properly during each exercise. If you're not sure what the right way is to do a specific exercise, check with a qualified personal trainer.

Make sure you do one or two exercises for each of your six main muscle groups – legs (quads and hamstrings) arms (biceps and triceps), chest, back, shoulders, and abdominals. Do the bigger muscle groups first (legs, chest, and back) because they require more energy.

Plan on doing your strength training two or three times every week. You can use exercise machines, resistance bands, free weights, your own body weight, household items, or a combination of these methods to keep things interesting.

Be patient. It may take several months to get the results you want. If you've never done any strength training or it's been quite a while, you will probably start to feel some results pretty quickly. You might not look like a contestant for a body building contest in a week, but you'll find the exercises getting easier and you'll start having more energy during the day.

Challenge yourself. Although you want to start out slowly and with very light weights, you need to increase the weights periodically to get the maximum benefits. Start with a weight you can lift properly 10 times. Once you get to the point where you can lift that weight 15 times you can either increase the weight by no more than 10%, or you can go back down to doing the same exercise 10 times, but do 2 sets of ten instead on just one. Make sure you rest 2 – 3 minutes between sets.

Plan on your strength training routine taking you 20 – 45 minutes each time you perform it. Don't do it two days in a row. You should leave at least one to two days in between. You can do some form of aerobic exercise on the days you don't do strength training.

Relax at the end. Do some light stretches after your routine for about 5 minutes. There is a lot of controversy about stretching reducing injuries, but, in any case, it will help improve your flexibility and range of motion. And it's a nice way to wind down from a good strength training session.

Strength training is good for people of any age, but it is particularly useful and even necessary, for us a s we age in order to help us maintain a healthy weight and be able to perform daily activities more easily and safely.

(c)2005 - 2006 Thomas D. Manfredi, MS

Teleclasses

I will be announcing upcoming teleclasses in this section in the future.

If you have a topic that you would be interested in hearing about in a teleclass, send an e-mail to mailto:teleclasses@fitness-after-50.com

Questions and Answers

Question – Will strength training make me get big, bulging muscles?

Answer - This question can be answered a little differently depending on whether we're talking about a man or a woman, but not as differently as most people think. Because of the male hormone testosterone, men have a tendency to "bulk up" more easily than a woman would. But, if we're talking about the large defined muscles that you see on professional body builders, the chances for an average man to end up looking like that from just normal strength training is slim to none. For a woman, it is even more remote. In fact, most women who do a lot of strength training actually look slimmer than other women of similar height and weight because muscle doesn't take up as much room as fat, so a more muscular woman will look thiner. Most of the people who have extremely large muscles enhance their training with steroid drugs to help them get bigger and stronger.

So, for the average man or woman, especially as we mature, there is no chance that you will develop unsightly large muscles.

To get more information on various fitness and health issues, please go to my site – fitness-after-50.com

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If you have a fitness or nutrition question you would like me to consider answering here in the newsletter, just send your question, along with your first name and city, in an e-mail to mailto:quesandansw@fitness-after-50.com
Obviously, I can't answer every question submitted. I will choose one question each month to answer here.

About Our Services

Online fitness coach Tom Manfredi is the creator of the site "fitness-after-50". This site is designed with the mature adult in mind. There is a lot of information available on the site for anyone looking to start or restart a sensible exercise program. Learn more by going to fitness-after-50.com

Tom Manfredi, 1218 Easy St., Ste 101, Wickenburg, AZ 85390

Your feedback is always welcome and appreciated! Write me at tom@fitness-after-50.com.

"Fitness-After-50" respects your privacy and does not give out or sell our subscribers' names and/or e-mail addresses.

Copyright (c) 2005 - 2006 Thomas D. Manfredi, MS. All rights reserved.