2) Muscle loss means your metabolism will slow down.
3) Slower metabolism means the body is burning fewer calories, which will likely be a cause of weight gain.
4) Muscle is active tissue. It is estimated that a pound of muscle burns 30 to 50 calories per day in order to simply maintain itself. The addition of 3 pounds of muscle can burn 630 to 1,050 extra calories per week. A pound of fat burns about 3 calories per day. Can you see that lifting weights and gaining muscle will cause you to burn more calories every day?
5) Strength training (and a solid diet) will increase your muscle mass and this can happen at any age.
6) It's great for building and maintaining bone density.
7) You're never too old to start strength training. That makes today the day to start!
What are the benefits of strength training?
Strength training increases or dramatically improves:
- metabolism (your body ability to burn more calories)
- muscle mass and overall strength
- stamina, energy and endurance
- functional mobility (think stair climbing, running to cross the street, etc)
- balance and coordination
- mental alertness
- outlook on life
- ability to perform challenges of daily life with less chance of injury
- fat weight loss
- muscle strength, tone, and firmness
- strength of tendons and ligaments
- bone density and strength
- personal appearance
- You will feel and look great!
How do I get started on a strength-training program?
Let's first understand a few basic strength training guidelines:
- Warm up before you start. You need to warm up to increase blood flow to your muscles. Do this by walking briskly, biking, or stair climbing for 5 to 10 minutes. Then go through some movement based "stretches" like neck rolls, arm swings, leg swings and hip mobility drills.
- Focus on compound exercises. These are exercises that use multiple joints and are primarily body-weight based, like squats, pull-ups, pushups and such. Multi-joint movements have many, many more benefits than single joint, so-called "isolation" exercises.
- Train the entire body, not just body parts. There are seven basic movement patterns in the human form; vertical push, vertical pull, horizontal push, horizontal pull, quadriceps dominant, hip dominant, and rotational/core exercises. Perform one of each of these types of exercises every time you train.
- Repetitions (reps) are the number of times you repeat an exercise, such as a pushup. Usually you will do between 8 and 15 repetitions.
- Sets are groups of repetitions. Ten to fifteen repetitions make up one set. Begin with one set of each exercise. As you progress in your program, you may want to increase to 2-5 sets, depending upon your level of development and program type.
- Frequency - To increase or maintain muscular strength, you need to lift a minimum of 2 to 3 times per week or about every other day. Rest your muscles for at least 48 hours between workouts. This allows the muscle to rebuild. Remember, you don't get stronger by how hard you lift, you get stronger by how well you recover from your lifting.
- Intensity - Say your goal is to lift a weight 8 times. You should select a weight that is heavy enough to allow you to lift it so that when you get to rep #8, you feel as though you could lift a 9th rep with good form, but not a 10th.
- Progression - Progressive weight resistance training is the key principle of strength training. Test yourself about every two weeks. How? Let's use the previous example: lift the weight for your usual 8 reps, but try to get reps #9, 10 and 11 with good form. If you can do it, it's time to up the weight. You must periodically increase the amount of weight you are lifting to continue to develop muscular strength. A good rule of thumb is that when you can lift a weight for more repetitions, increase by 5 pounds.
- Safety - Perform each exercise with good technique and form. Use a "spotter" (someone to assist you in the lift if necessary) or hire a qualified personal fitness professional.
- Maintain correct body alignment, especially when muscles begin to tire. If you cannot maintain good form, lighten the weight and/or take a longer rest period.
- If you should start losing form or control of your muscles, STOP. Proper from and technique are more important than simply completing a lift.
- Tempo - Generally it is best to lift the weight on a "2 count" and lower on a "4 count".
- Lifting in a controlled manner is essential for getting the most out of each set and to prevent injury.
- Breathe - Do not hold your breath while lifting. Exhale while exerting yourself, while pushing or pulling the weight, and inhale as you return to the start.
- Rest 30 to 90 seconds between each exercise or set.
Performing your first workout:
- Begin with one exercise for each movement pattern.
- Begin with 1 set and after 2 to 3 weeks (4 to 6 workouts) add a second set.
- Begin with resistance which requires a "pretty good effort" to reach 12 to 15 repetitions but does not cause muscle fatigue.
- After about 2 to 3 weeks (4 to 6 workouts) you should use the progression rule in order to achieve momentary muscle fatigue with your exercises.
- Keep a record or log of each workout session, this will allow you to properly and consistently progress in your strength program.
- Be sure to stretch the muscles that feel tight after each workout.
- You will likely have some soreness after your first workout. This is to be expected. It will decrease as you continue to train.
- Remember to progress from bodyweight exercises to free weight exercises. Increase slowly and steadily, warm-up before you lift weights and stretch after you are done.
God bless,
SP
