How To Stay Strong At Any Age – Ajit
Patel Sanda Wellbeing
Your body
changes as the decades advanced, but your muscles
can still stay strong if you work out regularly.
In your 30s: Just because you haven’t got the metabolism
you had in your late teens and early twenties, when you could eat pretty much
whatever you liked without putting on a pound,
you can still put through its paces. I often recommend clients to consider
interval training as a way of fighting that common fear of getting fat.
Focus on putting your body
through short sharp intense blasts of high intensity activity. This can be done
on the treadmill starting with 30-second sprints on a small incline with a rest
period of 30 seconds walking on a flat. Continue this for around 20 minutes.
This will get your heart
rate up high elevated in the fat burning zone and it stay High even in the
recovery periods.
In your 40s: After the age of 40 women lose 1%
bone density each year,
putting their body at risk of osteoporosis. Resistance training is a fantastic
way to help prevent this as it helps increase bone
density. Why not try a full body resistance programme that concentrates on
compound movements?
To tone the upper body:
Chest
press with dumbbells
(2 sets of 15 x reps) – Lie on the bench with a dumbbell in each hand and
your feet flat on the floor or rest your feet up on the bench if it’s more comfortable.
Push the dumbbells up so that your arms are directly over your shoulders and
your palms are facing up. Pull your abdominals in, and lower the dumbbells
down until your elbows are slightly below your shoulders. Then push the weights
back up ensuring you don’t lock your elbows and try to keep your shoulder
blades on the bench.
To tone your legs
and bum:
Side Lunges: (2 sets of 20 x reps on each leg)
– Holding a pair of dumbbells,
stand with your feet and knees together. Take a large step with your right foot
to the right side and lunge toward the floor. Make sure your right knee
does not extend past your toes and keep your left leg relatively straight. Push
off through your right foot to return to the start to complete one. Lunges are
often considered to be one of the best lower body exercises. The side lunge
can effectively strengthen and tone inner thigh muscles.
Chair Squats: (2 sets of 15 x reps) – Stand in
front of a sturdy chair, as if to sit. Place your feet about
shoulder width apart, feet angled out slightly. Hold a dumbbell in each hand.
If you’re new to squats, 5-pound dumbbells are good. As you get stronger, you
can increase the weight
accordingly. Bend your knees. Shift your hips back and slowly lower yourself
down until your butt’s just about touching the chair, then stand back up. Don’t
lock your knees. Keep
them loose at all times. This is a big compound movement that primarily targets
the thighs, hips, hamstrings and glutens.
If you can’t feel the burn with this one, the key is to put your weight back
into your heels and squat low and slow! This exercise is effective because it
works so many muscle
groups at one time. The more muscles you use, the more calories you burn.
For a flatter, stronger stomach
and core
Plank: (try to hold for 30-60
seconds or as long as you can and increase the time as you feel yourself getting
stronger). Start by getting into the push up position on the floor, then bend
your elbows to 90 degrees and rest your body
weight on your forearms. It’s important to ensure your elbows are directly
under your shoulders while keeping a straight line from head to toe.
In your
50s and 60s: Unfortunately as we get older and fall into this
age bracket, muscle
growth becomes a lot more challenging. At this age it is important to keep
muscles and joints, flexible, mobile and stable. I’d advise an exercise
programme that firstly gently mobilises the joints, strengthens them through
stability and balance exercises and most importantly stretches them to
gradually lengthen muscles and keep flexible. I would suggest doing regular
Pilates, Yoga
or Body Balance classes.
No comments:
Post a Comment