As we age, especially after 60, our body starts to lose muscle mass leading to an overall drop in strength. This means your life can be filled with many health issues like chronic pain, frailty and declining bone mass that can be helped with a solid strength training regimen if done safely and properly.
How to Safely Train
Safely training when you’re older is important as the risk of injury is higher and recovery times are longer. If you’ve been strength training since you were younger you may possibly be more confident and have higher goals however this can also be a dangerous sense of security. So how can you protect yourself? First it’s important to warm up and give your body a chance to get limber. Another important note is to start with a spotter who can help to make sure you don’t take on too much. Another good way to get that same protection is to use a machine which won’t allow you to get into too much trouble.
Good Exercises To Start
While starting out you may not have a lot of equipment to get going, however that doesn’t mean you can’t do any strength training. There are many body weight exercises that are a good place to start. This includes squats which helps to build the leg muscles and work stabilizing muscles which can help with balance and hopefully reduce falls. Another great exercise is push ups which can be done with knees on the ground or even inclined like when leaning up against a counter or similar surface. This helps build chest muscles and keep muscle mass in the arms as well. Lastly if you want some training with equipment, curls are a fantastic way to go. This can be done with very light weight, but even that can go a long way in maintaining strength in your arms.
Strength training is an important part of keeping your body functioning at a high level as you age. Muscle strength and bone density are two very important factors in keeping you feeling healthy and moving well. If you feel like pain is keeping you from strength training give our experts here at the offices of pain management specialists, a call and see how we can help you!
