Today a great thing happened. My 12 year old son Milo shared a joint PT session with his Grandad. 66 years setting them apart …. together they learnt to Deadlift. They also learnt to Chest press, bicep curl, tricep extend and more… Under the watchful eye of Mike at Edgbaston Priory Club here they are giving it their best with a 28kg barbell….
But why should we be strength training? If you ask Milo he’d say he wants to get big muscles, and he wants to be able to tackle strong on the rugby pitch! If you ask my Dad he’d say because I told him to! What effect does strength training having on our body? The image below summarises the benefits beautifully!
So research has shown that strength training not only makes our muscles stronger, there are also positive adaptations seen in our lumbar discs, our joint cartilage, our bones and even our brains! From personal experience, I feel like I can take on the world after a strength training workout!
So whatever your goal: to keep up with your grandkids; to continue playing tennis; tolerate 2 hours of gardening, or to look better naked (!); consider lifting some weights.
There is a lot of fear associated with lifting weights, many people worry that they are going do it wrong; that they may do some harm; or may even get too bulky (!) but safe to say, most people we see are lifting too little and too light and in fact the opposite is true. Unfortunately, from the age of 40 we naturally start to lose muscle strength and bulk. (It’s called sarcopenia) And the strength decline increases and accelerates through the decades 🙈. BUT THE GOOD NEWS IS…. We can prevent this! Look at the picture below that shows a cross session of a thigh …. Look how meaty the leg of the 70 year old triathlete looks compared to the sedentary 70 year old.
So our top tips would be to start gradually, beginning with x 2 sessions a week, start simple with some bicep curls and shoulder press (as shown by Milo below) Repeat the same move 8-10 times and by 10 repetitions you should be getting tired – if you could continue for 15-20, the weight is too light. If you can’t do more than 6-8 the weight is too heavy. Repeat for 3-4 rounds. Don’t do the same moves on consecutive days, your body needs time to recover and adapt.
It’s normal to feel achey the next day or two, no harm done, it’s just your body’s response to the load, and it’s during this time that the magic happens. After a couple of weeks of lifting the same weight, increase the weight a little, just to ensure you continue to progress in your strength gains!
And if you need some help or advice with how or where to start – you know where we are.
Good luck and enjoy 😉💪🏻