Many people feel that as they get older, they do not have to do any “weight” training. This is far from the truth. Many studies have shown that weight training is one of the best methods of exercise to help prevent osteoporosis (and osteoporosis is not only found in females). A study in a nursing home with people between the ages of 93 and 95 showed that they increased their strength after three months of weight training.

You need to have enough physical strength to do your daily activities, as well as any unexpected activities. A winter of inactivity causes muscles to de-train, just as an athlete does in the off-season.

Consequently, the question is not should you do weight training, but how you should do it. You may do it with cans of food, or Olympic weights. But you should be doing some weight training.

The basic questions are:

How many repetitions and at what speed?
How many sets (or times) you should do it?
And finally, how much weight?

The first problem is to set your goals. Think about what you need to accomplish. Do you need to add muscle mass, increase strength, or just tone up what you have? When you have an idea of what your needs are, talk with us about them. Each requires a different type of exercise program for you to accomplish your goal. Not only does the way you exercise have to be fine tuned, but your diet may also need tuning to supply the nutrients for the muscles to gain endurance, mass or over all strength. This nutritional guidance will include an analysis of your macro nutrient intake such as proteins, carbohydrates and fats, and questioning and testing for signs of vitamin and mineral imbalances.

We have two different types of muscle fibers. These are like the meat of a turkey. We have dark meat (slow twitch muscle fibers) and white meat (fast twitch muscle fibers). Each uses a different fuel and different nutrients for firing. As their name implies, they need to be exercised at different speeds to stimulate those fibers. Muscle testing in the office helps us determine which type of fiber you need to exercise.

“Many studies have shown that weight training is one of
the best methods of exercise to help prevent osteoporosis.”

Muscular endurance is what most people need throughout their lives. Here, you are not trying to look like the models on the covers of those weight lifting magazines, but instead training your muscles so that they can do sustained work over a long period of time. This is necessary for working in the garden, doing lawn work, digging or shoveling, or just cleaning the house for an hour ormore. Generally, you will need to work your muscles slowly for relatively long time periods. Ideally, a set of exercises will take around 30 seconds, or 15 repetitions, and be followed by exercising the opposing muscles. An example of this would be taking a weight and doing a bicep curl, slowly raising and lowering it on a 4-count for 30 seconds, then following this with a triceps extension at the same slow pace for 30 seconds. This would exercise the muscles of the upper arm for one minute. You would then rest the arm for 30 - 45 seconds and repeat the exercise set. We use muscle e testing in the office to find out how many repetitions you can do so that the optimum number of repetitions can be done without hurting yourself. You do not want to train at a number of repetitions that is causing muscle damage.

To “grow” muscles, you need to work them with enough force that the weight, or resistance, becomes difficult at the end of the repetitions you are doing. If we have found muscles that have shrunk in size, we may need to use a different type of training to reestablish the size of the muscles. In this type of exercise, a moderate to heavy weight, or resistance, is used. The same type of repetition and set guidelines as in the endurance training are used. As you are using a heavier weight, it is critical to determine the number of repetitions you can do without causing weakness. Keeping your training at these levels will ensure the fastest improvement with the least chance of injury.

Power lifting is a topic unto itself. It requires explosive training with medium to heavy weights and requires perfect form. If you are interested in this type of training, the first professional consideration is your overall posture and muscle balance. Any deviation in your posture or major postural muscles will lead to repetitive stress injuries.

Weight training is an ideal addition to a general exercise program. It does not replace walking or other aerobic activities, such as bike riding. Conversely, these do not provide the benefits of weight training either. Weight training will help keep your muscles strong and toned, improve your posture and help prevent osteoporosis by stressing the bones. Improper weight training will cause muscle injuries and local changes to joints. Let us help you determine the best exercise program for you to improve what needs improvement and maintain you for a long and healthy life.

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