Each decade after our 20's we start to lose some of our muscle mass. This not only means that we may not be as strong as we once were, but it has an effect on our metabolism. Since muscle is more "metabolically active" than fat (that means muscle burns more calories), we find that we need fewer calories to maintain the same weight. That's why, as we age, many of us find it harder and harder to keep our weight down. Keeping our muscle strength and tone not only helps us maintain a healthy weight, it allows us to perform many daily activities more easily and safely.



Strength training is a form of exercise we should plan on doing for the rest of our lives, just like aerobic exercise (walking, biking, swimming, etc.). These two forms of exercise will help us stay more healthy and active as we age.

So what are some of the things we need to keep in mind when planning and doing our strength training? Here are some pointers that can help you develop and perform strengthening exercises in a safe and sensible way.

• Practice good posture by learning to do the exercises properly. Stay relaxed. Slow down to make sure your posture is good. Concentrate. Make sure you breathe properly during each exercise. If you're not sure what the right way is to do a specific exercise, check with a qualified personal trainer.

• Make sure you do one or two exercises for each of your six main muscle groups – legs (quads and hamstrings) arms (biceps and triceps), chest, back, shoulders, and abdominals. Do the bigger muscle groups first (legs, chest, and back) because they require more energy.

• Plan on doing your strength training two or three times every week. You can use exercise machines, resistance bands, free weights, your own body weight, household items, or a combination of these methods to keep things interesting.

• Be patient. It may take several months to get the results you want. If you've never done any strength training or it's been quite a while, you will probably start to feel some results pretty quickly. You might not look like a contestant for a body building contest in a week, but you'll find the exercises getting easier and you'll start having more energy during the day.

• Challenge yourself. Although you want to start out slowly and with very light weights, you need to increase the weights periodically to get the maximum benefits. Start with a weight you can lift properly 10 times. Once you get to the point where you can lift that weight 15 times you can either increase the weight by no more than 10%, or you can go back down to doing the same exercise 10 times, but do 2 sets of ten instead on just one. Make sure you rest 2 – 3 minutes between sets.

• Plan on your strength training routine taking you 20 – 45 minutes each time you perform it. Don't do it two days in a row. You should leave at least one to two days in between. You can do some form of aerobic exercise on the days you don't do strength training.

• Relax at the end. Do some light stretches after your routine for about 5 minutes. There is a lot of controversy about stretching reducing injuries, but, in any case, it will help improve your flexibility and range of motion. And it's a nice way to wind down from a good strength training session.

Strength training is good for people of any age, but it is particularly useful and even necessary, for us a s we age in order to help us maintain a healthy weight and be able to perform daily activities more easily and safely.