Strength Training for people over 50 (Part 2) - A How to Guide to Aging Well.
Welcome back returning readers… and if this is your first time finding us. You are in the right place!
In Part 1 of this article we covered some of the basics, including:
Some tips for building a strength routine for people over 50.
The exercises and movements you should include to build a well rounded strength routine & keep yourself strong and able.
A practical structure for you to build your own strength workouts.
Things to consider as someone who is over 50 and wanting to participate it weight training.
If you haven’t read Part 1 yet, be sure to check it out (here).
I this part of the series we will be covering everything else you need to know to get the most out of your strength sessions. I don’t know about you, but I am excited!
Let’s get you fit, heathly and strong.
How Much Strength Training Should You Be Doing as Someone Over 50.
We are a big fan of the Minimum Effective Dose here at Motivate. Optimise. Exceed. Fitness. What’s that, your wondering?
Put simply, it is the minimum amount of exercise (stimulus) required to see good results from your input. This means less time spent strength training and less strain on the body. This style comes with some awesome benefits to your muscle tissue, bone mass, mobility and strength gained… and it is backed by the body of evidence in the field of health science. Now I know you like the sound of that!
This does not mean we put less effort into our training. In fact, it allows us to maximise our effort as we are fully recovery from previous sessions and have the capacity to push ourselves at an appropriate level.
Lets get into some practicalities for best results:
How much strength exercise you should be doing: Remember the Movement Patterns? This is their time to shine. For each of the movement patterns (squat, hinge, push, pull), you should be performing between 4-9 “working sets”. Working sets being sets at an appropriate level of effort, load and number of receptions. For each of these sets you should perform between 6-20 repetitions. Now I know these ranges are quite large, but this should give you peace of mind … not anxiety. All this means it that we have a host of options that allow us to see good results. With this we can apply a bit of variety when things get stale. We can use less heavy weights when things get sore, we can change the pace when we get tired, and we can work around any acute and chronic health conditions we may have. Perfect, right!
How many different exercises you should do: There are some specific considerations here. We need a bit of exercise variety to help with joint function and mobility. We also want to ensure that we aren’t putting too much stress on the body by repeating the same movement again and again and again and… well, you get it. Another thing to consider is that there is such a thing as regional muscle growth (unlike fat loss…unfortunately). So to ensure we are getting the most out of our strength sessions it would be a good idea to include multiple exercises in our routine of each of the movement patterns. Here are the practical tips: In a week of training select 2-4 exercise for each of the movement patterns. Split these over 2-4 sessions. In order for our us to develop the skill, get good adaptation, and avoid overuse injuries, stick with these same exercises for 4-8 weeks. There will be some caveats to this advice like injury and other special requirements, so take notes about how you are feeling after each session and make changes if needed. Oh, and be sure to consult your doctor and/or appropriate allied health professionals before getting started.
How much rest you should have between exercises: To keep this one relatively simple. Rest between 1-3 minutes after each set of an exercise. This will allow you to recovery enough to repeat the effort at an intensity that is enough to see good stimulus to muscle and bone tissue.
How much effort you should put in: I’ll answer this one with the assumption that you have done the right thing and eased into the first month or so of your new found strength training regime. After which, you need to be using a reasonable amount of effort at an appropriate load (weight) to see good results for strength training. This is where the RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion) scale comes it - watch the video below this text to learn all about it. To gain strength and improve muscle tissue as someone over 50 years old, most of our strength training should be between an RPE 6 and RPE 8 on this scale. If you are having trouble with this concept consult a Personal Trainer who has knowledge in this area to get you started.
You should have a good understanding of what you should include in you strength training with the information provided so far. Now we will cover how you can keep gaining those awesome results and solidify your strong and healthy future.
How to Stay Strong as you Get Older.
This one is very important. Do Not Skip It! There are a few key concepts that will help you stay on the path of longevity. Here they are:
Use recovery weeks: As we exercise our fitness level increases… but so does our fatigue level that builds up as a natural byproduct. Unfortunately our fatigue levels increase faster than our fitness levels, and as well get older our ability to recovery becomes a little less resourceful. To realise the true affect of the training we have been participating in, we need to rest the body and dissipate the fatigue that has built up over time. This will allow both our true fitness levels to shine, and reduce our risk of injury. A good rule of thumb is to have a light week of exercise for every 4-6 weeks of “hard” training. However, the best way to do this is to listen to your body.. it will let you know when you need to take a light week. We will cover some tell tale signs that you need to rest momentarily.
Allow yourself the freedom to go off the plan: There will be times where you can’t follow your routine completely, and that’s ok. Times get busy & things come up. The important thing is to pick right back up where you left off. Don’t worry if you couldn’t follow your plan to every exact detail, no one can… that’s why it is called a plan. Do your best to stay active and capitalise when you have more time. We are not robots and life has it’s complexities.
Use a certain level of variety: This one is very important. Sure, there are things we need to do that are proven to give us the results we are looking for.. however, that doesn’t cover the most important thing. WE HAVE TO ENJOY THE EXERCISE TO DO IT! Make sure you include things that make you excited to exercise in your routine, and make sure you don’t include things that you despise. Enjoyment is the most important thing when it comes to adhering to our exercise plan. Guess what.. it doesn’t matter how good the program is for us… if we don’t like it, we won’t do it, and if we don’t do it we will get no benefit.
Know when to ease up: We all have our limitations. It is important to let our body rest when it is telling us to. Here are some key signs that we need to have an easy week - 1) You are struggling to sleep. 2) You are finding it harder than usually to motivate yourself to exercise. 3) You feel really physically and mentally drained. 4) You are a getting a bit cranky (more than usual, if you are anything like me). 5) You are a lot hungrier than usual. 6) You body is taking a lot longer than usual to not feel sore after exercise. 7) You can’t use the same amount of weight and/or reps than you could the previous week. If two or more of these sound like you at the moment…. take an easy week.
With those areas now discussed. It is time to cover the principle of Progressive Overload. So what is it?
Put simply, our muscle tissue and bones require a certain amount of stress (or stimulus) for them to adapt and get stronger. We have discussed how much we need already so I won’t go further into it now.
As our bodies adapt and get stronger they will be able to better handle the stress. Over time, the amount of stress we used to adapt in the first place won’t be enough to adapt further. We will need more stress, usually in the form of repetitions per set, sets per week or actual weight.
As we get stronger, we will need more stimulus to continue to adapt. See the image below to highlight this principle.
This concept applies to everyone. However the rates and degrees of which will vary from person to person.
I won’t bore you with too much more of the details - instead I will get into some practical ways that you can apply progressive overload and continue to get stronger over 50.
A practical view of progressing:
Pick a load where you can fall within the repetition range of 8-12 reps. Perform a set, stopping at an RPE 8 (you could have done 2 more reps, but stopped). Rest 2 minutes, then use the same load and repeat this process for two more sets. Record your efforts in a training log. This will be your starting point.
The next time you perform this session try to get one more rep than last time on this exercise. Remember to keep yourself at an RPE of 8 - do not push yourself if you are not ready. Once you can easily get 12 reps on each set, increase the weight by the next smallest increment.
It might look something like the following -
(Session 1)
Set 1: 10 Reps @10kgs, RPE 8
Set 2: 9 Reps @10kgs, RPE 8
Set 3: 8 Reps @10kgs, RPE 8
(Session 2)
Set 1: 11 Reps @10kgs, RPE 8
Set 2: 10 Reps @10kgs, RPE 8
Set 3: 10 Reps @10kgs, RPE 8
(Session 3)
Set 1: 12 Reps @10kgs, RPE 8
Set 2: 12 Reps @10kgs, RPE 8
Set 3: 12 Reps @10kgs, RPE 8
(Session 4)
Set 1: 9 Reps @12kgs, RPE 8
Set 2: 8 Reps @12kgs, RPE 8
Set 2: 8 Reps @12kgs, RPE 8
In this example the progress is linear. But it doesn’t often look like this in reality. After the initial few months (if you are out of routine) your progress will slow and you won’t be adding reps each week… and that is perfectly alright. It can often take months and months to add more reps or weight to an exercise.
The reality is that as we get older it takes longer for us to repair after a strength session - and we need to allow repair to get stronger.
Another reality is that a lot of you reading this will be looking to maintain your strength and not necessarily build more. This is a much easier feat which requires much less effort. You probably don’t need to worry about progressive overload at all - however, your strength workouts do still need to be challenging.
We will wrap up this part of the guide here so you can get out there and start to implement your new found knowledge.
In Part 2 of this article we will focus on how to avoid injury and ensure longevity when participating in strength training as someone over 50… and yes, you will gain some more handy tools to help you along your way.
For now we will leave you with a Program Log to help you track your progress. Click here to download the template.