Pumping Iron After 40

Strength training offers a variety of benefits for adults over 40. These include increased endurance, lower blood pressure, reduced insulin resistance and body fat, and increased metabolism. Strength training reduces pain in knees, hips, and other joints joints. More important than all of these, strength training lowers the risk of falls by improving balance - and falls can be deadly in older populations.

It's important to begin any exercise program with a progressive fitness plan in mind. This simply means that you should start with low-intensity exercise, once your physician gives you the go-ahead. After several weeks, begin to move the intensity up a bit. One concern that all therapists and trainers have for their clients is the need to maintain proper breathing.

Holding your breath during strength training can cause your blood pressure to dramatically increase, so you want to be sure to breathe throughout your repetitions. I always instruct my clients to count out loud, whistle, scream, sing, yodel, whatever. All these work to help regulate breathing. And whether we are talking about fitness, rehabilitation, or life, breathing is considered a very good thing

There's one other thing that just may inspire you to make the commitment to begin a strength training program. Researchers took 40 adults whose average age was 69, divided them into two groups and had them complete either six months of weight training or six months of endurance training. The results were amazing. The endurance-trained group improved the body's ability to supply oxygen to the blood by 31 percent, but the resistance-trained group improved 57 percent.

The weight-training group also experienced a 10 percent increase in muscle size. Not too bad, eh?

Since the endurance group in this study made significant improvements and the resistance-training group almost doubled those positive results, why not make the commitment to add strength training to your fitness improvement plan? And then tell your kids that they'd better watch out, because you may be challenging them to a bench press contest in a few months!

What Does Being Active Really Mean?

Being active, as all of us over 40 know, is vital to out overall health and well-being. And we have all read article after article, and we’re constantly being told by the medical profession and the media that being active reduces the risk of serious health problems and improves our quality of life. But what exactly does ‘being active’ mean?

There are four main categories of activity people refer to when they discuss being active:

1. Physical activity:

This includes the simple things we do everyday like brushing our teeth, doing the laundry or even dusting the furniture. Anything that involves moving your body would fall into this category.

2. Moderate physical activity

This level is the kind of activity that is recommended to improve general health and includes simple activities like walking or dancing, gardening or fix it projects around the house.

3. Exercise

This is the level that refers to any type of physical activity performed to improve your health and fitness. This could be things like organized walking groups (mall walkers), swimming, exercise classes or gym sessions.

4. Sport

Sport is classified as any activity undertaken as a game or competition and includes team sports such as football, basketball, or softball and solo sports such as tennis, bowling, golf or even martial arts.

There is scientific proof that moderate activity on a daily basis can make world of difference and have significant long term health benefits. These include lowering of blood pressure, weight loss; reduction in the risk of heart disease and strokes and help with controlling chronic health conditions such as diabetes.

The amount of activity required to reach these levels will vary from person to person depending on their general fitness and ability levels. It is important for a person to focus on the effort they need to make in order to be active, rather than the speed at which they do things. Greater amounts of activity can bring greater health benefits but activity should not be excessive to avoid the risk of injury.

Any moderately intense activity should not leave a person breathless and they should still be able to talk while participating. Being active should not cause exhaustion or extreme fatigue or pain. If you have particular health concerns you should always consult your doctor before undertaking any kind of additional physical activity.