Welcome to afitnewyou! Today I would
like to tell you that while you don't have to look your age, you should act it to a certain degree when training. As a teacher of pre-k through 8th
grade students, and a personal trainer of junior high athletes on up to people
in their 70’s, I know quite well that the there are different expectations of
people based on their age and stage of life.
I don’t expect a five year old kindergartener to have the same hand-eye
coordination that an 8th grader does, and I will use different
exercises with my Jr. high lacrosse players than I do with my elder tennis
playing clients. This is true to a point however, because there are many fundamental training principles that are
applied to everyone, and once the human body reaches a certain level of
maturity, muscle cells have the potential to be relatively the same regardless
of age. Of course you need to consider
differences in body chemistry between males and females, and adolescents and
seniors, but any body and everybody has the ability to develop muscle strength,
endurance and an improved body composition.
So, act your age…just don’t look it!
JT is a client of mine in his early
70’s who self proclaims that he is the “oldest man in the gym” every time he is
training with me. And while I like to
make him feel better and point out other people in the gym near his age, most
of the time he is there he most likely is the oldest at that time. But I still push him as hard as I would any
of my other clients, and he sweats just as much. What JT also likes to point out and question
is why I have him doing exercises that no one else in the gym is doing. When he asks this, he is usually performing a
single-leg, body weight dead lift while standing on the flat side of a Bosu
ball. I reassure him that other people
do these exercises as well, and/or joke with him that I have him doing them
because he is the oldest man in the gym.
What he sometimes misses is that the reason I incorporate exercises like
into his routine in addition to the normal strength training exercises it to
improve his balance, which is especially important for someone his age to do in
order to prevent both falls and injuries relating to them.
Just as balance training is
particularly important for older clients, many exercises are specifically
appropriate or can be considered contraindicated for certain age groups. For example, with Jr. High and High school
aged athletes, I will have them do primarily closed-chain exercises, which are
great for improving athletic performance.
However, I do these as opposed to open-chain exercises as I don’t see
the need to do isolated muscle exercises when their bodies are not ready to
develop muscle mass yet. Similarly, with
older male clients, as their testosterone levels drop, I find it more
beneficial and functional to have them do exercises like lunges as opposed to a
single-leg extension in order to develop muscle strength.
What cannot be lost however is that
muscle at any age can be developed. And
this is true with consideration of all the aspects of fitness; in terms of
muscle strength, muscle endurance, flexibility and composition. As long as the appropriate exercises are used
with the proper intensity, muscle at any age can and will improve. Everyone and anyone can see gains in muscle
strength, endurance and composition. So
no matter what your age, get to the gym, hit the weights, and let people
underestimate your age as you rock a fit new you.
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