Muscle is important at any age, but it becomes even more important to keep it up as we get older. From around age 30, our bodies naturally – and gradually – begin losing muscle mass unless we intervene, resulting in reduced ability to complete daily tasks and increased risk of injury. As your muscles get weaker, your body composition (the ratio of lean mass to fat mass) can change. This can affect your metabolic health, mobility, and the chance that you will get a chronic or serious disease like type 2 diabetes.
Workout Advice After 50
Ilene Block, a personal trainer and the founder of Silver and Strong, has a message for you if you’re currently working out with body composition in mind: “Stop doing 47 different exercises at the gym.” “You only need 4 to completely change your shape after 50,” she wrote in the caption of a recent Instagram post.
Understanding Body Shape Factors
Before we go on, it’s important to know that muscle and fat are not the only things that affect body shape. Genetics, bone structure, height, digestion, and other things also play a role. So, while some types of training can change the shape of your body by making your muscles bigger, for example, there are some things that weightlifting alone can’t change. It’s also important to remember that the shape of your body isn’t a good way to tell how healthy you are or how strong you are.
Learning From Experience
Back to Block. The PT talks about how hard it was for her to build muscle and change her body composition when she first started resistance training, even though she lifted weights all the time. “I wasted years at the gym doing whatever I wanted.” She says, “Mostly upper body because that’s what I liked.” “I stayed away from legs. I never changed the weights I used. For about five years, I did the same thing every day and wondered why nothing changed.
Building Muscle the Right Way
Then I learned what actually builds the muscle that reshapes your body after 50. It’s not hard. But you have to move in the right way and push yourself a little bit more each time.
Training Guidelines and Motivation
Block goes on to list the four movements she thinks are best for body recomposition after age 50. All of these are compound exercises, which means they work multiple major muscle groups at once and build functional strength that can be used in everyday life.
What to Read Next: “Do these three times a week and take a break of 60 to 90 seconds between sets,” she says. “Every few weeks, add a little more weight over time.
I began with 5-pound dumbbells when I was 61 years old.” I am now stronger than I have ever been in my life. “It’s never too late to start.”
Four compound exercises that help you get stronger and keep your body in shape after age 50
1. Squats with a barbell or a goblet
Block says that squats are the “single best lower body exercise for women over 50.” Her Instagram caption says, “Works your quads, glutes, hamstrings, and core all at once.”
The PT says to start with your own body weight or a light dumbbell and then add more weight as you get stronger.
2. Deadlifts from Romania
This changed my entire backside,’ Block writes. ‘Targets your hamstrings and glutes in a way nothing else does. Also, it makes your lower back stronger, which is more important as we get older.
Block stresses again how important it is to learn the movement pattern with a light weight first and then gradually add more weight over time.
3. Press from above
Block says, Most women skip this completely.
She says, Your shoulders and arms give you that strong defined look in sleeveless tops.” “Standing overhead press also makes your core work to stabilise, so you’re working your midsection without doing a single crunch.”
It’s important to note that the overhead press is a great exercise in general, but it does put a lot of stress on the shoulders and rotator cuffs, which can make injuries more likely. Before you add the overhead press to your routine, make sure that your physiotherapist or physical therapist is okay with it. The landmine press is a great way to work out your shoulders without putting too much strain on them.
4. Rows
Block says that any kind of horizontal row will work, whether you have dumbbells, kettlebells, a cable machine, or a barbell.
Block says that the exercise “builds your back and helps your posture.” “Nothing makes you look older than having rounded shoulders and a head that sticks out.” Rows fix that and make you look confident and straight.
