“Resistance exercise is a great way to increase lean muscle tissue and strength capacity so that people can function more readily in daily life.”

“No matter what age an individual is, they can experience significant strength improvement with progressive resistance exercise even into the eighth and ninth decades of life.”

“We firmly believe based on this research that progressive resistance training should be encouraged among healthy older adults to help minimize the loss of muscle mass and strength as they age.”

– Mark Peterson, Ph.D., a research fellow in the U-M Physical Activity and Exercise Intervention Research Laboratory

As you know, maintaining or improving your muscle mass through strength training can help reduce your risk for developing heart disease and diabetes, strengthen your bones, relieve symptoms of arthritis and help you control your weight.

Have a Healthy Monday!

Sources:

ScienceDaily.com: Older and Stronger: Progressive Resistance Training Can Build Muscle, Increase Strength as We Age

CDC: Growing Stronger – Strength Training for Older Adults: Why strength training?

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[Source].

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The folks at Nuru were nice enough to send me Exercise Anywhere cards to try out and review.  A bunch of sites have reviewed these cards lately and now it’s my turn.

I really like the Exercise Anywhere cards.  For those that don’t know, these pocket-sized, ring-bound cards contain simple instructions for different exercises that you can do anywhere, especially in your own home. 

With the new baby around, these cards have been useful in getting in some good workouts from home while the little one watches.

I really like how these cards are organized by each part of the body.  There are also a variety of different exercises for each body part.  These cards make variation in your workouts easy to do.

For those looking for ideas on basic strength training exercises to do from anywhere, these cards are perfect for you.  Even if you’re not a beginner, these cards will still help you remember different exercises that you may have forgotten about.

Also included on the cards are some simple ideas for cardio workouts.   The basics of walking, running, and interval training are covered. 

Bottom Line:  Your body can provide great resistance for strength training exercises.  The Exercise Anywhere cards from nuruplanet.com can give you good ideas on how to accomplish this. 

Check out the cards and happy exercising!

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This graphic is from the American College of Sports Medicine’s new position stand for physical activity, dated February 1, 2009. 

This graphic shows how resistance training can lead to a decrease in body fat.  When we increase muscle mass through resistance training, our resting metabolic rate increases, which leads to an increase in energy expenditure, which can then lead to a decrease in body fat. 

Don’t forget to do resistance training a couple of times a week.  It can do our bodies good. 

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One of the most important principles to remember is the overload principle. This means putting a greater load on the body system (by system I mean the aerobic, anaerobic, strength, flexibility, etc. systems that we train) we are training than that system is used to. Whether it is cardio, strength training, or stretching, the load must be greater than the system is used to or no gains will be made.

When the overload is removed from a system, the training effects will start to go away. This is called the law of reversibility. Basically, we need to use it or we will lose it. I am sure we all have felt this law in action at some point in our lives. We ease off our training programs and maybe even stop our training and then after a week or two, we try to do what we used to and our bodies can’t do it anymore. The overload was removed and the training gains were lost.

There are a few principles that help determine how much of an overload we put on our bodies and body systems:

• Frequency – this is how many training sessions are done each week. The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommends a frequency of 3-5 days per week for cardio training. Those working out at a lower intensity may need 5 days to get all the health benefits of their training while those working out at a higher intensity may only need 3-4 days to get the benefits.

• Duration – this is the time of the workload. ACSM recommends 30 minutes or more of moderate intensity physical activity, and 60 minutes or more may be necessary for weight loss and weight control.¹

• Intensity – this is how difficult the workload is. This can be manipulated in a number of ways. For example, during cardio training, a person running at 85% of their heart rate maximum is at a higher intensity than someone running at 70% HRmax. During strength training, intensity can be manipulated by the number of reps or by the resistance (weight). For cardio, ACSM recommends somewhere between 64-94% of maximum heart rate as a good intensity. Brisk walking is, for some people, an intense enough activity to provide a training effect. ²

These are proven training principles that will help get all of us into better shape. Don’t stress so much over all the details of these principles. Just get moving for at least 30 minutes a day on most days of the week. If you are doing that your body will become more fit, and then you can increase the duration of your workout, or the intensity by walking/running faster.

1. Mitchell H. Whaley, ed., ACSM’s Guideline for Exercise Testing and Prescription, 7^th ed (Baltimore: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, 2007), 147-48.
2. Ibid., 140-41.

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A good push-up is done by placing the hands under the shoulders and keeping the back straight and the head up. Keep the elbows in and the body straight as you go down. Go down until your chest almost touches the floor.

While building strength you can do push-ups against the wall or on your knees. When regular push-ups get too easy, try placing your feet on a bench or something similar. This will make it a little tougher.

Try some push-ups today!

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