As a trainer and coach, I have been struggling with certain mindset. I have been asking myself, "When we get older we lose a lot of physical capability, including strength, muscle mass, and so on. Then why should we be even training?".
I'm have worked at one of the high end retirement community in Washington State as fitness program coordinator.
Beginning of the year 2018, I started a training class called Mass and Strength class. This was a small class with 6 seniors age from 65-85.
Intention was to help the residents to restore muscle mass and strength which may help with their cognitive functions. The program design was 45 minute workout for 3 times per week over 12 weeks. Majority of them had been taking a class where they only use 3 lb weight at the most.
I broke up the 12 weeks into 4 phases with 3 weeks per phase.
First phase I focused on mobility and stability mainly in ankle, hip, shoulder and spine using squat, shoulder press, hinge, and band pulling exercises. For the range, I just went with whatever they could give me since level of their arthritis varied. Most had some form of posture issue as many of the senior population do. Even with light exercise, soreness was severe especially in quads and hamstring area.
Second phase was focusing more on muscular endurance using 3-5 exercises between 8-15 repetitions with 3-4 sets. Main focus was to get them moving. I did not force them to lift anything heavier then what they are used to lift. Some of them struggled even lifting 2 lb with single arm over head press.
Third phase was working on strength. I had 3 exercises per session with 5 repetitions over 5 sets. I also made a rule that they have to lift heavier than previous week. This probably was the amazing week. 85 year old gentleman who struggled pressing 2 lb overhead, gained a confidence after first week of third phase. By the end of third phase he was pressing 20 lb!! How did that happened? I don't know. But even other participants start performing leg presses at over 300 lb where they only did about over 100 lb.
Fourth phase was challenge week. I combined second and third phase concept. At this point, yes they still have knee or other joint issues but their posture is more open, they complain about they need to buy smaller cloth, and create confidence that even at their age they are able to improve physical fitness. Same 85 year old gentleman mentioned earlier, lost 30 lb.
Exercise program itself was nothing special. Only thing I took out from their typical exercise was steady state cardio and introduce them to interval training using their cardio equipment.
What I learned from this class is number of things:
You can still build muscle and get stronger even when you get older.
It is better to be fit and strong while you are young.
Majority of people are giving way too much excuses and not really understanding the benefit and potential of strength training.
For trainers, don't limit and underestimate the capability of seniors.
They can handle more than we think.
Most importantly, age is just a number. Stop making age related excuses.
So in regards to my concern mentioned in the beginning, thanks to participants of Mass and Strength class, has been blown away. I'm just excited with what I can do for myself and for the others.
In fact, I got to up my own workout!
Kota Shimada
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