Why you should lift weights if you are over 50!

It's a longish title but then we still gave a long way to go once we hit 50 years of age, well that's the plan anyway. We should be lifting weights throughout our life but I want to focus on why it's important for us middle aged folk to get under a bar.

Let's start with the obvious then, if we lift weights and follow an appropriate and progressive training plan then we will more than likely get stronger. This is great because it means that we are obviously making “gainz” in our training and seeing any improvements is motivational. Consistency in training is vital at this stage in our lives and steady progress is the aim.

Age is no limit to "gainz" made!

However, there are many other reasons why getting stronger and growing a little muscle is a good thing beyond squatting a new personal best. Being more muscular as we age dramatically reduces the risk of all cause morbidity by a significant amount. That’s right, being more muscular reduces our risk of dying early! Not necessarily steroidal bodybuilding muscular, just more muscular than average for our age group.

This is important and I don't think that it's widely enough known or promoted. The scope and potential benefits to society and the health service as a whole are huge as an ageing population continues to grow and consume the time and resources of an already struggling health care system. Something as simple as attending the gym 3 times per week and putting a little effort in can have a huge impact on the individual, society and the health care services.

Being more muscular reduces the risk of dying!

We are living longer with more time spent in retirement. For most of us our upcoming retirement will be one filled with activity, time spent with the family and travel. In order to maintain a quality of life that allows us to do this and enjoy it we must remain fit, strong and healthy. As I’ve already mentioned above training just 3 times per week can make a significant difference. Please consult your doctor before embarking on any form of training.

We lose muscle mass more rapidly as we age which will leave us weaker and less mobile. To counter this we must weight train, whether that’s free weights or resistance machines makes no difference. Maintaining or even increasing our lean muscle mass as we age has to be a training priority if our goal is to have some quality of life in retirement or even before.

Being weaker means that everyday tasks become harder, lifting the shopping or climbing stairs. Eventually it’s a struggle getting off the couch!

Maintaining our range of movement through our joints and muscles is essential, if we don’t move our bodies through a wide range of movements then we will potentially lose that ability to move through those ranges and will become limited, stiff and immobile. Strength training is a great way to ensure that our muscles and joints remain mobile.

Be strong and mobile

Keeping our muscles strong and functional and our joints mobile will ensure that we maintain our posture too, a good posture suggests confidence, health and vitality. Clothes fit better and we generally look fitter and younger than our untrained, less muscular and poorly postured peers.

Weight training has also been shown to promote hormonal balance and boost our metabolism, it will also help to maintain our bodies systems and functions at a higher level.

If you are not sure how to start your weight training journey or need further advice and help then reach out to a good coach or PT at your local gym. Failing that you can email me at tsilvester@getcoached.net with any questions.

Time to HIIT it!

Time, is it the most valuable commodity?

Maybe, but let’s face it if we could bottle time we would never need to worry about not having enough time ever again. We seem to have less time than ever to do things despite having so many time saving gadgets and gizmos at our disposal.

Work, family, hobbies and various other commitments all eat into our time and something generally has to give. Most of the time it’s something that we know we need to do but don’t necessarily want to do (as it involves time, sweat and maybe a little discomfort).

Most of us as parents also find that we neglect ourselves in looking after our children, other halves and even our parents. But we forget that in order to do our best for those that are most important to us we must be fit, well and able. We must make time to look after ourselves a little, not feel guilty at being a little selfish.

If time is the limiting factor then it is essential that you make the most of the time you create for yourself, and I say create because that’s what you have to do. That your training needs are carefully prioritised and that a plan is put in place to ensure you cover all of your health and fitness needs. This may mean that you will need to workout in such a way that you combine several training goals and fitness components into short, distinct programmes.

HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) and circuit type workouts like Crossfit and Metafit work well in this scenario. Strength gains, a metabolic boost, calorie afterburn, increased cardiovascular fitness as well as various health benefits are all achievable through HIIT. These are all possible from just a 20 to 30 minute workout.

A weekly plan should not be all HIIT though, some steady paced conditioning work and some strength training based around the compound lifts should also be included in your programme.

There are lots of free programmes and plans available on the internet. However, these will be either generic or copied straight from a high level athletes training blog post which would be unsuitable for most of us. For a time efficient programme to be effective it must be designed specifically for the individual, for you.

The HIIT Works by Get Coached is a closed Facebook group that provides generic workouts and challenges but can also provide bespoke programmes, coaching and lifestyle advice. To find out more you can visit my Facebook page Get Coached where you will find some example workouts as well as the links to set you up and register your request to join The HIIT Works by Get Coached.

If you have any questions or just want to find out more before you commit ten please feel free to message me via my Facebook page or email tsilvester@getcoached.net

Why Do HIIT Workouts?

High Intensity Interval Training has become a popular, mainstream training mode that offers many benefits both for fitness and health.

“Why should I do HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training)?”

I have written about HIIT workouts before, Olympic Lifts & HIIT and Train Less For More but here I want to go into a little more detail on what it will do for your body's fitness, strength and health.

Let’s start by defining what a HIIT workout is - High Intensity Interval Training involves short periods of hard work with short rest or recovery intervals in between.

HIIT has also been called HIIE (High Intensity Intermittent Exercise) or SIT (Sprint Interval Training) with this latter version associated more often with field sports conditioning or cardiovascular training.

HIIT is very anaerobic in nature and will certainly challenge you but it is a shorter workout in general than most set and rep type sessions.

“Can I build muscle doing HIIT workouts?”

Absolutely! Have you seen some of the Crossfit athletes? These guys are in good shape and the majority of their workouts are HIIT based. As long as your muscle is put under appropriate training stress to overload it with resistance of some kind then it will adapt and grow. HIIT will not elicit maximal hypertrophy, to achieve this you will need to follow a specific training programme with good appropriate nutrition as well.

Progressive Overload is a training principle that has been around and understood for a long time. Milo of Croton, a 6th century Greek wrestler lifted a newborn calf onto his shoulders and repeated this every day as the calf grew until some 4 years later Milo was lifting a bull!

This is a story that is often used as an anecdote to progressive loading and can be applied to traditional strength and hypertrophy training as well as HIIT and Crossfit type workouts.

“Can I get fitter as well as stronger doing HIIT workouts?”

Definitely! HIIT will place a huge demand on your cardiovascular system as well as generate large amounts of lactate. This will increase lactate tolerance and raise your lactate threshold too; both of which are important for improving anaerobic fitness.

Using resistance such as barbells, dumbells as part of your HIIT workout will help increase your strength endurance, boost your metabolism and increase your calorie burn!

"What are the health benefits?"

HIIT workouts have been shown to help reduce the risk of metabolic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular and coronary artery disease as well as atherosclerosis. There is also evidence that HIIT can increase arterial elasticity which decreases with age.

“Should I only do HIIT workouts?”

Not necessarily, you can as there is enough variety in HIIT to ensure you don't get stale, bored or stop adapting to the training.

However, HIIT can also be incorporated into a strength or endurance workout plan as well and in fact will add considerably to both. It is an extremely versatile way to train as the equipment you use varies, there are body weight options if travelling for business or pleasure and you don't need a huge amount of space for most of the workouts!

“How will I stay motivated if they are so tough?”

The great thing about most of the HIIT workouts is that they have some sort of target. This is usually in the form of working out for a set time i.e. 40s work 20s rest for 10 sets so you know of you have to keep moving during the work efforts; another example would be having a set number of reps to complete as quickly as possible for the given exercises i.e. 15, 12, 10, 8, 5 of each exercise.

Seeing your times come down or your reps increase will keep you motivated as it shows you are definitely getting fitter and stronger!

So you can see that there are many options, variations and benefits from HIIT workouts and that you don't have to make many changes to your current workout plan in order to incorporate them.

To find out more about HIIT and how to plan your training Get in touch with me on tsilvester@getcoached.net or to get more HIIT workouts and challenges subscribe to my closed Facebook group The HIIT Works by Get Coached via my Facebook page Get Coached

Train less for more!

Eh? I hear you ask, what is this nonsense?

How can you get more change in your body from doing less training?

Imagine fitting your usual hour of training into half an hour, you might need to adjust the weights a little or your pace on the treadmill or bike but yes you can achieve amazing results training for less time but at a higher intensity. This is hard at first and challenging if you haven’t trained this way before.

The After Burn Effect basically means that your metabolism remains elevated for longer, that you continue to use calories at a higher rate for longer after a HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) type training session than you from a standard endurance or strength session.

High Intensity Interval Training

Basically you work hard for short periods of time with shorter rest intervals or active rest in some cases. It can be a shock to the system, a thorough warm up is essential and a good active cool down to flush the lactate out of your muscles too!  

Perseverance and determination will get you through and once you see the results that can be achieved you will be convinced that this is the way to train!

HIIT has been around for awhile in various different guises and is now a major player in the fitness industry as a way to train.

There are many fitness, lifestyle and health related reasons for including HIIT in your training regime. Listed below are just some of the benefits of HIIT

• Time efficient - approximately half an hour or so training
• Strength and cardiovascular gains
• Boosts metabolism
• Increases insulin sensitivity
• Reduces age related arterial stiffness
• Reduces risk of metabolic disease such as diabetes and arteriosclerosis
• Burns more calories during and after training
• After Burn

An increased metabolism for longer after training

HIIT has so many peripheral benefits too; it’s not about how heavy a weight you can lift but how much work you can achieve with a moderate weight. The emphasis is on whole body training so there is no pressure to stick to training certain body parts on set days etc. The variety of different workouts also means that you can adapt your training easily if you are travelling for work or pleasure and the local gym doesn’t have all your usual training equipment in it. You could even do bodyweight only workouts on the beach!

Challenge, Adaptation, Change, Progress

The variety of exercises available and the constant change in the workout structure keeps the body guessing as to what is coming next, this challenge will ensure that the adaptation to training process is always working thus limiting staleness, overtraining and driving progress.

Now this is all great if you know how to structure your workouts, choose what exercises to use and in what order to use them?

There are loads of great apps and groups available to help with this and one such is the Get Coached HIIT Works programme. This is a closed FaceBook group that gives you access to free programmes, coaching videos and the chance to get directly in touch with a coach (me) to ask any questions as well as reach out to the Pages training community for feedback, input and programme shares.

To find out more about the Get Coached HIIT Works programme please get in touch with me on tsilvester@getcoached.net or leave your email at www.getcoached.net/the-hiit-works to unleash your inner athlete and be a better you!

Thanks for reading and I hope this has inspired you to try a HIIT workout or two!