As we enter our 40’s it becomes even more important and beneficial to build muscle and strength. This can be achieved by incorporating resistance training into your routine, and by using dumbbells, bodyweight, barbells or bands you can get great variation in your training. Finding something that you enjoy is paramount to keeping it up and making it part of your lifestyle. Strength training is incredibly rewarding.
Where do I begin?
Start with bodyweight or lighter weights in order for you to practice form and ensuring that you are using the right muscles in each exercise. For example a squat, when executed with the right pattern of movement, imagining you are sitting back into a chair, cueing into the glutes, pushing the ground away as you come out of the squat, alignment of the spine, engaging the core and pelvic floor, will all help to produce the right movement and get the results. Slow it down and make it a mindful movement.
Aim for between 15-30 minutes 3-4 times a week
You don’t have to work out for hours at a gym to get the physical and mental benefits. Finding what works for you in order to make it achievable and therefore consistent is exactly the place you want to be. We want to be making our muscles work against a resistance, getting that stimuli in the muscle that will help it grow.
Focus on compound movements
What does this mean? Exercises like squats, deadlifts, push ups and rows work multiple muscle groups which will lead to more gains. This means that if you focus on these lifts in shorter workouts you are going to get maximum results.
Avoid overdoing it
Recovery time is crucial and even more so as we age and our hormones are fluctuating. If we exhaust ourselves, we won’t be able to keep up the regular routine and we are more likely to injure ourselves.
Progressive overload
I talk about this a lot in my FIT In 15 community. In order to keep challenging the muscles we need to increase the weight and resistance overtime. The last few reps should feel hard and when they start to feel easy you could look at an increase.
I can’t not mention the “P” word
There are many reasons to try and ensure that we are consuming enough protein but in terms of our muscles they are made up mostly of protein fibres and when they are stimulated through resistance they need protein in order to repair and grow. As we age our muscle mass decreases. After the age of 30 we typically lose between 3-5% per decade. It’s so important for healthy aging and longevity and function to ensure that we do what we can to keep building that muscle.
I have long been an advocate of helping women get stronger and that is why I became a PT. More recently starting my FIT IN 15 online workouts, making it more available, achievable and affordable for women across the world.
I hope you have found this article helpful and as always I’m always happy to answer any questions that you might have.
Karen x
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