Weightlifting For Health

Yeah, we get our share of new memberships at the gym right around the first of January and after about 2 weeks we rarely see those folks again.
I guess the distance between the imagination and reality is too great for a lot of folks to travel.

The thing is, seniors shouldn’t be like that. We’ve all had goals all through our lives and know that almost all of them take time and a lot of inner strength to achieve.
Weight lifting with weights and / or body weight isn’t just about looks but about muscle strength combined with flexibility to create a quality of life that wouldn’t be available otherwise. It’s just another goal and as seniors, we should all know how it works.

I mentioned “body weight” for a reason. At the price of commercial weights nowadays, more people should be using their own body weight for that resistance training that weight lifting is all about.
For instance: Chin-ups, pull-ups, push-ups are all good body weight exercises but what of the small stuff a person doesn’t think of?
How about when a person stands up from a sitting position……hands free. Whether sitting on the commode or on a chair, try to eliminate the use of hands when standing up.
If I do not put my hands on my knees or the sides of a chair to help push myself up, I’m lifting nearly 200 lbs with just my legs. Do that 5 or 10 times and Houston, we have ourselves a weightlifting exercise.
I’m working the hams, the quads, the glutes, the core (abdominal area) and if perchance when I stand up I squeeze the cheeks of my butt for a few seconds, I’ve added time to resistance whilst also helping out with my tensors and flexors.

Now, it doesn’t make any difference in the long run if a person can’t do a full exercise with great form the first time out. It could take a couple of days or a week or so to get it right but so what?
My goodness, if we treated weight lifting like we did sex, we’d also understand that no one on this earth got it right the first time out and we’d all keep practicing until we were totally satisfied.

 

True but much of our body is dependent upon need. As we age, certain functions start to wane because frankly, we do not place any need for our body to do anything different than to go with the flow.
We slow down, we don’t do the 9-5 any longer and don’t really have a reason to tax our muscles the way we used to ergo our muscles get flaccid, our bones become brittle and yes, even our cognitive abilities are at risk.

Improving muscle strength via weight lifting / resistance training has a definite positive effect on the many losses that will occur because again, the human body depends on need.
Just a small example is that when bicep tendon has minor tears that do not need surgery, the main course of action is, of all things, to do light weight curls. It hurts like heck to exercise the tendon (I know from personal experience) but even though it is our brain that is telling the arm to move, it’s also the brain that says there’s an injury and computes the necessary chemical and molecular actions that have to take place in order to heal that tendon.
Note: When such injuries do occur, it’s very important to eat those foods that are naturally anti-inflammatory like pineapple for instance in order to reduce the pain.

My octogenarian friend and weight lifter says that when he hurts a knee or strains a muscle, he lights it up. He may not lift heavy but he still lifts because he knows that doing so creates a need hence his body concentrates on the areas that are needed.
Another note: Buddy normally squats 350 but when he’s being careful for medical reasons, I’ve seen him squat with a 45# bar just to literally keep the juices flowing thereby forcing the healing process.

And yet another note: Buddy’s wife (also an octogenarian) was very close to death from allowing herself to basically waste away.
Now, after she started listening to her husband and with his guidance and using very light weights, she is on the weight floor every other day and worked that frail body back to where she is now fully functional and enjoying life.

 

Earnistine is great proof of this,

 

Ok. I am a bit impressed with her routine. But especially with how she does it in spike heels and how does she grip the weights with those nails?!

 

I caught that too, she's keeping it formal. 

 

Since weight lifting depends on balance, she was just showing off during a photo op I think. Heck, many of the ladies and men go barefoot or simply wear socks when they’re lifting.
And…..when she’s sitting on her sofa in her very nice living room, she’s wearing dirty old tennis shoes.

That said, the ladies who compete often wear spike heels on stage to show off their calves. They all get oiled up and wear makeup and the white gals get spray tanned and yes, almost all of them wear fake nails.
Some of the ladies who have gone way too far with their training look more like men than some men I know so it’s imperative that they do something to distinguish themselves as females.
Thank goodness the IFBB isn’t into the trans thing …….yet.

 

I am hoping it works for me, I have problems standing in tennis shoes, forget the spike heels, thats just an accident waiting to happen right there

 

Just a suggestion Marie, you might have a lot better balance if you take the shoes off.
A lot of lifters train with bare feet and I personally train with a real light weight type of water sock. You will feel the floor and your body will try to autocorrect with more accuracy should you go off balance.

 

Today was leg day. I hate leg days. I don’t want to do leg days but since I was feeling good, I went into it with a little more fervor than I normally do so as if I’m not already sore, I’ll really be sore tomorrow.

If I’m in weight lifting mode, I’ll hit the leg sled and do around 600# + with about a 5-10 min rest in between lifts.
If I’m in bodybuilding mode, I’ve been doing about 305# and doing about 10-12 reps and maybe 3-4 sets.
As I wrote, I felt good so I knocked out 10 sets of 10 reps with no drop weight sets and came out looking as wobbly as drunk trying to find the exit out of the bar.

In the end, I know it’s all worth it but Ima gonna suffer for this one.

 

Thank you, Bobby I will sure try it, barefooted.