Have you noticed your body behaving differently the last few years?
Maybe you’re noticing you can’t spring out of bed full of energy anymore. Maybe aches and pains have taken over your life and have stopped you from doing what you love. As our body ages, it reacts differently to our environments.
But, don’t let these aches and pains take over!
Here are 17.5 new reasons how lifting weights and strength training when you’re over 40 can save your life:
1. Living INJURY FREE…and staying that way!
Keeping yourself healthy and strong in your 40’s should be the #1 priority (in any age group really…)When you get all banged up in your 40’s, it seems to take longer to recover than when you were in your 20’s doing all that crazy daredevil S#*!
Making sure you are frequently lifting weights and maintaining strong muscles is KEY to long term survival and lowering your risk of injury…See number 2!
2. You AVOID Sarcopenia…
Sarcopenia is a condition caused by loss of skeletal muscle mass and function. While natural aging is the main cause of it, another factor that contributes to this condition (alongside poor nutrition) is living a sedentary life (a.k.a you’re not moving that body around with any physical activity).
Not moving around leads to muscle weakness also known as muscle atrophy.
3. You AVOID muscle mass loss
According to research from the International Osteoporosis Foundation, your muscle mass begins to decline around 40 at a rate of 3-8% per decade. This means You LOSE lean muscle mass that can bring on unnecessary symptoms you will want to avoid…See number 4
4. You AVOID symptoms of aging
When you take care of your body, you can avoid the following :
- Poor and loss of balance
- Loss of strength
- Loss of grip (ability to open or tighten things)
- Loss of endurance
- A decrease in your muscle mass
- Overall weakness in your body/muscles
- Trouble walking
- Trouble climbing up and down stairs
- Trouble lifting objects
- Trouble bending
- Trouble doing your favourite activities – leading you back to being more sedentary… which leads you back to muscle loss. The cycle will go round and round again and again unless you make a change!!
5. A better overall quality of life
Lifting weights when you’re over 40 will help you enjoy these benefits:
- Helps with your balance
- Helps build up your strength
- Helps and ease the process of going up and down the stairs
- Helps your endurance
- Helps with your mobility
- Helps you to lift objects
- Helps you walk better (improves your Gait movements)
- Helps you perform some of the most basic and most necessary daily tasks such as:
- Bending
- Gardening
- Sweeping
- Grocery shopping
- Moving furniture
- Cleaning
- Dusting
- Cooking
- Taking out the garbage
- Brushing your teeth
- Showering/bathing
- Putting on your shoes
- Driving (by helping you keep a clearer mental focus)
- Knitting
- Dancing
- Sitting with better posture
6. USE IT or LOSE it! Strength Training helps AVOID muscle shrinkage.
That old saying is true! Working your muscles helps maintain your muscle mass and strength.
When muscles are not used, they shrink. You don’t want that!
7. It creates strong and healthy bones.
Strength training can also strengthen your bones, ligaments, and tendons, which is vital for your overall health!
Read More: Improve your Strength NOW to Avoid Crippling Falls
8. Your muscles contract in the POSITIVE WAY you need them to.
When you strength train, your muscles build up the strength that they need to help you do life’s simple tasks. Your muscles contract positively, helping your muscles to maintain their size, grow, and increase in their strength.
9. LADIES > MENOPAUSE
Menopause can add more complications as lower estrogen increases appetite. Lifting weights can help balance your estrogen levels by increasing your lean muscle. Working towards lean muscles increases your metabolism, which helps you burn more fat.
Strength training also helps the distribution of fat tissue in your body that tends to build up due to menopause.
Read More: The 3 Biggest Fitness Mistakes Women Make in Their 50’s
10. MEN > MEN “O” PAUSE
Because as you age your muscles lose mass, your testosterone levels also begin to decrease about 1% every year after 30. Because testosterone affects so many functions in your body, its decrease can bring significant physical and emotional changes.
Strength training consistently at least 2X-4X per week slows the decrease of testosterone your body is going through and bumps up your testosterone levels in the hours after your workouts. In addition, lifting weights can also help with your red blood cell production, increase bone density, improve your moods, improves your focus & concentration, help boost your sex drive and sperm production, and much more!
11. You don’t look and feel your age!
Lifting weights helps you look young! It helps you feel young mentally and physically. It also helps you do things you never thought you’d be doing at X age.
12. Strength Training stabilizes muscles groups
A common trend we always see in our training facility is a lack of joint stability.
Strength training that includes performing good quality movements with bands, dumbbells, balls, bars, body weight, cables, and suspension systems helps you bring up this KEY aspect of your fitness.
With strength comes stability!
13. Posture up!
Because we spend much time working, our ability to hold a strong back and posture diminishes over time from slouching too much—whether it be from driving, spending lots of time on the computer, doing a zillion Zoom calls, or simply not moving enough.
Strength training helps to strengthen your abdominals, open up your shoulders, make your back muscles open and strong again, and stretch out those chest muscles, enhancing your posture.
14. Healthier brain and prevention of cognitive decline
Your body will appreciate your new-found strength when you start training, but so will your brain! Studies show the relationship between strength training and the positive benefits it has on the brain. Strength training can increase the amount of blood flow to the brain, which then increases the amount of oxygen and nutrients to brain cells. This can improve memory and reasoning in people with mild cognitive impairment (often a precursor of dementia).
Resistance training promotes the creation of NEW blood vessels and encourages the brain to form NEW neurons from stem cells in the hippocampus, which has a major role in learning and memory. Resistance training can also increase the production of your brain proteins that are associated with enhanced cognitive function.
It also enhances your brain plasticity, which is the ability of neural networks in the brain to change through growth and reorganization from making new connections to systematic adjustments like cortical remapping.
In addition, strength training helps regulate your sleep, mood cognition (memory and learning) due to producing key neurotransmitters such as serotonin.
15. It reduces your chances of Cancer
Visceral fat increases the risk of heart disease and diabetes, but unfortunately, it also promotes cancer development.
Muscle wasting is a common complication of cancer treatment and is associated with a higher risk of chemo toxicity, faster tumor progression, and a lower survival rate.
Resistance training helps build muscle mass, muscle mass is a strong predictor of cancer treatment outcomes. Simply put, the more muscle you have, the higher the chance of your survival during treatment.
16. It strengthens your mental health
Resistance training improves symptoms of clinical depression and anxiety. These exercises seek out endorphins, which promote better reactions to stressful environments. Strength training provides an opportunity to overcome obstacles in a controlled, predictable environment, increasing mental resilience.
17. You’ll live LONGER
When you lift weights, you maintain a new level of strength. One of the many benefits of lifting is an increase in GRIP STRENGTH. One study shows there is a correlation between grip strength and heart health. The stronger the grip the stronger the heart.
17.5 You’ll be strong enough to lift a car.
Okay, well maybe not. But, you will have the strength to get you through anything that life throws at you. You will start surprising yourself at how strong you really are. After working away each week at strength training, you’ll see results both in and out of the gym. Packing in groceries, lifting your grandkids, walking up the stairs—even simply loving your life. It’ll all get easier.
You have it in you! You just need to take the first step.
It is super clear from all the scientific research that strength training/resistance training/weight lifting is extremely beneficial for your life, brain function, mobility, fitness, daily activities, muscle mass, muscle maintenance, and overall quality of life as you age!
So, make sure you get out there and don’t be afraid to workout! We recommend a minimum of 2x-3x per week! Start with what’s doable for you, right now! Make sure to exercise all the major muscle groups, which includes the legs, the arms, the chest, the shoulders, the back, the abdomen, and even your neck…EVERYTHING!
Just because you’re over 40, doesn’t mean you have to bow down to those aches and pains!
If you want to gain your strength and your life back, we’re here to help you take the next step!
Our 6 Week Stronger For Longer Program is the perfect place to start
