Muscle training becomes more important, not less, to your safety, strength and balance as you become older, writes James Judd in “This Is Not Your Father's Body: Fitness, Health and Nutrition for Middle-Aged Men.” If you are an older man looking to shed years off how you look and feel, building muscle mass via strength training offers just the ticket. With a modest time commitment, you can reduce the signs and symptoms of diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, obesity and back pain and other conditions, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention note. Muscle training can even benefit the mind, having been shown to reduce feelings of depression in male seniors.
Step 1
Discuss your goals with your doctor, as part of a physical checkup, and with a fitness trainer at a gym. Join a gym within 15 minutes by vehicle or foot of your work or home, to make it easy to stick to your weight-training routine, Judd recommends. Alternately, set up a home gym with a chair and dumbbells weighing 3, 5 and 8 pounds, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advise.
Step 2
During a consultation with your fitness trainer, record your baseline weight, body-fat percentage and the circumference of your upper arm, waist, hips, quads and calves. Track your changes in body fat at six-week intervals as an estimate of muscle-mass increases and look for increases in your arm, quad and calf measurements, and decreases in your hip and waist inches.
Step 3
Wear quality shoes with good support and fresh treads, and comfortable clothing. Warm up with a brisk, 10- to 15-minute walk, or use a stationary bike, a treadmill or another cardiovascular exercise device for eight to 10 minutes.
Step 4
Perform a set of exercises on the beginner or intermediate circuit of machines at your gym, which typically include quadriceps, triceps and chest presses, rows, pull-downs, quad extensions and biceps curls. Aim to do each exercise with weights that you can lift 10 to 12 times with only moderate difficulty.
Step 5
If you've chosen to train at home, perform squats in your home gym by nearly sitting in your chair, then slowly rise to stand. Use your dumbbells to do biceps curls and the overhead press. Perform wall push-ups, toe stands, step-ups, hip abductions, knee extensions, knee curls, pelvic tilts and floor back extensions, as recommended in the Centers for Disease Control’s “Strength Training for Older Adults” program.
Step 6
Consume low-fat dairy and lean meat to provide protein, which allows your muscle mass to build in response to weight training. In a study published in 2007 in the "International Journal of Sports Medicine, Finnish researchers found that consuming a high level of dietary protein may help older men produce hormones that support their muscle-building workouts. Incorporate protein in food rather than relying on supplements, the study recommends.
Step 7
Monitor your strength performance after two weeks. Increase your dumbbell or machine weights to increase your intensity to continue to build muscle mass.
Step 8
Weight train three days a week. Keep records of how much you are lifting each day. After eight weeks, expect to see an increase of 50 to 60 percent in what you can lift, comparable to what a younger man would achieve, weight-training expert Wayne L. Westcott predicts in “Building Strength & Stamina.”
Things You'll Need
- Sturdy chair
- Quality shoes
- Comfortable clothing
- Dumbbells
References
- “This Is Not Your Father's Body: Fitness, Health and Nutrition for Middle-Aged Men"; James Judd; 2002
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Growing Stronger - Strength Training for Older Adults
- Reuters: Diet affects older men's weight training success; Amy Norton; Jan. 10, 2008
- "International Journal of Sports Medicine"; Effects of Strength Training and Reduced Training on Functional Performance and Metabolic Health Indicators in Middle-Aged Men; Janne Sallinen et al.; 2007
- "Building Strength & Stamina"; Wayne L. Westcott; 2003
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