You can build muscle after 70 by working out once a week—a physical therapist explains how
As little as a single session a week can lead to meaningful results in health and functional strength for seniors
Strength training at any age is important, but it’s essential after 70.
“As we age, we often face structural changes known as sarcopenia and osteopenia—the progressive loss of muscle mass and bone density,” says Dr Jamie Bovay, founder and lead physical therapist at KinetikChain Denver.
“By age 70, for many, this slide becomes a cliff.
“While that may sound dire, with a plan, we can minimize any losses and, more importantly, we can actually build muscle at any age.”
It doesn’t require heavy weights or a huge time commitment either. Bovay tells Fit&Well that there is a common misconception that you have to be in the gym every day to make progress, but as little as a single session a week can lead to meaningful results in health and functional strength for seniors.
“We aren’t training for a bodybuilding [competition] stage,” says Bovay, “we are training to maintain our access to all of the things we want to do.
“We are building a body that will last 100-plus years, so that at age 95, we can still easily get off the floor, carry our own groceries, and navigate the world with confidence.”
HOW SENIORS CAN BUILD FUNCTIONAL STRENGTH TRAINING ONCE A WEEK
The good news is that you don’t need heavy weights to maintain your muscle mass.
“The most important thing to understand is that your body doesn’t care how much weight is on the bar,” says Bovay. “It only cares about the signal you send to your nervous system and we can do this in a variety of ways.”
All of those ways, however, require you to work hard to challenge your body. So you can use light weights, but you need to pair them with a relatively high number of reps.
“When you perform high repetitions (20-25) to the point of near-failure (when you can’t do another rep), you create a chemical stimulus in the muscle that signals the body to initiate the protein synthesis that builds muscle,” explains Bovay.
“Make sure your first set is easy to challenging, your second set is hard, and for the third set you should be pushing it to near-failure where the last two to three reps feel challenging to finish,” says Bovay.
But which exercises should you include in your workouts?
According to research, sessions should prioritize multi-joint, full-body movements, including a leg press (such as a squat), an upper-body pull and an upper-body push exercise, using free weights or machines.
Separately, Bovay has shared a five-move workout for seniors to build strength and maintain independence, and the first three exercise types match the recommendations from the research. The workout can be done from home too.
It’s a great place to start.
Workout for seniors
Start to build strength with this once a week routine.
