Unfortunately, your muscle mass begins to decline as you get older. This will take effect on your strength and you might start to find everyday tasks like getting out of bed, or walking to and from places harder. Not to worry though, short sessions of light cardio and resistance training can help you build up muscle again.
Resistance training is an effective way to combat age-related muscle loss. However, depending on your fitness abilities and health condition, lifting super-heavy weight is not recommended for everyone. This is why a set of best adjustable dumbbells is great for those older adults with less muscle mass, as you can adjust the weight to what you can manage.
This ten-minute strength workout shared by Silver Sneakers will use your own body weight as well as a set of very light set of dumbbell weights to complete a variety of exercises designed to build and tone your whole body.
The routine includes just one circuit of exercises combining light cardio and strength movements with some important stretching at the end. It includes no repeats which should help the ten-minute workout fly by.
The trainer provides modifications of some of the moves to make sure everyone can take part in the routine and put their muscles to work.
Exercise shouldn't discriminate and growing old certainly shouldn't stop anyone from benefitting from fitness. The creators behind this workout, Silver Sneakers, provide a health and fitness program especially for adults 65 years and above. The exercise is led by trained instructors and is tailored to older adults of all fitness levels.
The program has improved the quality of life for many seniors and has even been used in a study to measure how effective exercise programs can be for elder adults. A 2019 study published in the National Library of Medicine found that participants of the program who had more frequent visits to a fitness center whilst completing a program had higher self-reported physical and mental health scores.
The study authors concluded, "SilverSneakers participation frequency is associated with higher quality of life for seniors."
There is a large bank of free senior-friendly exercise routines that can be accessed on the YouTube channel. Most sessions last less than ten minutes to avoid overworking your body.
If you are regularly exercising in your senior years do remember to consume protein every day. This is essential for building, repairing, and maintaining muscle mass. You can source this from one of our best protein powders for weight loss if you feel like you aren't eating enough foods with high levels of protein.
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