I really dislike the idea of being overly prescriptive and I’m a firm believer that the word, should, tends to make life complicated. You are your own person. I respect your autonomy.
Not only that, I would like to heartily encourage you to build and maintain a varied menu/repertoire of movement practices and/or activities as part of the things you do to be active. We all know how important it is for your body, mind and spirit to include regular physical activity in your life. What’s more, having a variety of options as part of your ‘movement menu’ can be quite beneficial. Varied movement generally translates into joints that are healthier and move better. It also serves as a stimulus for your brain. So if you like outdoor hikes or walks, by all means, do them! If you like your yoga or barre classes, keep doing them! The same goes for any sport you enjoy. If it gets you moving and you enjoy it, we’re all for it!
Should you?
And…I’m about to make a full-throated, very strong recommendation that you find a way to include strength training as part of the things you do for your health.
You see, over and over again, research and our collective understanding of the body points to the benefits of maintaining muscle mass as we age. This makes strength training something of a ‘must have’ in your life.
Again, I really prefer not to be overly prescriptive. I am also painfully aware of how, for many people, going to the gym is a rather distasteful idea. The mainstream fitness industry has a lot to answer for because of the way that it has failed to position strength training as something for everyone. Especially given how important it is for all of us to maintain muscle mass as we age.
Speaking of which, have I told you about my rage over how our dysfunctional, misleading and disempowering cultural story about aging, in tandem with our narratives about fitness (especially for women, femme-presenting and AFAB folks) consistently leave strength training out of the conversation entirely?
Strength Training: You Can Be Stronger and More Capable Than You Think
Usually, the way the story goes, we assume that as we age, we’ll just get weaker and become less and less capable of managing day-to-day tasks. The thing is, that’s not the whole truth. Getting weaker and less capable is optional. It’s something you have a degree of control over.
Absent an intervention, we can expect to lose 3% – 5% of our muscle mass per decade. On average, that amounts to 4 to 6 lbs.
Put another way, it is true that–if we don’t do anything to build and maintain strength–we will progressively lose muscle mass.
By now it should be no surprise that the thing you can do is strength training. And, for the sake of being explicit, the benefit of strength training lies in its nature: it involves progressively overloading (challenging) your muscles, which stimulates growth in a way that activities like yoga and pilates cannot. That’s not to dismiss either of those activities (or any other activity for that matter), it’s just to highlight that strength training offers a way of building and maintaining muscle mass that few other activities can.
Strength Training: Aches and Pains Are Not Inevitable
Furthermore, our shared cultural narrative about aging says that aches and pains are inevitable. Aging means more back pain and achy joints. This particular part of the story is one that many of us hold onto rather tightly…after all, when stuff starts to hurt, it makes sense to tell ourselves that we’re “just getting older”. Again, that’s just not the whole truth.
When the muscles around any given joint become not-quite-as-strong as they need to be, it’s quite common for that joint to begin hurting. It’s not because there’s anything wrong, per se, or that there’s an injury–it’s often simply a matter of the demands that your life places on the joint are exceeding its current capacity, i.e., its strength.
At this point, it’s probably obvious that I’m about say, strength training to the rescue! …but there’s some nuance here. Absolutely, yes. Strength training is an excellent idea. However, if the strength training you do is joint-friendly and functional strength training, not only will you build and maintain strength, your joints will move and feel better!
Strength Training As a Means of Reducing Fall Risk
And then there’s falling. No one likes to fall down. It hurts. In the extreme version of this scenario, bad falls are how people break things like their hip, which can lead to all sorts of rather dire health consequences. Preventing and avoiding falls are in large part a product of dexterity (i.e., how nimbly you can move), reaction time and the ability of your muscles to absorb force as you try to catch yourself. Conveniently, each of these are trainable qualities.
If your workouts include some amount of hopping or quick-stepping, your dexterity and reaction time will improve. Additionally, workouts that include learning how to land (as in the squat motion that happens as you land from a hop or jump) improve your ability to absorb force. Most importantly, if your workouts involve training for power–that is, the ability to exert force quickly–there is room for all of the above to improve, thereby reducing the likelihood of a future fall.
So Why Does Any of This Matter?
For a moment, imagine remaining strong and capable throughout your lifespan. What are the sorts of things you would like to be able to do, even as you get older? Would you like to continue going on hikes with friends and loved ones? Maybe even up a mountain? Or how about some more basic things like going up stairs with ease or getting down on the floor to play with the kids? Perhaps you would like to be able to squat down and pick up a child so you can then hold them up in the air? Or maybe you’d just like to feel able to put your carry-on bag in the overhead compartment?
All of this is accessible to you. We just have to reimagine our idea of a healthy, active lifestyle so that it includes strength training.
As part of this, let’s also reimagine our cultural story about aging. There is a growing body of research that suggests that people with a more positive attitude about aging tend to live longer, healthier lives. (Where “longer, healthier lives” means reduced risk of dying from any cause, reduced risk of chronic illnesses (such as diabetes, stroke, cancer and heart disease) and improved cognitive functioning). Moreover, people with positive views of aging tend to be more physically active and have better sleep.
Most importantly, these benefits are available to you at any age–we don’t have to frame this as a conversation about aging. Instead, we can think of this as a recipe for living your best life. Thriving, if you will.
Now, we would, of course, love for you to come and train with us. We know that’s not for everybody. If training with us isn’t going to work for you, I’d like to offer these YouTube workout playlists: Little-or-No Equipment Home Workout and Full-Body Gym Workout