It’s a question that you’re sure to ask yourself at one time or another as you pass certain age milestones:“I’m doing all the things I used to do from an exercise standpoint. So why am I not losing the weight like I used to?” One of the most important things to understand is that as we age, our bodies start to give up muscle. Muscle is very expensive tissue to maintain.
New Hurdles Will Arrise
First, unless you’re doing regular weight training, after the age of 30, you lose about 1 lb. of muscle per year.
Next, for someone who’s been thin their entire life, particularly females, another big hurdle arrives during menopause. Why? As our hormone levels start to change, we begin to lose estrogen. And as we lose estrogen, we often gain body fat. So you may experience more belly fat, less sleep and other symptoms around this stage.
However, let’s say you’ve cleared these hurdles without much difficulty. Great! But you’ve still got work to do. Because if you’re not doing weight training as you get older, you are losing muscle tissue. Let me be clear: There is no way to maintain muscle without asking for that kind of significant adaptation.
Defying Gravity as You Age
As you lose muscle with age, you may weigh the same, but the distribution of tissue will shift. The more muscle you have, the less of an effect “gravity” can have. The pushing and pulling of building muscle leads to a host of benefits, including your metabolism speeding up and your skeleton becoming stronger. Suddenly, you’re defying gravity and moving your body to a healthier state.
Sure, there are times when we exercise that we may feel like doing exercises with fewer reps or at less intensity. Everybody has those days, even me! Yet, I’m here to tell you that you can do one of those – fewer reps or less intensity – but not both. In other words, you can do fewer reps but then you must do the exercise more intensely. As you age, intensity must go up or at least be maintained even as reps may go down.
Continue Working Towards Your Best Self
What I would recommend to anyone, regardless of what stage in life you are in, is to remember to consistently keep your body moving. Walk, ride your bike, run, etc.
Secondly, compliment this activity at least twice a week with intense weight training, which doesn’t need to be a long session, but it does need to be of high intensity. It’s good to lift the highest amount of weight that you can handle, but not without working alongside someone like me, who can pay close attention to your form so that you don’t get injured.
Once every ten days, you may also do some type of a sprint. This maximum effort with rest intervals can be of help to our cardiovascular system and metabolism.
I Can Help You!
My job as a trainer at Body By G is to push you just enough so that you get that muscle adaptation you need. One of the best things I can do on the training front is help you go a couple more reps than you probably would not be able to do on your own. This little bit extra of a push over time can add up to bigger and better results.
So if what you’ve been doing lately isn’t working as well as it used to, let’s talk about it and discover the root cause. It may be related to nutrition, fitness and in all likelihood, probably a bit of both. Fortunately, BodyByG is well equipped to handle this by creating a fitness and nutrition program that works for your goals. Call 708.267.7173 or email g@coachingbyg.com.