Not a strength training exercise
The biggest fitness mistake made by most people over 40 is that they don’t do any legitimate strength training.
Sure, many will play around with dumbbells, kettlebells, TRX and even battle ropes.
There is no doubt you can get a good workout from that stuff.
The problem is that you don’t develop long lasting strength from those workouts.
The only way to develop long lasting strength is to lift heavy stuff, and the most useful heavy things to lift are barbells.
Barbells allow you to mimic everyday human movement patterns.
We squat to get close to the ground when we plant a flower, wash the tires on our car, or read a putt on the golf course.
We bend over and lift stuff off the ground.
We push heavy things over our head and away from our body.
Thus, we can build an entire strength training program around four basic barbell lifts… the squat, deadlift, overhead press and bench press.
The trouble is, going through the process of building significant strength with these lifts is hard.
It takes a significant amount of courage to walk into the squat rack, put a weight you have never lifted before on the bar, put that weight on your back, walk that weight away from the rack, and then squat for five reps.
This is particularly true if in your last workout you were barely able to complete your set of five reps with a lower weight.
This is why most gym goers gravitate towards machines, dumbbells and the like. Failing on that last rep of dumbbell curls is really no big deal.
Why this is the biggest fitness mistake made by most people over 40
The reason this is such a huge mistake is because some time around forty, the process known as sarcopenia, or natural loss of skeletal muscle mass, begins.
If we don’t train, we lose an estimated 5-6% of our muscle mass each decade. By the time we start pushing near 70, that process accelerates, which is why people in their 80s look so much more frail than they did just a decade before.
In order to prevent that process from happening for as long as possible, we need to train for strength, and this goes for people of an advanced age as well.
Legitimate strength training helps you build muscle mass, improve bone density, and strengthen tendons.
Keep in mind, I am not referring to training to just build muscle. That is a different process altogether.
And, when you stop training for muscle hypertrophy, those muscles deflate pretty quickly. Take a look at most old bodybuilders, and they get much smaller over time.
But, if you take a look at lifters who focus more on strength, they stay big and strong for a long time, even if they only train intermittently.
Exercise programs that focus more on exhaustive workouts involving TRX, dumbbells, kettlebells, bodyweight exercises, etc. will get you pretty fit.
The problem is, as you age, it becomes more difficult to recover from those workouts, and they don’t give you long lasting strength gains.
As soon as you stop, within weeks, you’ll lose much of the minor strength gains that come with those programs.
Final Thoughts
If you are new to fitness and exercise, the first thing you should do is begin a legitimate strength training program.
This is also the case if you are significantly overweight. You need to increase your metabolism and strength training is the best way to do that.
I highly recommend the Starting Strength program developed by Mark Rippetoe.
It is also the foundation of the Warrior Fitness Program I’ve put together here at Practical Kung Fu, which is also part of my Flagship and Gold programs as well.
If you want to train at home, head on over to the Equipment page to see my recommended equipment.
I can tell you from experience, there is no more empowering feeling that putting more weight on the bar than you did your last workout, and completing all your working sets with that heavier weight.
Now, get to work!
