Strength training doesn’t just help you gain strength and muscle mass. As the body ages, the existing muscle tissue deteriorates at an increasing rate. By the age of 60 and over, many people, especially men, have significantly reduced testosterone production, which decreases the ability to maintain muscle mass. Strength training can reverse this, and with enough effort, you can lift weights in your 60s to rebuild lost mass, improve strength, and regain flexibility in your joints.
Men over 60 can rebuild lost mass, improve strength, and regain flexibility in their joints. Weight training is a proven way to counteract this natural phenomenon.
As you get older, your joints don’t stay as flexible as they were at a young age. The risk of inflammatory pain and injury increases, and resistance is significantly reduced. Therefore, weight training for men and women, as they age, becomes challenging. If you haven’t lifted weights in a long time, or never have, it can be difficult to get started with strength training. When starting a weight training program in your 60s or older, you should follow certain tips and guidelines .
How do hormones influence the maintenance of muscle mass?
The only major difference between men before middle age and older men after middle age is the production of hormones. The male body naturally produces a number of hormones responsible for building and maintaining muscle tissue, including testosterone. With age and an increasingly sedentary lifestyle, the production of these hormones wanes. However, strength training and weight training in your 60s and older can mitigate this loss of production in most men, especially when combined with a balanced diet that includes lean protein.
Weight training at age 60 and over
Weight training for men as they age becomes more challenging. Joints are not as flexible, the risk of persistent pain and injury increases, and resistance can often decrease. It can be difficult for a 60-year-old man to start a weight training program, especially if that man hasn’t lifted in a long time, or not at all. When starting a weight training program at that age, it is best to focus on simple exercises that can be performed while sitting or supine , so that the stress of resistance hits the muscles more fully. This reduces the risk of injuring the joints in other parts of the body.
Determining how much weight to lift depends on the number of repetitions you can do correctly. In general, the ideal is to work with a weight that you can lift adequately for 8 to 15 repetitions.
Best movements for lifting weights in your 60s or older
The best exercises are those that use simple two-part movements that move a minimum number of joints: Bicep curls, bench press, leg curls, leg press, and shoulder press – the best exercises to start with. With these movements, many of the major muscle groups in both the upper and lower body are worked.
As you progress over the course of several weeks, ideally incorporate more complex exercises , such as two-arm lifts, crossover cable pull-downs, and triceps exercises. It is best to divide the routine into upper and lower body workouts so that no muscles are overloaded by moving slowly and methodically.
In the case of doing the exercises with inappropriate impulses and movements, not only does it reduce the benefit, but it can also cause significant joint and muscle injuries for older people who lift weights in their 60s and over.
At first, it is best to do each exercise correctly and carry lightly until you are completely comfortable doing the exercise. It is not necessary to push each lift to the limit, the idea is not to explode the muscles because the body will require more recovery time to regenerate.
After each workout, it is necessary to rest at least two days for each session in which the same muscles are worked . For example, if you do exercises that work upper body muscles, the next day you can do exercises to strengthen your lower body. On the third day, you could take a complete rest before starting your second weekly upper body workout, followed by your second lower body workout.
