Weight lifting/resistance training is being proven to be more important to overall fitness and independence as we age. Nothing too new here other than looking into quantifying the amount of weight.
While I haven’t done a one rep max in over 20 years, I try to lift on the heavier side of things as long as I can keep proper form. FWIW, at the time, bench press of 300 pounds and squat of 480. No idea what I can do today.
Dear JLC,
The problem those in the study may have worked up to their potential. The results may be skewed.
What are heavy weights at age 66?
@JLC you are awesomely strong. I applaud you!
I have practiced weight training since age 20 (1974) when I was the only woman in the weight room. I liked the way weight training gave me more stamina and combated depression.
Having injured my tendons over the years I now avoid heavy weights. I use 3 and 5 pound hand weights (which I combine for leg exercises) and also yoga body-weight exercises. That probably sounds pathetic to you but after age 60 (let alone age 70) healing is slower. The reality is that we can injure ourselves suddenly doing an exercise we have done safely 10,000 times before.
Muscles are stronger than tendons. Tendons take many months to heal.
By the way, my cardiologist would kill me if he knew I’m doing Zumba 3 times a week and getting my heart rate up to 160. I’m also doing cardiac rehab (guided by a very nice 30 year old exercise physiologist) which gets my heart rate up to 90 – not even enough to get a “cardio load” point from my Fitbit watch.
By the way, the worst part of my open-heart surgery 6 months ago was the weakness which is still somewhat of a problem for me. The pain wasn’t a big deal compared with my other surgeries but the weakness was terrible.
Wendy
I’m with you Wendy. I have always owned horses and I used to easily throw a 50 pound bag of feed over my shoulder and walk it from my truck into the feed room, put on and take off saddles and all sorts of other phtysical activities. Now, in my 70s and after a couple of crashes and surgeries to repair them I’m working with 3 and 5 pound weights only. When I try to go higher my body complains. I figure something is better than nothing and if I keep at it I may be able to up it.
Yoga is no joke. When we belonged to a gym, I did a yoga class once a week primarily to help with flexibility and balance. Holding static poses can be hard.
One funny/embarrassing moment, several years ago had a substitute instructor that was about 6 months pregnant. She was holding poses longer than I could by a long shot.
After over 30 years of doing yoga (various styles) I have concluded that holding a static pose is not as beneficial as “flow yoga” – moving smoothly from one pose to another while holding for a few seconds. I think this improves agility as well as preventing cramps.
My favorite is Down dog → Plank → Up dog → Plank → Down dog. I usually do 5 of these.
I took an intermediate-level flow yoga class which was one of the most challenging strength workouts I ever did. I wouldn’t be able to do it now in my weakened state but I am working to get back to at least a beginning level.
If you do the Pigeon Pose shown in this video be sure to focus on stretching your psoas muscle. Keep the lower spine in a neutral position (no lordosis) or you will hurt your back.
Wendy (I would like to be able to fully control my body again)
I remember a funny/embarrassing moment from one of my first yoga classes. I was in an extremely difficult (for me) pose. I remember looking around the room at my fellow yogis who were almost exclusively middle-aged women, wondering why I was the only one shaking.
Re: Weights. I’d like to lift heavier, but like others have said, recovery and coming back from injury is slow. So I just keep it light. I want to make sure everything gets loaded, but not too loaded.
Lower center of mass?
I don’t have to tell you this… it is not good for your heart.
I prefer to do light weights, many reps. This way avoid injury, increase resilience.
Gotta be careful on any “over doing it”
Too much weight or too many reps or not enough rest between workouts.
At the age of 69, my last ten years have been an ongoing dance between the need to keep lifting and the habit of trying to do a little too much and aggravating an aging rotator cuff and other body parts. I have done pretty well recently by letting my body tell me what it will do rather than me telling it what to do. I like the end of my second set to be difficult but not push to the point of failure like I might have done when I was younger. For example, if dumbbell rows aggravate the shoulder, I find a machine row that works most of the same muscles as the dumbbell row. Every exercise has a similar balancing act between the need to push myself and the tendency to push too hard
I enjoy seeing others get results from heavier workout regimes but I am learning to accept that I must listen to my body even as I strive to improve. It’s easier to talk about than it is to do.
Good article. I use body weight exercises instead of heavy weights. My end goal is to be able to move hard thru hilly terrain ( hilly ala Michigan, no mountains here ) for a couple of hours non stop during ski races. Having issues trail running this Spring, so am focused more on strength training. Usually do strength training in the morning, then trail ride or some other type of aerobic and anaerobic activity in the afternoon.
I think I’ve read some of your posts stating that you do really hard endurance events of some type. Do you feel the heavy weight training that you’re doing helps you in those activities ? I know for me, there is a large mental part to it, as it gets pretty uncomfortable ( not really painful, I listen to my body and will shut it down if/when things start hurting too bad ) at times. I wear an HRM and getting into the highest heart rate zone and staying in it for however long the plan is for that workout, is tough, really tough. Other than xc skiing, trail running in hills is the best activity for that. The mtn-bike easily gets me into the highest HR zone, but the gearing on the bike, and being able to coast and recover while going downhill makes it easier than running the same trail. But that is more on me, as I am easing up on the bike because I don’t want to crash on fast,bumpy, twisty trails. Really good riders would be hammering that stuff, but I’m not a kid anymore,lol, so I err on the safe side.
I see some pretty amazing older athletes, men and women, out there.
I am celebrating 47 years of heavy lifting of a different sort…it’s husband and my wedding anniversary. After the trials and tribulations of the last year, I think we qualify for power couple status.
One celebration for me is a training session at the gym with my PT…I think I’m on target for 100lb deadlift sometime soon. My plyo moves are coming along and balance and flexibility almost back to normal thanks to my Old Age Pensioners class (a sort of yoga/pilates/barre fusion)
I had a memory jogger on Facebook yesterday…on the same date in 2002 a very grainy finish line picture (husband’s speciality) of me in my first road race after coming back from nearly 2 years of horrible plantar fasciitis. A flat 5 miler with the time displayed on the shot…29 minutes and 49 seconds. Won’t be seeing those times again, methinks…but it doesn’t hurt to try with HIT … Highly Intelligent Training…principles.
The nearly 6 months between my daughter purchasing a basic HRM (Polar F1), a Runner’s World training log and a months trial gym membership was an education in sound heart rate monitored training practices and exercise science in general, and got me up to a decent race time after a long layoff and launched an interesting and fairly lucrative second career. Good value present…and, by coincidence, it’s at the daughter’s instigation that I’m doing the same 20+ years on!
On my secong visit with my intervention cardiologist I told him I had a complaint about his progress notes from the previous visit (yes…he writes proper progress notes no cutting and pasting!!!)…no, not the “elderly” woman bit, but that my exercise regimen included endurance training and light weights!! He promised he wouldn’t make that mistake again.
Uhm…not sure the words here with no context actually help anyone. A hr of 160 is perfectly fine for most people. I am 55 and I still regularly pass 160 on hr peaks. If you use the Hunt formula - (211-( 0.64*age)) will end up with a 175’ish for me. And I hit that regularly at this time, which is 11 months after a double bi-pass.
In addition, that flat statement doesn’t account for anyone’s personal fitness at any given time. So, I feel those words are just wrong and misleading.
As for me, if I had to maintain the 220-age formula ( = 165) then i would be detraining. I have to be able to lift rock for landscaping, lumber for building, and also be able to deal with any maintenance issues on 20acres of land with a >700 driveway through the woods.
Yes, my life probably seems extreme to many city folks, but I literally just finished a weekend logging and milling class where I was able to outlift most of the class and my HR was regularly over 165 as we hauled chains, winches, etc up and down hills. Then we had to move the logs around and then sort the cut lumber on an active saw mill as the sawyer was pushing us to keep up.
So…just want to let people who might read your statement as gospel know that it…well…isn’t.
To be honest, @dlbuffy … you’re actually missing the purpose of using heart rate as a training formula. It’s a common mistake and one I made in the early days of my HRM usage and noticed frequently since with new users. Regardless of which age predicted formula you use…and there are a slew out there although the Fox-Haskell tends to be the default for stress testing and rehab prescription (and the training zones in the original Spinning programme) …it’s still a formula and whatever you’ve actually seen as a peak on your wearable, might not actually be “yours”. (A hint…higher is not “better” or denoting a higher fitness level. In many ways, quite the reverse)
It’s a shame the old Running Fools board isn’t alive any more…I actually put a series of a whole group of long posts together as a 101 sort of thing when someone made the mistake of getting a bit testy when I pointed out that hig HRM wasn’t telling him quite what he thought it was.
Yes, you’re right. Especially because I have a newly replaced aortic valve. But I love to dance and my heart feels fine. So far.
I have been working out and dancing since age 15. It’s funny…my medically prescribed cardiac rehabilitation, overseen by an exercise physiologist, so far hasn’t gotten my heart rate over 90.
Wendy
I am more of a “regular moderate activity gives you the same benefits” guy. If I were you, I would not stress my heart like that. You have only one heart, take it bit easy and be kind to it. You may not be seeing the symptoms, the stress adds up.
@Kingran you make a good point.
Wendy
On balance of probability, it most likely is…primarily because those peak heart rates you see aren’t a function of absolute, undiluted work load but a bit (probably a big bit) of increased sympathetic drive from the fun and excitement of the class, the extra upperbody movement from the moves etc., etc … That’s why the HR response of your rehab isn’t giving you the psychological boost of the big numbers…the aim is to get you fitter, stronger (faster, if important) at the lower heart rate with no confounding variables. Especially since you’re on a beta blocker.
However, what sort of symptoms would you be looking for to decide it’s not?