Strength training for seniors involves exercises that focus on building your muscles. These exercises help to provide you with greater strength, stability, and balance. Resistance bands, wall planks, and squats are all ideal examples.

Are you keeping up with your strength training? Studies from the CDC show that seniors need about two and a half hours of exercise every week. While this includes aerobic physical activity, it doesn’t highlight just how important it is to keep up with your strength training.

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If you’re curious about strength training for seniors, we’re here to offer our assistance. Here’s a quick guide on the strength and resistance training you need for mobility support.

What Is Strength Training?

What is strength training for seniors, and how can you make the most of it? Thankfully, it’s a pretty easy topic to understand!

As the name suggests, strength training is an exercise that works to increase your physical strength. These exercises may include:

Dumbbells of different weights
Resistance bands of varying strengths
Exercises using your body weight

Why Strength Training?

Strength training is ideal for increasing your overall health. For example, strength training for seniors is often designed to improve your overall strength and stability. That makes it easier for you to keep your balance, lessening your risk of a fall.

When considering resistance training for aging adults, it’s important not to pick dangerous tasks. Overlifting heavy dumbbells can cause more injuries than improvements, for example. While there are risks, that doesn’t overshadow the many benefits.

Safe Workouts for Seniors

What are some great strength training workouts you can use for your exercise? Here are some of the best strength workouts for aging adults and seniors.

Squatting

Squats are a great strength training exercise. Squats use your own body weight to lower yourself and lift yourself back up, targeting your abdomen and lower-body muscles.

You can also customize squats by adding more weight to yourself. Holding dumbbells or even a lifting bar will add more weight, increasing the intensity of the exercise.

Push-Ups

Push-ups are a classic training exercise that will also use your whole body weight. Push-ups typically focus on your upper body — mostly your chest, triceps, and shoulders. However, different styles of push-ups may impact other parts of your body as well.

If you struggle with reaching the floor, consider wall push-ups. These are vertical “standing” push-ups that you’ll do by letting yourself lower toward a wall and then pushing back up. That also makes it easier to keep your balance since you have a wall nearby!

Calf Raises

Calf raises are simple and have the added benefit of letting you stay near a wall or chair for support. You can also use stairs, small platforms, mats, and anything else that causes an elevation difference.

Calf raises task you with raising yourself up to your toes and then lowering back down. While this sounds simple, it’s an exercise that quickly becomes effective, especially as you add in reps.

Calf raises will, expectedly, target your calves and legs. They’re also customizable, as they only use your body weight by default. Carrying more weight, holding dumbbells, or moving to one leg will increase the intensity.

Planking

Planking is ideal for working out your core, but be careful — these require you to lie on the floor. That makes them difficult for people who may struggle with mobility. According to Sole Fitness, seniors should hold planks for about 20-30 seconds.

Planking is also deceptively difficult. It seems simple to hold the position at first, but as time goes on, you’ll find your abdomen feels the burn.

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Frequently Asked Questions

When it comes to your safe workouts for seniors, there’s always more to know. Here are some of the most frequently asked questions regarding strength training for seniors.

Is Strength Training Safe?

Strength training for seniors has the potential to be dangerous if you aren’t doing it properly. However, strength and stability often go together, making it important to focus on doing so.

Some common hazards include:

Straining your body beyond its limits
Losing grip on heavy objects
Worsening other physical ailments through overworking

A great way to avoid these hazards is to work out with a partner or instructor. Physical wellness in assisted living is a common feature, meaning that you’ll rarely be alone or without guidance. Don’t strain yourself unnecessarily!

How Often Should I Rest?

The frequency of resting depends on what workouts you’re doing. Typically, it’s good to rest at least two days a week, especially as seniors. Allowing 48 hours between exercises targeting the same muscle group is important.

It’s important to note that you won’t do yourself any good by skipping rest days! Resting allows your body to rebuild its muscle and energy. Working “through the pain” doesn’t get better results; it just gets more pain!

How Should I Rest?

One popular way to rest is through “active” resting, or active recovery. Active recovery is when you still work out, but at a much less intense output.

For example, you may go for a gentle walk or swim while actively resting. You may also do yoga, aerobic exercises, or similar low-impact, low-intensity workouts.

Your rest style should also depend on how much you exhausted yourself while working out. According to GoodRx, up to three rest days are suggested depending on your fitness.

Mastering Strength Training for Seniors

Understanding strength training for seniors is critical to ensuring you’re highlighting physical wellness in assisted living communities. These exercises can help you keep your strength and stability up, your balance stable, and provide many other benefits. It’s part of a healthy body, mind, and spirit to keep yourself safe.

Here at TerraBella Salisbury, we’re proud to offer you a variety of ways to independently live your life. Our award-winning SHINE® Memory Care programs ensure that you’re given the best care possible, delivered by a tenured team of dedicated staff.