Today most fitness training programs for older men include weight training. This is because weight training is not just about building muscles and having a lean figure, but also about gaining fitness and strength, as well balance of the body.

In addition, building muscles during this senior age is even more important – not only for men, but also for women. This is because; muscles tend to weaken with age, thus taking away your ability to lead a normal, active and healthy lifestyle. However, there are various exercises for senior men that can completely alter the process and help you gain back your strength.

Is it okay for older men to lift weights?

It has been found out by a study that senior men and women ranging from the age group of 87 to 96 improved their muscle strength by almost 180 percent after just eight weeks of weightlifting. This new strength almost seems to cut back on the age of these elderly people. Thus, fitness workouts for senior men and women, with weights are not only safe, but extremely desirable, as it makes them stronger and more self sufficient.

What are the benefits of fitness training programs for older men with weights?

It has been found that even frail elderly people gain back huge amount of their strength through weight training. The balance of the body improves substantially, which is usually a huge problem when people grow old. The pace of walking improves and climbing stairs becomes much easier than before.

The workout training will not only make you feel younger outside, but also inside. You will feel much more confident and capable. Your new found walking ability will come as a huge boon, as you will no longer have to depend on others to help you, neither will you have to take rest after a few steps. A study carried out on people aged 65 to 79 found out that the seniors could walk almost 40 percent farther without rest after just 12 weeks of weight training.

Weak bones become a huge curse when you grow old. But proper weight training can help you to strengthen the bones to some extent. At the same time, it can prevent you from suffering a nasty fall by making you stronger and more agile. Since weight training can build bone mass in the hip and spine, it is especially important for elderly people with the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis.

Weight loss is yet another huge beneficial element of fitness workouts for senior men. Weight lifting increases your metabolic rate and thus helps you to decrease body weight and keep you healthy.

The weight training and fitness training programs for older men also improves the glucose control. If you are affected by Type 2 diabetes, strength training will help you to keep it under control.

Getting started

Before you begin with weight training, check with your doctor to ensure that it is safe for you to undertake the strength training routines. Once your doctor tells you it is okay to begin the training exercises, you can choose the right equipment. Make sure that you do not over-exert yourself. Stop if you feel stressed. Make sure that you warm up before any of your strength training routines.

Weight training or strength training routines for older men are a great way to keep healthy and fit – both mentally and physically. So you should include weights in your training exercises as it is a major element in fitness training programs for older men.

As a part of your fitness training program, pumping iron is something that you should not ignore. Today, more and more women are hitting the gym not only for aerobics, but also for weight training. Weight training for women is a way of achieving a toned, lean and sexy body that you can be proud of.

Fitness exercise with weight not only keeps you slim, lean, fit and healthy, but also adds to your body strength. It helps you stay energetic and gives you a lot of stamina to work through the day.

Resistance Training for women has other benefits too. It keeps your heart as well as your connective tissues stronger. You will also develop stronger bones. Weight training for women is especially good as it minimizes chances of developing osteoporosis problems.

Why should you include weight training in your fitness training program?

Everyone likes a toned body. Plus, if you are trying to lose some excess fat, nothing could be better than pumping iron when you are in the gym. The National Center for Health Statistics has found that only 21% of women weight train more than two times a week. But unfortunately, when you skip the weights, you are losing out on the best chance of burning calories – by almost doing nothing.

This is because, a study has shown that women who completed an hour long weight training session, would end up burning an average of 100 calories more in the 24 hours after the workout, even when they did not exercise in the interim period.

Yet another long term benefit of weight training is that it will help you to develop lean muscle. Muscle in turn, helps to increase your metabolic rate and thereby burn up more calories. This means that muscle can help you destroy calories, even when you are not in the gym. If you replace say around ten pounds of fat with 10 pounds of muscle, you will end up burning about 25-50 calories per day, without even making an effort.

Get started with your weight training

Before you begin to track the progress, remember that you should not track it with your scale. Sometimes, you will find that you have lost an inch or more off your belly, even though you have not really lost much weight. This is because,  exercising with weights have paid off and you now have more muscle than fat. Since muscle is heavier than fat, you would not weigh a lot less than before, but you will definitely appear much more slim and lean.

While following any fitness exercise program, you should aim for a total body workout that will target every part of your muscle. Aim for exercises that will target various groups of muscles, like squats, bench presses, dead press, shoulder press and so on.

Another thing to follow during fitness training is you should alternate moderate intensity workout of 8 to 10 reps with 12 to 15 reps.

Eating right

For the most successful results of weight training for women, you should eat a balanced diet. Since your muscles need protein, you must include a lot of protein in your daily diet.

Avoid straining

You can include three days of weight training and three days of aerobics in your fitness training routine. However, take care never to perform more exercise than required, as you can strain yourself.

Finally, if you wish to stay healthy, fit and strong, weight training is the way to go. You will be able to show off a great body that is lean and sexy, with just the right amount of curves. Remember that weight training will not make you look bulky and masculine. In fact, it will make you look curvier and even more feminine.

Have you ever wanted to develop more muscles but found it took way to long? Are you tired of putting in way too much effort for very little gain? Well, I finally have an easy solution for you to get big fast – follow these four easy steps to get bigger, leaner and stronger than ever before – and in no time flat! If you educate yourself on ‘what’ exercises to do, and ‘when’ you will develop huge muscles very fast.

Over the years, I’ve spent countless hours in a gym trying different exercises/routines and talking to many different people (trainers, body builders, heath fanatics, etc.) trying to find the answer to one of my burning questions: “How can I get bigger, in the shortest time possible”.  After talking to many people I’ve gathered the right answer to this question. Here we go:

1.  Lift big to get big.

In order to see results, you need lift heavier weights. I know it seems pretty obvious, but most people don’t realize what I’m talking about here. You need to lift a weight that is 80% of your one rep maximum. Quite simply, take any exercise, say Bench Press, and take 80 percent of the heaviest weight you could bench press once. For example, if you could bench press 200lbs once (and only once) then you take 80 percent of 200 to give you 160lbs. This is the weight to use for this exercise. You could probably do this exercise eight times before you felt completely spent. Now, you are on the right track!

Realistically, if you are doing three or four sets of exercise with eight to ten reps in each, you probably aren’t using a weight that’s at least 80 percent of your one rep max. Once you start using 80 percent of your max for three of four sets, you will feel it – you probably won’t be able to do 8 or 10 reps,  you are more likely to squeeze out five or six repetitions in your set. Your muscles will be tired – and this is what you want!

2. Lift fast to grow big.

Be careful with this one. Every trainer will tell you that you are supposed to lift weights slowly and under control. This is 100% true. In order to avoid injury, you need to have a controlled lift – but it doesn’t have to be slow. It is a well studied fact, that the faster you lift, the better your results. It doesn’t matter if you are trying to lose weight or gain muscle the principle is the same. If you’re trying to increase the size of your muscles (i.e. get big), fast lifts activate more of the muscle fibers that have the most potential to grow. If you’re trying to become leaner, fast lifts do more to jump start your heart rate and your metabolism which will increase your weight loss.

I can’t stress enough that the most important part about lifting fast is control. You still need to maintain perfect form to prevent injury – so if you can’t lift using perfect form, then you need to either slow down or lower the weight (or both). The rule is, you need to control the weight – don’t let it control you.

3. Quit once your muscles are tired.

When you start to lift heavier weights and when you lift them fast – your muscles will really be working. They will work harder than they have before and they will tire out on you (usually in 15 seconds or less). Once you muscles have quit on you, you’re left to struggle with the weight and the remaining reps using muscle fibers that aren’t up to the task. Your body will tell you when this has happened in one of two ways:  1. Your repetitions will be much slower and 2. Your form changes – either you will shorten your range of motion or have to cheat to accomplish the full range.

4. Don’t freak out if you don’t finish the set.

Most people I talk to get worried or discouraged when they can’t finish their set. Especially when they are lifting heavier weights at a faster pace (Steps 1 and 2). But the truth is, it doesn’t matter. As long as your muscles are exhausted, you are doing your job.  Instead of focusing on how man reps you do during one set, focus instead on total reps for each exercise. For example, let’s say you’re doing a workout that specifies five sets of six reps -that’s 30 reps total. What you should focus on is getting to a total of 30 reps regardless of how many you do in a set. Maybe you can only do 5 reps (instead of 6) – well then, if that’s the case, just do a sixth set of 5 reps to bring your total up to 30 total reps. It really doesn’t matter that you can’t do six reps in that one set – as long as you get to 30 total reps (in this example), that’s all that matters.