Building lean muscle not only helps with everyday life tasks, boosts our self-esteem and regulates metabolism but it can also help you feel more energised, sleep better and ultimately live a longer, healthier life. The challenge is doing this as we age. So here are my top tips to build and maintain muscle as you age – especially if you’re new to strength training and just getting started.
Strength train for at least 20-30 minutes 3-4 times per week
If you want to build lean muscle you will need to do some form of resistance training regularly. The best type of exercise is one you enjoy – it won’t feel like a chore, you’re more likely to be consistent and see results so find something that you enjoy which involves working the muscles under resistance (e.g. dumbbells, resistance bands etc.). You can think of resistance training like body armour – it’s your protection and longevity survival kit! 20-30 minutes is a manageable chunk of time to find during your day 3-4 times per week, you don’t need to be doing hour-long workouts to get the benefits.
Place the focus on form not on reps
Remember it is most certainly quality over quantity. If you are simply doing the exercise with the aim of hitting 20 reps then that is not going to get you the results you need. Think instead about exactly what each body part is doing, engage each muscle that is needed to complete each rep with the best technique. Take a press up for example, it’s not just the arms and chest, the glutes need to be engaged, you should be lifting through the quads, engaging the core and the lats should be tight to ensure the body stays in alignment whilst the arms and chest work to produce the movement. Take each one slowly and carefully and suddenly you find you’re really working quite hard. It is much better to do 5-10 really well than speed through 20-25. The same can be said for any of the great strength exercises – squats, lunges, planks they all require the whole body to be working in synergy for top technique.
Ease yourself in
You can’t expect to go from never lifting a dumbbell or having a 4 year break to smashing through a whole body workout with ease. Set yourself up for success – start with a short bodyweight, beginners session, gradually add in light weights, build up the number of circuits you can do, extend the length of each set, bring in more complex exercises and before you know it you will be powering through the session. But remember the phrase “don’t run before you can walk” – it really is applicable here. If you jump right in at the deep end and injure yourself you will be setting yourself further back than when you decided to start so start small, build and above all be consistent.
Building and maintaining muscle as we age doesn’t need to be complicated and doesn’t require loads of time and equipment but it does need a few well thought out sessions each week, performed consistently.
I have long since been an advocate of strength training, particularly for women, and with this in mind I built my platform – Caroline’s Circuits. My workouts are 4 times a week for just 30 minutes. They are interval strength training circuits which work different muscle groups and challenge the body – they give the perfect mix of strength and cardio for the best results.
The online workouts are Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday (they are all recorded and available to you within an hour of the session if you can’t make them live). Classes have been specifically designed to suit all fitness levels and create fitness habits which last & which produce results.
Any questions as always please do get in touch!
Caroline x
