Strength Training - One of the Pillars of Good Health

 A certain amount of strength work, every week, does us a power of good:-

• it assists with sleep,
• it staves off frailty, thus helps us as we age, 
• it gives us the ability to pursue an active life.

But the problem is?

There are barriers to starting up a strength-training program:-

• Not knowing what to do
• Not knowing how much to do
• Not wanting to suffer an injury
• Not wanting to spend every day in the gym for hours...

Good news - A great place to start

We can attain many of the benefits of strength training from just six sets per week....Before you get too excited, that means six sets of each major muscle group per week - the five major muscle group areas are:-

• Chest
• Back
• Arms
• Legs
• Abs

This is a simple undertaking.  

One way to meet this target is to exercise three times per week with two sets of each group per session.  By the way, while cardio exercise is often counted in terms of duration, say for example, a twenty minute walk, strength-training is counted in reps (repetitions) and sets.  Even  rests between sets can be prescribed.

Alternatively, you could try one set of each group each day.   

With this suggestion of 6 sets per week seems easy, but no,  it means that strength training must be an"effort".  Lifting a feather 2 sets of 10 reps is not going to make us stronger.  The weights we use should feel moderately heavy, even at first.  We should finish a set in good form, but we should feel as though we would like to stop.  

Safety

If we want to commit to weight training that is an"effort", then we must warm up before every session. This prevents injury.  As well, we can stretch at the end of each session, this may help prevent that Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, known as DOMS, when we have sore muscle the next day.  No guarantees though.  

For the warm up, a good idea would be to follow up your morning walk with a session of weights. 

But which exercises?

Watch this space.  I am preparing a very simple that you can follow at home.  Let me know if you are interested and I will keep you posted.