The fountain of youth is not a thing, but keeping yourself fit and strong is essential for supporting a long, healthy existence. Having the right workout plan in place to maintain muscle is essential—not simply to look better, but to feel better and enable you to stay active with every year that goes by.
And you don’t need fancy tools to get started. In fact, we spoke with Joy Puleo, NPCP, ACSM and Director of Education at Balanced Body, who shares six bodyweight routines that can help keep your muscles young and healthy after 60. Puleo has been in the fitness industry for over 25 years and is an avid runner; she also lectures at Pilates and fitness conferences throughout the world.
“Nothing changes without tension! To create change and build muscle, you need to challenge the body by creating overload or tensioning the structure and it is the tension that leads to the desired adaptations, muscle strength, and endurance. Bodyweight exercises in all positions, such as planks, pushups, and side planks; standing exercises such as squats, lunges, and heel raises; and supine exercises such as ab curls with legs raised, and bridging, are excellent bodyweight exercises which create overload via tension of our powerful mover muscles such as abs, glutes, hamstrings, quads, pecs, shoulders, and lats,” Puleo tells us.
If you’re ready to get started, roll out your mat and let’s begin.
Plank
“This is an isometric exercise, a static hold exercise. Studies are showing that isometric exercises build strength and endurance relatively quickly,” Puleo explains.
- Place your hands under your shoulders.
- Press into the pads of your fingers and hug your inner arm toward your armpit.
- Walk your feet out to hip-width.
- Engage your abs, squeeze your buttocks, and pull upward through your quads.
- Hold the plank anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes for an excellent whole-body challenge.
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Pushups
“Dynamic exercises change the body’s relationship to gravity while also moving multiple joints, such as the shoulders, elbows, and shoulder blades. This increases muscle strength around moving joints, changes the way forces are put into and need to be responded to and teaches the nervous system how to coordinate movement relative to gravity,” Puleo says.
- Start in a high plank with your hands under your shoulders and your body straight from head to heels.
- Activate your core.
- Bend your elbows to lower your chest toward the floor. Maintain a long, straight body as you lower.
- Press back up, straightening your arms.
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Side Plank
“The side plank—either straight arm or on the forearm—is similar to the plank above, but, because you are balanced on one arm and side facing, your obliques and the side body muscles from the upper body through the legs require stability, strength and endurance,” Puleo tells us.
- Begin by lying on your side and placing your elbow below your shoulder.
- Your feet should be stacked.
- Lift your hips off the floor so that your body forms a straight line from your head to your feet.
- Hold for 30 to 60 seconds.
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Lunges
According to Puleo, lunges and squats are the most functional and practical bodyweight exercises. They help build lower-body endurance, strength, and neuromuscular coordination while training the legs with the core.
- Stand tall with your feet parallel and hip-width apart.
- Step one foot forward.
- Bring your hands to your hips.
- Engage your core as you bend your knees, lowering to form 90-degree bends in both legs.
- Keep your upper body straight.
- Press through your front heel and the ball of your back foot to rise back up.
- For a greater challenge, hold the lowered lunge position for 30 seconds to 1 minute. From there, perform small pulses.
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Squats
- Stand tall with your feet shoulder-width apart.
- Extend your arms in front of you or place your hands on your hips.
- Bend at the knees and hips to descend into a squat.
- Descend until your thighs are parallel to the floor.
- Press through your heels to return to standing.
- For a greater challenge, hold the lowered squat position for 30 seconds to 1 minute.
Double-Leg Stretch
- Begin by lying flat on your back on a workout mat.
- Hug your knees in toward your chest.
- Lift your head, neck, and shoulders off the mat.
- Then, place your hands on your shins.
- Take a deep breath in as you reach your arms overhead and extend both legs out to a 45-degree angle.
- Brace your core and press your lower back into the mat.
- Exhale as you reverse the motion, bringing your knees back to your chest and your hands to your shins.
The post 6 Bodyweight Routines That Keep Your Muscles Younger Than Your Age After 60 appeared first on Eat This Not That.
