Login | June 10, 2025
Come on seniors, challenge yourself!
PETE GLADDEN
Pete’s World
Published: June 9, 2025
I’m going to let you in on a secret little frustration of mine: I often have to cajole my seniors to challenge themselves with respect to their resistance training.
Now let me first say that I absolutely love working with seniors, they’re an awesome group.
I mean heck, I’ve been teaching senior fitness classes for well over 20 years. But as I said, I have a tougher time trying to get this group of individuals to push themselves––ever so gently––into that zone which most seasoned fitness buffs regularly workout in, that uncomfortable place otherwise known as the hurt locker.
Fact is that most of them share this unusual mindset for gravitating to the lightest hand weights in the equipment room.
And believe you me, they snatch up those fly weights faster than metal filings are drawn to an electromagnet.
But when doing so what inevitably happens is that they end up working out with weights that are simply too light to really stimulate any kind of true muscular response to the resistance, let alone challenge their tendons and bones.
It’s only when they actually take my advice and step up to training with heavier weights that they discover those “air weight” workouts really don’t amount to anything more than motions and gesticulations that do little to improve their strength.
Now subsequently over the years I’ve adopted various strategies to “entice” them into choosing more challenging weights to workout with.
And though they almost always make sourpuss faces as they begrudgingly grab the heavier hand weights, nine times out of 10 they end up recognizing that heavier weights do indeed provide them with a much more qualitative workout.
This they’ve told me countless times.
So the whole concept of working out with challenging resistances is critically important.
Because for a person–-young or old––to build muscle and get stronger that person needs to actually cause trauma to the muscle fibers through their weight training.
This whole process of breaking down and building up muscle fibers is know as muscular hypertrophy, and muscular hypertrophy requires more than air weights.
Muscular hypertrophy can only be attained by way of enough stress, tension and strain applied to the muscles to cause fiber damage.
And when those kinds of stresses are applied to the muscles the body subsequently repairs the damaged fibers by increasing their size.
This is how true muscle growth and true muscular strength gains occur.
Using heavier weight is not only incredibly beneficial for maintaining/adding muscle mass and increasing strength, but it’s also critical for improving bone density, tendon strength and enhancing one’s overall quality of life.
So with all that being said, there is a caveat here, especially with respect to senior individuals who may not have done any form of resistance training for decades.
And this caveat of course is the dictate that when you begin a weight training program you definitely do want to begin with heavy weights. But as you get stronger, more confident and more proficient with form and technique you should gradually increase the resistances you’re using.
Now there are literally oodles of research studies which have shown that even moderate-intensity resistance training can lead to improvements in muscle growth, strength and increases in bone density.
The key of course is knowing and/or being taught how to progress your resistance training in a balanced and safe manner.
Now you may have serious reservations about lifting heavier if you’re a senior dealing with various forms of arthritis and degenerative issues.
And as I’ve found over the years, these folks are typically the first to shy away from using heavier resistances for fear of increasing their pain levels and/or incurring yet another injury.
Yet once again, there are a slew of studies which have consistently shown that properly prescribed resistance training programs that provide progressive overload can help to reduce joint pain and improve function in seniors with arthritic maladies.
Fact is that bigger, stronger muscles help stabilize arthritic joints and reduce the stresses placed upon them in daily life activities.
Yes indeed, with proper instruction and a well balanced resistance training program, it’s never too late to grab ahold of those heavier dumbbells and start to make some serious inroads into your strength and fitness.
Heavier weights have absolutely proven to be safe and effective at any age.