The Win On Purpose Podcast
The Win On Purpose Podcast focuses primarily on health and fitness tips and discussions, but we love to celebrate ALL THINGS in regard to being the best you can possibly be in business, relationships, and personal development. Win on purpose means just that, purposefully taking action to become your best self, and following your purpose to develop the passion needed to excel at anything in life!
The Win On Purpose Podcast
Q&A 2: "I'm Over 50, Is It Too Late To Start Weight Training?"
Is starting weight training after 50 too late to reap the benefits? We tackle this intriguing question and promise a wealth of knowledge that will inspire you to embrace strength training at any age. This episode of the Win On Purpose podcast delves into the transformative power of weight training for those over 50, offering insights on how it can dramatically improve your health and quality of life. With the introduction of a new podcast format featuring engaging Q&A sessions, we address common concerns about health, fitness, and longevity, laying the groundwork for exciting future content, including interviews with inspiring individuals who have conquered life's challenges.
Discover the myriad benefits that strength training holds for seniors, from boosting muscle mass and bone density to reducing the risk of age-related diseases. Drawing on personal anecdotes and client experiences, we underscore how this form of exercise can enhance both physical and mental well-being, contributing to better sleep and mental health. We emphasize the importance of professional guidance to ensure safe and effective training, particularly for older adults. Tune in for a motivational episode designed to empower you to pursue a healthier, more vibrant lifestyle no matter your age.
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Welcome back to the Went On Purpose podcast and today's episode number 11. We're doing a Q&A episode and the question is I'm over 50, is it too late to start weight training? So we're going to touch on some of the conditions that people tend to face as seniors if they're not including weight training into the program and, you know, just giving you guys some ideas and tips that you can do to start now to improve your health over 50. So you guys check it out and I hope you enjoy.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Win On Purpose podcast from health and fitness, business, personal development, relationships and more. We promise you will find inspiration to help you win on purpose in all areas of your life journey. Now for your host, Adam Kelly.
Speaker 1:What's up everybody? Coach, adam Kelly, back again for another episode of the win on purpose podcast. Appreciate you guys again, as usual, for joining us. We are embarking on episode number 11 of the podcast, guys, so we are moving right along. Uh, man, it's, life's been interesting. Uh, we are actually in mid-december 2024 while I'm recording this, so this is going to be out in january.
Speaker 1:So, trying to stay ahead of the game, just because you know, life is a little busy and I want to make sure that we are super consistent with releasing podcasts every week for you guys to enjoy and to learn from and to hopefully take something that you can apply to your own journey. But, man, winter has been crazy already and I'm telling you guys, and you know this, if you're listening to this, in January hopefully we're past all this. But sicknesses have been crazy lately. Guys Like my household is getting over stuff, still getting over stuff. I've had multiple clients have to cancel and reschedule due to either themselves being sick or family members or kids, so on being sick. It's just crazy, guys. Everywhere you look, somebody's dealing with something. We need to get this junk out of here so we can enjoy our lives. We need to get this junk out of here so we can enjoy our lives and feel good, because there's nothing more that I do not like than having to miss workouts, and especially when it's because I don't feel good. Hopefully we are getting past all this and we can move on.
Speaker 1:What are we going to talk about in today's episode? This one's going to be a little different, guys. This is going to be the first Q&A, question and answer podcast episode that we have done so far, so we're going to sprinkle these in here and there. As far as what I have planned for the podcast, we're going to have a few different series, you know, with multiple parts to it, breaking down different topics. We're going to have special guests on discussing their went on purpose journeys of how they've overcome things in their life, whether if it's health and fitness or business or personal life, whatever it may be. Just, you know, I know a lot of just extraordinary people with extraordinary stories that I can't wait to interview and just kind of pick their brains on how they've able to overcome and to stay motivated to keep getting up every day and keep fighting the good fight. So that's coming up as well. So we're going to be sprinkling in some Q&A, question and answer podcast episodes here and there just to kind of break things up.
Speaker 1:And also, I always get lots of questions from people which I love. I love discussing health and fitness, I love discussing longevity, I love discussing nutrition and everything that comes with this world, and I get lots of questions that you know typically align as the same as other people's questions. You know it's we all are kind of going through the same things. You know, we're all experiencing a lot of the same things and if you're just starting your journey out, you're going to have a lot of the same questions that all of us has had and all of us have had to answer at some point. So I like doing question and answers because then I can take this question that so many people have and maybe a lot of people just aren't comfortable with asking or they don't know who to ask or who they can trust and releasing that as like a general question, because that way it can help as many people as possible, not just the person asking, but everybody else as well. So that's what we're going to be doing, guys, and that's what this episode is about. So let's do a little bit of house cleaning first.
Speaker 1:This podcast is sponsored and brought to you by Transform Health Initiative, which is my private personal training facility here in Moore, oklahoma. So we don't have any other sponsors. We don't have anybody else that's promoting, it's just us guys, and we are a facility that we love to work with people individually or as couples or as groups, to help them learn how to eat right, to learn how to exercise properly, to train with good form and technique, to really maximize their time in the gym in a private setting, to where you're not having to work around people, you're not having to, you know, fight over machines or sit there and wait for the group of teenage kids that are too busy texting or chit-chatting or looking at girls in between sets. You don't have to worry about none of that here, guys. So just want to put that little plug in there. If you guys are looking for personal training, if you're looking for someone to help you overcome injuries or get back to being physically active or learning how to live a healthy lifestyle, we would love to work with you guys, and we also do online coaching as well. So maybe you're not local or maybe just you know schedules don't really align and you're looking for somebody that can help you build a program that's going to be sustainable. It's going to help you reach your goals in the healthiest, safest way possible. We would love to work with you guys on that. You can go to wwwtransformhealthcoachcom and you can sign up for a free consultation in person or over the phone or virtual. You can sign up for our online coaching and just. There's lots of good stuff on there, guys. So go check it out when you want to on your time, and we appreciate all the love and support to help us do what we love to do and to help change lives, guys. So now we got that out of the way. Please give all the stars, give comments, share this with a friend and help us out there.
Speaker 1:So what is the question of the day you may be asking? Well, the question is and I'm not ever going to give names on these questions they're always going to be general. So if you want to put in a question that you want answered, you don't have to worry about me putting you on blast. I will never conceal your identity, batman. I will make sure that I keep it general, so confidentiality is intact. So the question is I'm over 50 years old. Is it too late to start weight training? Very good question, and I've answered this question many, many times, have this discussion many, many times, and my answer is always never All right, it is never too late to start weight training. There is no age, guys, in which strength training is not crucial and critical. In fact, with conditions such as sarcopenia and osteoporosis that tend to develop in later years, regular resistance training may be even more important for seniors than any other stage of life. All right, so definitely definitely something that you should be involved in now, if you have not already.
Speaker 1:So a few things that we know about lifestyle changes that happen within our senior communities. It's it's kind of across the board and it's not always the case, because I know some people that are in their 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s that are absolute studs and rock stars and get after it every day and they haven't skipped a beat. But that's typically the exception, not the rule. So on average, we tend to see seniors becoming less physically active in general. So you know, maybe they're not involved in working out, maybe they don't work. You know, hard, physically labored, physical labor jobs. You know they're not. They don't have young kids anymore, so they're not playing with them and taking them out and running around with them. You know, they just kind of become more like homebodies for the most part and we just see a decline in physical activity as a whole.
Speaker 1:They typically have poor nutrition habits, so typically less protein it's just not really a priority or they don't have as much of an appetite. They have more money usually to eat out and buy tastier foods compared to when you know maybe they're younger, building their career really in the grind and they just don't have the extra time and money to eat all of those and buy all those foods. And sleep usually starts to be disrupted, rather if it's just less sleep overall. They just can't stay asleep as long or they wake up and, you know, at two, three in the morning can't go back to bed, or just wake up at 2, 3 in the morning and can't go back to bed, or just poor sleep quality in general. It could be health conditions they're dealing with aches and pains or arthritis or different ailments like that in their bodies that keep them up or wake them up. So these are some things that we typically see. We know that all three of these definitely have a huge impact on our health, either for the good or for the bad. So there's a few conditions that we typically see in seniors that they face when they don't have adequate physical activity or protein consumption in their lifestyle. So I'm going to touch on just about three of these conditions that we tend to see the most, and some of you may be dealing with these. So really pay attention, because I'm going to tell you exactly how you can start reversing some of this or at least slowing it down and to be able to actually enjoy your life. So the number one condition is and this isn't by ranking or by how many people deal with these, I just listed them out Number one is sarcopenia.
Speaker 1:You may have never heard of this, but many, many people deal with this. Sarcopenia is a condition that causes a progressive loss of muscle mass, strength and function. That occurs with aging. It's not just a matter of losing muscle faster, we also tend to lose strength. When we lose strength, we tend to lose stability and balance, which therefore leads to more trips and falls and things like that.
Speaker 1:So some symptoms of sarcopenia. If you're dealing with some of these symptoms and you're over 50 and you're dealing with these regularly, it may be something to bring up to your physician to have them look into. So some symptoms are weakness, fatigue, loss of energy, balance problems and difficulty walking or standing. So if you're experiencing these on a regular basis and there's not a real rhyme or reason why, you may have your physician check to see if you are experiencing sarcopenia. Some risk factors older age, as we're discussing here poor nutrition, usually a lack of adequate protein, and little or no exercise, specifically weight-bearing exercise, resistance training, strength training, weight training. So some complications that we tend to see when people have sarcopenia, and especially in its advanced stages. We tend to see more falls, more broken bones and other serious injuries, because if the body is weak, the muscles aren't able to support the joints. One, you're more susceptible to injuring that joint. And also, if you do fall because of weakness, because of a lack of balance and stability, you have a much higher risk of breaking something, which is a terrible situation for seniors. So, as far as treatment goes, guys, here's some things that we can do to start treating this right out of the gate on your own. Strength training programs can help regain lost strength and rebuild some muscle, all right. So strength training is one of the best ways to prevent sarcopenia and to start trying to reverse it or at least combat it. All right, so that's number one.
Speaker 1:Number two is osteopenia and I hope I'm saying that right Cause for some reason that word is so weird to me and always has been so. Osteopenia is a precursor of osteoporosis. So it's a condition where bone mineral density, or abbreviated as BMD, is lower than normal, but not low enough to be considered osteoporosis. So this is a precursor disease. So a better definition is it's a decrease in the amount of calcium and phosphorus in bones, making them weaker and more brittle. So less bone density, the thick stuff, the marrow inside the bone that keeps them strong. So, as far as risk goes, who's at most risk? People with osteopenia have a higher risk of fractures and may eventually develop osteoporosis.
Speaker 1:So we see that again, that beginning stage of true bone weakness, bone disease. And this is the best place to be in to start making changes to try to avoid osteoporosis from actually setting in. Because once you get there, sorry guys, I'm all a little nasally. Like I said, we're getting over some stuff. A little nasally, like I said, we're getting over some stuff. But you know, osteoporosis is a much worse situation, a lot harder to treat and to overcome. So if we can catch it early, when it's in that osteopenia stage, then we're in a much better chance of avoiding some of these situations.
Speaker 1:So the last one, which I've already hinted at already, is osteoporosis. So osteoporosis is a bone disease that causes bones to become weak and more likely to break. All right, so a clear medical definition is osteoporosis is a condition where bones become less dense and more porous, many more spaces within the marrow, making them more likely to break. The disease occurs when the body breaks down more bone than it replaces. So one interesting thing about the human body that some may not realize is we're always in a state of either building or breaking down, and this happens with every single cell in the body. So from a cellular level to muscle, we're always building muscle and breaking down muscle. We're never just always building muscle or always breaking down muscle. Even if you're in a calorie deficit or a calorie surplus and you're in a mass gaining phase and you're building muscle over time, there's still a muscle breakdown happening within that period. It's just the rate of muscle increase outweighs the amount of muscle breakdown happening, and so we see the same thing in bones as well. So we're constantly building our bones up stronger and we're also breaking down bone tissue at the same time, and it's just the rate of which one is happening the most is going to determine our overall state. So if we're building more muscle tissue than we're breaking down, then we're going to have stronger bones. If we're breaking down more bone tissue than we're building, obviously we're going to have weaker bones.
Speaker 1:Okay, so interesting fact there about the body, and same thing goes to body fat. Matter of fact, we're always storing body fat and releasing body fat. It doesn't matter if you're in a calorie surplus or a calorie deficit. Your body's always doing both. The question is is which one is it doing the most? If you're in a calorie deficit, you're going to be storing less fat than you're burning. Therefore, you're going to lose body fat. If you're in a calorie surplus, you're going to be gaining more body fat than you're burning. So you're going to add to your body fat, but you're still burning, even in a calorie surplus.
Speaker 1:So some symptoms of osteoporosis. Osteoporosis is often called a silent disease because people may not even notice any symptoms until they break a bone. So this is one of the you know, really sad parts of this disease is so many seniors and elderly have no idea that they have osteoporosis until they get weak and they trip and fall. Or just a freak accident happens and they trip and fall and they break a hip or they break a femur or they break you know, they're humorous they break whatever bone and then, because the bones are weak, because osteoporosis has already set in so much, the odds of them actually healing that bone back to be as strong as it was is very slim and the chances of them re-breaking it or breaking another bone goes up tremendously, guys. So this is it's kind of like a domino effect here and this is definitely something we want to try to avoid.
Speaker 1:All right, so that kind of discusses some of the downsides to aging that can happen if our lifestyle does not align with healthy practices. Ok, so we always wrap up and finish up with positivity, because I like to be positive, I like to be optimistic, and there's always, in most cases I don't want to say always there's usually things that we can do to improve our situation or at best prevent things from happening. So what are we going to talk about next? Strength training can have many benefits for seniors. Okay, tons of benefits, guys. I'm just touching on a few of them here, but there's so many different benefits, all right. So going down the list.
Speaker 1:Number one improve muscle mass and strength. All right, strength training can help seniors build muscle mass and strength while help preventing falls and serious injuries. So if you're strength training, especially if you're adding in and this is something I do with most all of my clients, but especially my senior clients, love you, guys. We add in balance and stability training and when you add that in with strength training, you're building up not only your muscle tissue and making yourself stronger, you're building up your connective tissue, your joints, your tendons, your fascia, you are increasing your proprioception, improving your proprioception where you are in space so you can catch yourself easier, and you're teaching your nervous system to be more reactive to what's happening around you so you can prevent falls and things like that. So very, very important, guys. Strength training can also help increase bone density. So strength training has been proven to help preserve bone density increases. So this would be like weight-bearing exercises. So even body be like weight bearing exercises. So you know, even body weight exercises are considered weight bearing exercises. So this is a great way to increase bone density and help prevent osteopenia and osteoporosis and things like that.
Speaker 1:Number three reduced risk of age related diseases. So this goes beyond just the physical health and muscle and bone. This goes to actual, you know, metabolic diseases and things like that. So strength training can reduce the risk of diseases like osteoporosis, as we discussed, heart disease, arthritis and type 2 diabetes. Number four improved quality of life. So strength training can help improve quality of life and functional abilities. And what does this look like? This looks like being able to, you know, go to the park with your grandkids and play like you did when your kids were young, or being able to show up to all your grandkids' events no-transcript, your own, and not have to depend on anybody like that's huge and that's something we should all strive for up until it's our time to leave this life. So improve quality of life.
Speaker 1:Number five better sleep quality. This is a huge one, guys. I'm always going to emphasize sleep. You're going to get tired of hearing it because I'm huge on getting adequate sleep. So strength training can improve sleep quality because one, you fatigue the body more you fatigue your system, more so you need more recovery. Therefore, you have a better chance of sleeping a little bit deeper. System more, so you need more recovery. Therefore, you have a better chance of sleeping a little bit deeper. It can also help regulate sleep quality Just so many different benefits it can have. Plus, we do all of our healing and recovery while we're sleeping, so we should be emphasizing that anyways. And point number six two, three, four, five Sorry guys, I have it as bullet points and I'm putting numbers on it. Number six reduce depression and anxiety, one many people may not consider when it comes to strength training. So strength training can decrease levels of depression and anxiety, which we know is definitely a problem in our senior community, just as well as the rest of them.
Speaker 1:So if you have not been involved in consistent resistance training before or maybe it's been a long time you may consider working with a fitness professional who is trained and experienced key there, trained and experienced in working with seniors to ensure that you are training safely to protect against potential injury and burnout, all right. So you know, this is another little simple plug for a transformed health initiative. We work with ages of all age groups. I myself have numerous senior clients that are some of my best clients, most devoted, show up all the time, always here, always putting in the work, and you guys are absolutely amazing. But working with someone who understands how the body works, how, who understands how the different you know um life phases work, it's, it's super, super beneficial guys.
Speaker 1:So even if you just work with someone for a little bit to kind of teach you how to train for where you're at, for maybe some of the injuries that you've dealt with in your life, some of the wear and tear stuff you're dealing with, or whatever it may be, finding someone who is educated and experienced and can help you at least get started and get your you know, you know, get your your feet under you if you will, it can definitely help change the game for you and also teach you how to eat, because things change as we get older and that's a whole nother subject when it comes to nutrition. But things do change Our bodies, you know. They just become a lot less efficient when it comes to nutrition and absorbing nutrients. So these are things that definitely should be considered, and working with a fitness professional with a nutrition background or a nutritionist or registered dietitian can help you navigate the nutrition world, which is so bogged down and just so all over the place with all the different misinformation and disinformation and everything else, and can really help you weed through that, guys. So that's one thing that you can consider doing.
Speaker 1:Also, there are numerous programs and fitness facilities that offer discounted or even free memberships, with classes specifically for senior members. If budget is an issue, so there's lots of insurance companies that will cover your gym membership completely, including fitness classes. You know I've got several clients that have that benefit through their insurance. So they train with me to get you know the bulk of their serious strength training, weight training, and then they go to the gym and do cardio or do some other workouts that I designed for them. That doesn't conflict with what we're doing together and really utilize that because it's free, guys, like if your insurance is covering it. You're paying for your insurance and you've been paying, so why not take advantage of it? And you know you have, like the silver sneakers I believe that's still around anyways advantage of it, and you know you have, like the silver sneakers I believe that's still around anyways. And now you know, with group fitness, classes have expanded and exploded so much over the recent years. There's tons of different gyms out there that have classes specifically for seniors, or they can adjust and change the group workout that they're doing to make sure that you're able to participate as well. So definitely definitely something to take advantage of, and that you know, if you're doing it with a group of other people as well, it can be encouraging and motivating and you may even build some new friendships out of it. So that's cool too, all right.
Speaker 1:So the biggest thing here, guys, that I want to express is to start small. Okay, you do not need to go to the gym every single day to improve your health or strength and strength If you're starting from nothing. Just implement being more active in general and things such as going for walks and doing extra housework, gardening, whatever it may be, walking the dog, until it becomes a habit to be more physically active overall. From there, you can slowly introduce resistance training, even if it's just bodyweight exercises like air squats and knee pushups at home. So, again, it doesn't have to be super aggressive and intense.
Speaker 1:You know, if you guys are part of our Facebook community, the Transform Health Initiative community, which I, you know, recommend you guys join if you're listening to this, because I put a lot of content on there. Plus, we have group members that share their journey and you know just different tips and ideas and stuff. But you know if you see me posting my workouts on there. It's just to kind of show you guys what I'm up to, how I train, how I actually stick to the things that I teach my clients. But just because you see me doing that, that's where I'm at, you don't need to be there. I've been doing this for a long time and, outside of my neck surgeries and being down for that, I've been very consistent. This is what I do, so you don't have to do what I'm doing. You can do much less and you can get really, really good results, guys.
Speaker 2:So hopefully this answers your question.
Speaker 1:It's definitely never too late to start weight training. You just want to be smart, you want to have a good plan, a good program in place so you know that you're progressing in a safe manner, and you definitely want to also pay attention to your nutrition, because this is going to help boost your gym performance and get and help you get the most out of your weight training experience. All right, so now that we've answered the question, I'm going to leave you, as I always do. I want you to do something good for yourself, something good for your health, something good for those around you and, whatever you do, make sure you win on purpose. Talk at you next time.