Keep strength up to turn back the clock

SANDRA Bullock, who turned 50 in July and starred last year in the box office sci-fi hit Gravity, had to get her body in amazing shape for the film.

As her character was on a mission in space, she had to mimic the movements in zero gravity and this demanded she do gruelling wirework in a harness. She had to be super flexible and strong — a tall order for a woman on the cusp of 50.

But her athleticism didn’t start with the film role — she regularly works out and strength training is a big part of her fitness routine. At her age she knows that from now on she will lose muscle, bone mass, and therefore strength at a faster rate than before if she doesn’t challenge herself.

Strength training is not just about shaping and toning your body, it’s about remaining flexible, balanced, and capable of doing everyday jobs as you age. But it’s also about looking lean and strong in that new outfit — always a bonus! Reaching to the top kitchen cupboard, pushing the lawnmower, carrying bags of groceries from the car, opening jars, getting up from a low armchair — we associate older people with having difficulties with these activities. But why? It’s because of muscle and bone deterioration.

Is it inevitable? The good news is we now know we can turn back that rate of deterioration if we regularly do resistance and strength bearing exercises — and we don’t necessarily have to invest in expensive equipment or gym memberships to do so.

Strength training involves exercising your muscles against a resistance by pulling or pushing a weight — and this can be achieved simply by raising litre bottles of water up and down while watching TV.

“Many routines can be done at home so all you need is a set of weights and although you can often buy light weights now in stores like Dunnes, Aldi and Lidl, if you don’t want to invest, there are homemade options you can use like cans of soup, and water bottles filled with water or sand,” says Gillian O’Sullivan, a personal trainer and world record holder for race walking.

This might be encouraging for people over 60, who in O’Sullivan’s experience are more intimidated by and less informed about weight bearing exercises. “I find however there is awareness among my clients in the 35-60 age group: They know these exercises are important to maintain tone and strength and I usually encourage older people to do a programme with 1kg- 2kg weights.”

And how could someone transfer this to a DIY home situation? “Using a bag of sugar is 1kg — maybe cover it with a plastic bag and then work away. A 500ml bottle of water would be 0.5kg so maybe filled with sand it would make 1kg,” she says.

Squeezing a ball is not only stress reducing, but it also increases wrist strength and this can also be done while watching TV.

O’Sullivan also notes the importance of using your body weight to do exercises including squats, lunges, going up the stairs, raising your knees up and down while standing, and performing calf raises against a step on the stairs at home.

Some of these exercises can be done while waiting for a bus or a flight; at the supermarket checkout; in the loo at work; outside the school gate for your grandchild — wherever takes your fancy! The trick is to be focused about incorporating resistance movements into your everyday life.

“Walking is a great weight-bearing exercise as is gardening; getting to move even 20 minutes three times a day helps. Housework like hoovering, ironing and cleaning windows are all chores that can be made more challenging by putting more strength into them and breaking them down into 15 minute stints.”

Though we’re unlikely to see fitness enthusiast Jane Fonda, who is 77 in December, cleaning windows or “pumping” bags of sugar, she points out in her DVD Jane Fonda Prime Time: Fit & Strong, that people aged 50-72 increase muscle mass/strength by as much as 200% with regular strength training exercises. And she’s there in all her vitality, living proof that it’s possible.

www.Gillianosllivan.ie