Supertrainer Val Fujii, my special guest in my last video, alluded to “power” being important when we chatted after his boomer workout in El Dorado Hills. I think the topic of POWER deserves it’s own blog post. Thanks for the idea, Val!
What is power? Power is the rate at which a movement is performed. As we age, a few things happen that can slow our movement down, namely:
1). A decrease in muscle mass
2). A decrease in muscle strength
3). A decrease in the speed at which our muscle fibers can contract
The result is that our muscles become smaller, weaker, and slower as we age (unless we DO something about it, of course!).
If you’ve read enough of my blog posts, you know I’m a serious supporter of women lifting weights to maintain muscle mass. I usually talk about this in relation to the metabolism boosting effects of weight training for women. There are functional benefits to weight training, too, and that’s where power comes in.
We need strong legs to get up out of a chair without assistance, we need strong legs to hoist ourselves up long flights of stairs at the ballpark, and we need a strong core and upper body to get that dang carry-on case that is packed to the hilt into that overhead bin on the airplane! These activities require not only strength, but power–the ability to move quickly and with force (just try getting out of a low, soft couch in slow motion, and you’ll see what I mean!).
A well-designed and regularly executed strength training program will help stave off age-related decreases in muscle mass and muscle strength, but you can also design your strength training program with power development in mind. It’s really easy and something I suggest you try on a few exercises each time you do your strength workout.
To improve your power in activities of daily living, train with power during your workout by putting the element of speed into some of your exercises.
Here are a few ideas:
If you do squats (or a leg press at the gym): Lower yourself slowly, and then accelerate out of the bent leg position and straighten your legs quickly. If you counted it out, it might be like this: Down for 3 counts, up on the 4th count. By doing the exercise this way, you’re forcing your muscles to contract quickly on the way up out of the squat or leg press.
If you do single leg step ups: Jump up on a low step (4-6 inches) with both feet simultaneously and then step off one foot at a time.
If you do dumbbell shoulder presses: Press up for one count, lower the dumbbells for 3 counts.
One note of caution, power training is NOT to be undertaken by beginner exercisers! Learn the basics first, and then incorporate power into some of your exercises some of the time. Mix it up. Perhaps one day you do power squats, and the next time you exercise you do power shoulder presses.
I tend to favor power training with lower body exercises with my Bay Area personal training clients because I believe they’re the most valuable functionally, but we need power in our upper body as well ( to push stuff over our heads, for example) so don’t neglect putting some power into your upper body pushing and pulling exercises.
You boomer gals who strength train and incorporate some power training moves into your workouts are going to be far better off in twenty years than your counterparts who are avoiding exercise all together.
My guess is you’re gonna look younger, too!
Now go out there and put some POWER into a few of your strength training exercises!
If you’re already incorporating power into your workouts, leave a comment here and share your exercises and experiences!
Committed to your success,
Becky
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