Some women over the age of 50 may not find weight training to be particularly important or useful to them. However, weight training for women over 50 is extremely crucial. Unfortunately, there are common misconceptions that as women get older, a decrease in strength and overall fitness is inevitable, or that weight training is designed for the younger population. However, weight training is important for women of all ages.
Weight training allows you to maintain muscle mass in conjunction with increasing your metabolism and general health. It allows you to perform everyday activities easily especially as you are getting older. Furthermore, weight training leads to a decreased risk of injury and the ability to maintain independence in your later years. Weight training comes with a decreased risk for chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes or osteoporosis.
There are five main weight training exercises that women should aim to do when weight lifting.
- Dumbbell Squats: This exercise targets quads, hamstrings, glutes, and calves, to build strong legs.
- Dumbbell Chest Press: This is another great exercise that targets the chest, triceps, and shoulder muscles
- Dumbbell Lawnmower Pulls: It is important to mix pulling exercises into your workout.
- Dumbbell Romanian deadlifts: This exercise is excellent for increasing strength in the core, legs and back.
- Dumbbell Wood-chops: This exercise targets the upper body, lower body and core.
One more thing to keep in mind when you weight train is that it is important to incorporate a cool down after every workout/set. This will help decrease the chance of injury, and allow for a stronger likelihood to appreciate your progress.
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