Strategies for Staying Strong

Muscle strength is important for more reasons than just being able to lift heavy objects. It is important for your balance, bone health, endurance, joints, metabolism, and it helps support a healthy weight. Having strong muscles can also help you feel better in your body, give you confidence and support your well being. They can even help you balance your blood sugar because your muscles store sugar as glycogen. Here are some strategies for staying strong.

Quality Diet

Eating a healthy diet that is free of processed and inflammatory foods can help your body function optimally and help you stay strong. If you want to gain muscle mass, you will need to consume more calories and protein. As you deliberately exercise, you actually tear the fibers in your muscles. Your body needs a variety healthy foods so that it can supply the amino acids needed to repair and rebuild muscle. A healthy diet consists of lots of leafy greens, vegetables, good fats, and protein from clean plant and animal sources.

Resistance Training

You can use your body weight, bands or weights to do resistance training. Resistance training has many benefits including improving muscle strength, endurance, maintaining a healthy metabolism, supporting healthy bones, and more. If you're active, you may get enough of this type of exercise by doing things like strenuous hiking and gardening. Be aware though, that you naturally loose muscle as you age. So you'll probably want to find an enjoyable way to do some resistance training, whether it is at home or in the gym.

Work to Failure

Your muscles will not grow unless you push them. While any kind of lifting or resistance training is good, you'll get more benefit if you push your muscles until they can't do any more. You'll build more muscle and bone strength if you do as many repetitions as possible with proper form, until you can't do any more.

Train Your Whole Body

Focus on training your whole body and not just on muscles that you can see. 65% of your muscle mass is below your waist, so you'll spend slightly more time exercising your lower body. Some people focus on different muscle groups on different days of the week. You can also do a full body workout and mix that in with something like yoga or pilates so that you don't overwork your major muscle groups.

Don't Forget Your Core

Your core stabilizes your body and helps give you better balance. Your core muscles are located in your lower back, hips, abdomen and pelvis. Having a strong core will minimize the strain on your muscles and joints and reduce your risk of injury. A hip bridge is one of the begining and fundamental moves that strengthen your core. Plank poses and one legged exercises are two other great ways to strengthen your core and work a wide range of muscles.

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