Lift heavy. What that means.

You have to lift heavy. You hear this everywhere within the lifting circles. I say it all the time but “heavy” is not a specific weight term. Heavy is heavy to you. Heavy has a very personal meaning to each and everyone of us. Heavy for me is not what is heavy for you or anyone else. You might be able to easily lift much heavier than the person beside you or you might have a difficult time lifting very small weights. “Heavy” in the world of SAFE lifting; means that you are challenging your body to lift, without damaging anything.

The whole idea behind “heavy” is that we must challenge our muscles for them to grow. So if you are stuck in the “little pink 2lb weights” zone, you need to think about upping your weights. That said we must also take extreme caution not to injure our joints, tendons or ligaments. As we age, this gets more important; as does the need to lift.

The old saying “use it or lose it” is very real. If you do not lift substantial weight on a regular basis; you will lose your muscle mass. Sarcopenia (below for definition) starts in our 30s and rapidly escalates as we age.

Sarcopenia - a progressive, age-related condition characterized by the loss of skeletal muscle mass, strength, and function, commonly leading to mobility issues and reduced quality of life. It often starts around age 30 and progresses faster after 60, often resulting in frailty, and falls.

Movement is wonderful but walking will not help you to maintain or grow muscle mass. The more we age the more we need our muscles. Along with muscle, we need to improve and maintain our balance and mobility. But muscle is number one. If you don’t have enough muscle; then mobility and balance are very difficult.

The whole idea and fear of “bulking up” from lifting weights is an old wives tale. Sure there are women in the world of lifting that frankly look and sound like men. These woman are not going about their lifting naturally, they are taking some sort of muscle growth enhancement. It takes a great deal of work to even get enough muscle that you can physically see them. Depending on your fat layer, you may never see them. But seeing them is not the issue, using them is. Having enough muscle to safely move around and do the things that you want to do, is what it is all about. As a Grandmother (Gabby) of 7, I want to keep up with all of them as long as I can.

I cannot tell you how many times I’ve heard that I shouldn’t be doing something physical because I’m going to hurt myself. If we stop doing physical things because we are aging, we will most definitely hurt ourselves. Instead, we should keep doing the things that we love to do while LIFTING WEIGHTS. If you do not take your aging as strong women into your own hands, it will be taken away. Your going to lose muscle, fact.

We need to workout every muscle in our body. Our legs are extremely important so that we don’t fall. But it is not just the legs that stop a fall. Strong glutes, core, back, and balance all play a part. Do you want to be physcially capable? Then you must work at maintaining and/or growing your muscles.

So how heavy is heavy? If you can easily curl 2lbs with each arm, then move to 3-5 lbs. We can all typically curl (bicep curl) 2 lbs for many, many reps. Once you get to maybe 10lbs, you might be able to squeak out 5 or 6. But it is there that you will be growing your muscle. If you don’t challenge your muscle, there will be no requirement to grow. Once you hit a spot where you are happy with your muscle mass; it is then about maintenance.

Being strong makes everything we are required to do in life that is physical, easier. As far as an active challenge, take it on. Don’t stop doing physcial things because you are getting older. Our bodies get older and weaker if we don’t use and challenge them. Start getting stronger so that you can keep doing the things that you love without even more challeges from sarcopenia.

Start today, don’t wait. Lifting is as easy as grabbing something “heavy” and lifting it. Engage your muscles and challenge them. Be careful, learn how to lift properly and just lift. Do it today, for a very happy and capable you for tomorrow.