Improving Senior Fitness

Many of you may not see the value in me writing about seniors' fitness, I know we have some great seniors that use our program, but don't make up the bulk of our readers. Yet, many of us have parents that are part of the "baby boom" generation. Since that group makes up a large percentage of our country I think there is a lot of value talking about their fitness.

Personally it saddens me to see my father at 65 basically debilitated. He can not sit in a car for more than 15 minutes without pain, he can't walk a mall, basically many of his quality of life activities are severely compromised. This is extremely sad considering I don't think of 65 as being very old.

In fact, I was very inspired today when a 70+ year old gentleman came into my facility to speak with me about sandbags. He had been training with kettlebells for some time and wanted to add sandbags into his routine. This gentleman was very inspirational to me as he told me how he has worked up to pressing the 16kg bell and has the goal of the 24kg bell. The work this gentleman really does make me believe the whole idea that age is largely a state of mind. However, there are definitely considerations to make when working with older populations.

Some may think kettlebells and sandbags are the worst thing that our senior population could be doing. Actually nothing could be further from the truth. The reason that situations like my father exist is because they do not keep their bodies flexibile, strong, and mobile. Many trainers and coaches simply put seniors on aerobic programs. In fact, one of the US top strength training researchers, Steven Fleck, recommends strength and power training. He has found that one of the biggest problems that seniors face is loss of fast-twitch muscle fibers. Strength and power suffer leading to far more problems than cardiovascular fitness.

Therefore, implementing slowly some of the fundamental movements in our sandbag program is ideal for seniors. Working both components in a functional manner that is easy to adjust to any ability level makes sandbag training again one of the most versatile training methods available.

If you click on the link below you will see how Giovanni Salazar of www.strength2endure.com uses our Ultimate Sandbags with his 69 year old client. This simple cleaning movement is one of the most powerful one could use to improve the quality life of a senior.

69 year old man sandbag clean

The best part is that these drills are relatively easy to learn and safe. Hard to find excuses not to allow all people to enjoy the empowerment of being strong and poweful.