You don’t have to have a young body to have a strong body. In fact, with the right training, you can achieve just as much effect when you’re on the other side of 40 as when you’re in your 20s.
This is shown by research by Casper Søndenbroe, who is a postdoc. at the sports medicine department at Bispebjerg Hospital, has been at the helm.
– Even those in their 70s can move a lot, says Casper Søndenbroe.
The recipe is hard strength training, he explains.
– It is particularly important to focus on the load being heavy enough to constantly stimulate progress.
– Many train with weights that are too light. In order to achieve solid results, you must constantly increase the load, so that you constantly get a little bit stronger.
If you want to get in top shape, you need to do strength training for an hour three times a week. And every time you have to make sure you lift right to the limit of what you are capable of.
If you follow that routine for three months, you can increase your raw muscle strength by up to 15 percent, says Casper Søndenbroe.
– 15 percent actually corresponds to what you lose over a ten-year period. So, with three months of heavy strength training, you can put your body ten years back in terms of muscle.
The whole body benefits from being touched, but Casper Søndenbroe points to the buttocks, thighs and back as particularly important to keep strong as the years progress.
– It is the posterior chain and the thighs that give you the ability to get up from a chair or go up a flight of stairs, he says.
If you have no experience with strength training, it can be violent for the body, but that should not deter you, says Niklas Meier, co-owner of the training company Styrk.
– The first tenderness is a small slap, but is not dangerous, he says and continues:
– We can also have an idea that we cannot last very long. But even if we are not used to doing anything, we still have well-functioning muscles and bones that can withstand a lot.
At the same time, you should remember that your body reacts differently than it did when you were younger.
– You have to get a degree of acceptance that you are not 20 years old anymore. You have to tell yourself that it’s okay that it feels a little different. After all, it was many years ago.
But once you get started, you can go a long way, emphasizes Niklas Meier.
– Many of those I train with have ended up being stronger than when they were 20. It’s about gradually building over time and not thinking that it will happen overnight.
The same point comes from Casper Søndenbroe.
– It is never too late to start strength training. But it requires a certain amount of effort, he says.
/ritzau focus/
