STRENGTH TRAINING OVER 50: Stay Fit and Fabulous

   

From the Reviews:
“A rapidly growing senior population needs quality information on how to stay healthy and fit longer. Caivano provides just the thing, combining her broad knowledge of dance and movement therapy training in this exceptional strength-training guide for men and women over 50. …This sensible and motivating gem of a book is highly recommended for all public and academic libraries.”
—Library Journal (NY), August 26, 2005

“An expert in movement therapy, author D. Cristine Caivano offers a thorough and well-illustrated guide that makes strength training seem (gasp!) fun. Strength Training Over 50 … is suitable for men and women, those who are already physically fit as well as those who are out of shape, injured or just plain not motivated. … Added bonus: the models used in the how-to photos are over 50 themselves and look quite fabulous, providing just the motivation to get started.”
—Bookpage, January 2006

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Scientists estimate that the average man loses about 7 pounds of muscle each decade of his life after the age of 25, if he doesn’t do anything to reverse the process, such as strength-building exercise. The average woman will lose 5 pounds of muscle per decade; after menopause the rate of muscle loss doubles. This normal (albeit reversible) process is called “sarcopenia”.

As the muscle disappears it is usually replaced by fat. You may weigh the same as ever, but because fat requires less energy to maintain itself than muscle tissue does, your metabolism slows. Fat also occupies more space than lean, calorie-hungry muscle tissue, and thus we have the true story behind the dreaded middle-aged spread!

Strength-building will enable you to regain the muscle lost as a result of age and inactivity. In addition to getting stronger and leaner, you will also reduce your susceptibility to disease, especially cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and osteoporosis, not to mention reducing the odds of taking a dangerous fall. But how do you begin, especially if it has “been awhile”? And how do you stay motivated enough to stick with it?

It is important to exercise in a way appropriate to your over 50 year old self. Even if you were active and athletic in the past, the exercises that worked for you then may no longer be the best ones for you to do now. Like most people, you’ll also want to make the most of your valuable time, not waste it on exercises that don’t bring results or, even worse, lead to injury. Time for a brush up!

STRENGTH TRAINING OVER 50: Stay Fit and Fabulous presents the nitty-gritty scientific facts of how to stay fit and strong, in a way that makes fitness achievable, even down-right interesting. It will show you why, particularly at this stage of the game, building muscular strength is one of the smartest and most efficient ways for you to take charge of your health and quality of life.

I selected the over 80 exercises in STRENGTH TRAINING OVER 50: Stay Fit and Fabulous based on my 25 + years of experience teaching adults. These are the exercises my students have found to be easy to learn and which have brought them quick, satisfying results. Many of the exercises were included primarily because so many people have reported that they “feel great” to do. To me, feeling great is important! Otherwise, exercise becomes a tedious and unappetizing chore, rather than something to look forward to.

WHAT DISTINGUISHES STRENGTH TRAINING OVER 50: Stay Fit and Fabulous FROM OTHER EXERCISE BOOKS?

Motivation Tailored to the Age Group

In my experience, one of the main reasons people over 50 don’t exercise is lack of confidence that it will work, as well as worry they may hurt themselves if they do the wrong thing. I address this by presenting compelling facts and statistics and then demonstrating how to apply them to get safe, satisfying results. I make it very clear that “This stuff works!” If you follow the advice in this book you are guaranteed to get results. Think about it: How many things, especially regarding the body, can be guaranteed? This is powerful motivation at a time when many of us feel we are beginning to fall apart.

Instruction on improving balance skills

This is among the best material in the book. To my knowledge, no other books have addressed this significant and interesting subject quite so clearly. Balance is extremely important, and grows more challenging as we move beyond our 50’s. My book will teach you simple, safe exercises which can help you regain much of your former balance power. Strength training is the perfect place to avoid problems resulting from weakened balance skills such as potentially dangerous falls, now and in the future.

How to Lift and Carry without Getting Injured

There is a right way to perform these actions, but most people haven’t got a clue what it is! (Hint: it’s not just “in the legs”). By applying the terms and techniques explained throughout the book, I explain how to use these actions to get strong, instead of getting hurt.

Mind/Body Connection

It isn’t surprising that Yoga has caught on like wildfire during the last 10 years. People are hungry for information on how to control stress, get emotionally centered, and use movement to feel better physically as well as spiritually. Most exercise books written about strength-building do not refer to this mindful, whole-person approach, but I find that people over 50 are especially appreciative of its value. Indeed, exercising with compassion for and awareness of the self is a necessity as we age. My background in yoga, mindfulness training and meditation strongly influenced both the material in this book as well as how it is presented.

Time: making the most of it.

Most of us are far too busy. Even so, the excuse that “I don’t have time to work out” simply doesn’t hold water. My book provides ways to get around this problem by showing you how to weave exercise throughout the day, perform the actions of daily life in a way that increases strength, break workout time into small, manageable segments, and select which exercises will be most useful and which can be skipped. It also provides several suggestions of streamlined workouts, including one that takes only 15 minutes.

In a larger sense, taking care of your body now will serve as “mobility insurance” for the future. Think of it this way: it is much wiser to take 10 minutes a day to strengthen your back then to miss weeks, months, even years of quality life due to back pain or surgery.

Great Design and Easy to Use Layout

The book is filled with bright, clear and colorful photos of pleasant looking and inspiring models, all over 50. Spiral binding makes it easy to manage the book while learning the exercises.

A lot of thought went into the layout of the material. Read cover to cover, it is arranged the way an exercise class would be, but it may also be opened at any point to learn something new. Having a selection of suggested programs at the end of the book will help you understand how to arrange the exercises into a suitable, personalized workout.

Note: the principles and information in the book apply to novice exercisers of any age. Even if you are fit and under 50, you will find this book useful for an additional reason: your parents are growing older. All of us want to keep our parents independent of us, almost as much as they want to be! This book is a perfect way to educate yourself on how to keep your folks out of wheel-chairs and nursing homes.