all over strengthening?

Hi Samantha

sorry you haven't received much of a response to your inquiry to date. Deciding to do strength training at your age is a real plus for women. By getting going now you may improve your overall looks, improve your health and slow down ageing and prevent some of the diseases women are plagued with later in life" osteoporosis and wasting and obesity, as well as reduce developing becomng a faller in older age. However it should be a life long decision - something that you keep going for the rest of your life. It also has to be progressive resistance training - which is mainly weights. Other exercise like swimming, walking, running cycling and many sports tend to be more aerobic in nature and while improving endurance and heart and lung health, won't actually make you stronger

Physios when they give input into strength training are usually particularly concerned about managing any current musculoskeletal problems or injuries your currently have, preventing injuring yourself during the program, avoiding developing muscle imbalances through over-training some muscles and not others and ensuring it is a balanced programme (eg includes aerobic programme and possible also something to maintain flexibility). We can't really do that over the net so you really need to go to a good physio to have that all checked out.

There are a multiple number of programmes to supplement a progressive resistance training programme (eg aerobic work, Pilates, yoga, muscle balance training, core stability training etc) so just putting all that aside and to address your question here are some principles:

*Strengthening involves basically using weights - so going to the gym is usually the best choice. You can of course by weights and set yourself up at home but for many reasons it often works best going to the gym

*To get strengthening and muscle hypertrophy (toned) you have to go at least twice a week and ideally three times - but don't go more than that. Muscles need time to recover after a weight workout and you get your best effect and reduce the risk of overtraining or injury if you by giving them 48 hours to recover.

*the programme should contain exercises for all the main muscle groups in the body. this is where there is some debate in physio circles about what is an ideal program and generally we like to provide an individual assessment so we don't recommend avoiding weak muscles that need training and over emphasize muscles that are already relatively too strong.

*you can choose between free weights (barbells and dumbbells) and weight machines. Both have certain advantages and disadvantages - of course you can have a mixture of these. However weight machines are safer to start with as they are much easier to control

*the exercise should work through the full range of the muscle (from its lengthened through to its shortened position). These seems to promote muscle flexibility

*Never throw the weight up using momentum. Move slowly eg 2 seconds to the most shortened position then 4 seconds to lower the weight (BTW that feels really slow when you do it!). Experienced gym bunnies can choose to vary this but this is a good protocol to start with and tends to maximise strengthening and

*you have to use the work to fatigue principle. That is whatever number of repetitions you do the final one you just can't manage anymore. This causes a controlled sort of the microtrauma to the muscle and causes it to rebuild and adapt by laying down more muscle proteins and improving the contractility of the muscle.

* depending on whether you want to work on muscle strength, muscle hypertrophy, muscle power (a combination of strength through speediness), muscle endurace etc. makes you choose how heavy the weight is you choose so that the maximum number of repetitions you can do. So you can vary the number of contractions according to what you want to achieve. For example, for strengthening and hypertrophy, 8-12 reps should achieve to fatigue while for muscle endurance you might go for 12 to 16 reps

* sets is one sequence of reps. If you take a break (eg 2 mins) then do another sequence of reps that is a second rep. Recent scientific reviews of strengthening studies show that the more sets are associated with greater strength gains. However you do get strength gains from just one set and adding extra sets greatly increases your workout time. 2-3 sets is absolutely ample.

*Use the overload principle - eg start with 8 sets to fatigue then increase the reps each session as you can manage. As soon as you can do 12, increase the weight so you can only manage 8 and work up over yours sessions again until you can manage 12, then increase again.

*You may want to have a read about sound nutrition when undertaking progressive resistance training. you definitely will need to have more protein in your diet than you normally would and by ingesting high quality proteins (eg low fat milk product such as a nice smoothie, an egg, small can of tuna etc) immediately after the workout you will maximise muscle growth.

People believe all sorts of ideas about strengthening but only these sorts of programmes really will develop muscle in an otherwise healthy person. People who are very sedentary or debilitated may benefit from low intensity programmes as they are starting off from such a low baseline. But these programmes really do work and the benefits to women are demonstrated to be huge! Some women worry about building up too much muscle - But actually in your forties you are starting to loose quite a sizeable amount of muscle tissue each year so it would take quite a while before you actually regain the muscle you would have had as in your 20's.

I would suggest you have a further read about it and consider getting someone to help you with designing a programme. A personal trainer or a physio who works in a gym can be a great start and can help keep you on track. You also should have a medical clearance particularly if you answer yes to any of these questions:

PAR-Q - What is the Par-Q - The Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire

You might like to read further Here is an example of a book that would addresses strengthening amongst women. This company puts out high quality fitness industry books:

Strength Training for Women