Don’t Miss Your Chance to Win $400 in e-Credits!

Adults over the age of 50 who lead sedentary lifestyles can lose up to a quarter-pound of muscle mass every year, making them more susceptible to chronic diseases such as osteoporosis or sarcopenia (loss of muscle tissue) and greatly increasing their risk of injury from falls. 

Help them bring the muscle back and give yourself a chance to win $400 in ACE e-credits. Register for the AARP Fitness and Wellness Program between April 15 and May 15 and you could win up to 2.0 free CECs. A special designation on our ACE GetFit™ site featured on AARP.org could increase your exposure to potential new clients who need your help.

Once you expand your market to older clients, try these three exercises to help boost their muscle mass and quality of life:

• Squats & Deadlifts – Yes, you read that right. Strength training for older adults isn’t just possible, it’s essential, according to ACE Exercise Physiologist Pete McCall. Integrating strength training with compound movements like deadlifts, squats, Romanian deadlifts, standing chess presses, shoulder presses or bent-over rows produces testosterone and growth hormone, an anti-aging mix of youth, vitality and muscle growth. And bones get a boost, too. “When you place stress on a bone like you do with resistance training, it will develop more osteoblasts—bone cells—which create a denser, thicker bone,” McCall explains. 

• Swimming – Getting your clients in the water promotes full range of motion in the joints without the impact associated with weight training. Swimming (as well as other forms of aquatic exercise) is especially good for those who experience arthritis pain in the hips, shoulders or knees. Start by encouraging five to 10 minutes of continuous swimming, and build up to 30 to 45 minutes, three to four days per week. Eventually, your clients will improve their heart health and work more muscles than they could while doing most other exercises.

• Stationary Bike Intervals – Stationary cycling is another low-impact exercise that helps build muscle, facilitates weight loss and improves cardiorespiratory fitness. Ask your client to “work at an interval where talking becomes difficult for one minute, then at an intensity where talking is relatively easy to moderately challenging for three to five minutes,” McCall advises. Eventually, your client should progress to an equal amount of time at both intensity levels.

Working with older adults isn’t just about recommending water aerobics and dancing classes, says McCall. 

“Older adults can still gain strength and improve their fitness just like adults in their 20s and 30s; it’s just that progressions take a little longer,” he explains. “Just because they are older doesn’t mean they can’t add muscle mass or improve their cardio fitness.”

To learn more about how you can register to be an AARP-endorsed personal trainer, visit our ACE AARP sign-up page.