Strength Training Workout for Older Adults

Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Go4Life Facebook Live event. My name is Stephanie Daly, and I'm director of the Go4Life campaign at the National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health. Go4Life is NIA's exercise and physical activity campaign for older adults, where we encourage older adults to try and fit regular exercise and physical activity into their everyday lives. Every September, Go4Life celebrates Go4Life Month, and this year our theme is Move More with Go4Life. We're trying to encourage older adults, people 50 plus, to push themselves a little harder, work out a little faster, go a little further, and try all four types of exercises recommended for older adults. Endurance, strength, balance, and flexibility. In fact, we're asking you to try one exercise per week in September. Week one was endurance week. This is strength week. Next week is balance week, and the last week in September we're asking you to focus on flexibility. If you just joined us, I'm Stephanie Daly with the Go4Life campaign at the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health. Coming up, a strength exercise class for people 50 plus. To celebrate strength week of Go4Life Month, we are pleased to have the fit and well seniors of the YMCA of the metropolitan D.C. area. Under the direction of instructor William Yates, we will be led through easy-to-do strength exercises for people 50 plus. We are coming to you live from the Hattie Holmes Senior Wellness Center in Washington, D.C. under the direction of Teresa Moore. We want to thank Hattie Holmes for allowing us to be at this center this morning for the Facebook Live event in their lovely, lovely facility. If you just tuned in, we're just about to start a strength training class as a Facebook Live event for Go4Life Month. We invite you to post your comments on Facebook and to follow along with a hashtag Go4LifeMonth on Twitter. One more bit of information before we start about safety. We welcome you to participate in this event to the extent that you feel comfortable, but as with all exercise, it's safety first. So if you have pain, if you have fever, if you have a chronic condition that has not yet been checked out by your doctor or a health care provider, we invite you to only watch this event. Let's get going with the Go4Life Facebook Live event with the Fit and Well Seniors of the YMCA of Washington, D.C. here at the Hattie Holmes Senior Wellness Center. Take it away, Mr. Yates. Two more. One more. And slowly and slowly and slowly relax. Now that we've finished the cardio portion of the workout and warmed up, let's now move on into the stretch. Your body is warm. It's now prepared for the stretch. Feet flat on the floor. Head nods straight to the front. Let's turn and look over the right shoulder. Stretch. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Relax. Opposite shoulder. And stretch. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Relax. Curl. Arms in a down position. Thumbs up to the left and to the right. Exercise. You breathe out. You breathe in. Out through your mouth. In through your nose. Out through the mouth. In through your nose. In two. In three. In one. In three. And up. Hold the position. Lock your breath. Now pick up on the elbows. You're just going to stretch the elbows backward. You should feel the upper back muscles and neck kicking. Exercise. You breathe in. You breathe out. In two more. Breathe out. In one more. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. And relax. First we're going to go right into a squat. A squat on a scale of 1 to 10. Make this about a 5. You should know you're at a 5 because you should still have a smile on your face. If you're not able to smile while you're doing the workout, you're doing it a little too much too early, ladies and gentlemen. Feet flat on the floor. Head and eyes straight to the front. We want to make sure you're looking at the wall and not at the ground. Okay? For the squat, all we're going to do is put a light bend in the knee, stick the buttocks out, and a light bend in the knee and go down. Ready? Stretch. And just hold that position. Try to look at the wall in front of you instead of at the floor. Okay? Don't hold your breath. Slowly, slowly push up. Round 2. Stretch. Stick out your buttocks, bend in the knee. Don't worry about how low you go. Worry about doing it correctly. In through the nose and out through the mouth. Slowly push on up. One more. Stretch. Breathing in through the nose, out through the mouth. The breathing is circulating the blood, ladies and gentlemen. All the food is in the blood. Slowly, slowly breathe it out. Now we're going to go into the calf raise. The calf raise. Most important part of the calf raise, make sure you're standing up absolutely straight. And we're trying to pick the heels up as far as possible. The heel up as far as possible. If you're unable to stand on your own, you're more than welcome to touch the wall or use a chair. Again, the goal is to bring the heel up as far as possible. It doesn't matter what it takes for you to do so. Starting position. Exercise. The heels are up. The heels are down. The heels are up. The heels are down. The heels are up. The heels are down. The heels are up. The heels are down. You breathe out. You breathe in. You breathe out. You breathe in. Out through your mouth, in through your nose. Out through the mouth, in through your nose. And up and down. Now hold that position, ladies and gentlemen. This is the calf muscle. It controls your foot, your ankle, and your toes. Directly controls your balance, ladies and gentlemen. Directly controls your balance. Keep that heel up. Get it all the way up. And now slowly, slowly relax. You should feel something every time we do an exercise, ladies and gentlemen. If you don't feel anything, it's because you're not doing anything. It doesn't have to hurt, but we should feel something happening. All right, the next one is for the hips. We're going to strengthen the hips. This will actually help improve your walking, ladies and gentlemen. Walking will improve as well as standing and sitting. For this exercise, we're going to stand straight, absolutely straight. The toe goes to the front, and all we're going to do now is raise the knee. It looks just like this. You breathe out and in. Mr. Hicks here is teaching the modification. You need to hold on. That will not make the exercise any easier, ladies and gentlemen. Starting position. Do it correctly. Back stays straight. Exercise. You breathe out and in. Get it up and put it down. You breathe out and in. Out through the mouth, in through the nose. Pick it up and down. You breathe out and in. One more. And up. Now try to hold that knee up. This is balance improvement here. Good. This is strengthening those ankles also. Good. And slowly, slowly relax. Opposite leg. Back stays straight, most important. Starting position. Exercise. The knee is up and then it's down. You breathe out and in. In five, in ten. In four, in ten. In three, in ten. In two, in ten. In one, in ten. And up. Do the best you can, ladies and gentlemen. If you can't do it today, that's all right. But if you can't do it today, you'll improve upon it by next week so long as you stick to it, ladies and gentlemen. If you can't do something now, it's because the muscle is weak. We know how to strengthen it. Let's get it all the way up. And relax. Squat. On a scale of one to ten, let's make this one a six. Make it a six. Do it correctly, ladies and gentlemen. Do it correctly. Make sure your waist gets closer to the floor than your face. And stretch. Buttocks goes backwards. Bend the knee. If you look down at the ground, you're more than likely to feel it in your neck. Pull that head on up and look at the wall in front of you. You should feel that muscle from the neck all the way down to your spine. And slowly, slowly, push on up. Lat raise to the side. For this exercise, again, the shoulders stay nice and square. And all we're going to do is raise the legs straight up to the ceiling. It's a very small motion, ladies and gentlemen. Starting position. Exercise. You breathe out and in. In five. In ten. In four. In three. In two. In one. In time. And up. Just hold that leg up. And relax. Opposite leg. Stand up nice and straight. Buttocks. Exercise. You breathe out and in. You got it. Out and in. The most important part of this exercise is that the shoulders do not move. That the shoulders don't move. Incorrectly, this exercise looks like this. Out and in. We got one and in. Here's two and in. Here's one and in. Last one. None and in. Hold up. Hold it. Hold it up. Doesn't matter how hard you're doing. Just keep that leg off the ground. You're going to feel it, ladies and gentlemen. You're going to feel it in the weakest muscles first. And relax. Squat. Scale of one to ten. Make it a seven. Make it a seven. And stretch. Stick out your buttocks. Bend in the knees. Make sure you're breathing. The only way to feed a muscle, because your muscles do not have lips, smiles, and digestive systems. The only way to feed the muscle, ladies and gentlemen, is to use it and let the blood circulate. All the nutrients are in your blood, ladies and gentlemen. Slowly, slowly. Go lower. You can do it! All you have to do is do the best you can, ladies and gentlemen. Don't worry about your brother and sister to your left or to your right. Worry about you. Slowly, slowly, slowly. Push it on up. Next exercise. Stand up nice and straight again. All we're going to do is now push the foot to the rear. Keeping the leg nice and straight. Pushing the foot to the rear. You should feel this all in the buttocks area, ladies and gentlemen. All through the buttocks. Again, the most important part is that you stand absolutely straight. Start up. Starting position. Exercise. You breathe out and in. In five. In time. In four. In time. In three. In time. In two. In time. In one. In time. And up! All you have to do is try. It doesn't matter how far you got that leg up. Again, if it's off the ground, you're working the muscle, ladies and gentlemen. And I also know you keep something in the reserve tank. So when I say go, for five seconds, I want you to do the best you can. Raise that leg all the way up. And stretch. Five, four, three, two, one. Relax. Opposite leg. Exercise. You breathe out and in. Don't move your shoulders. Breathe out and in. In five. In time. In four. In time. In three. In time. In two. In time. In one. In time. And up! Keep on breathing. Five seconds. Five, four, three, two, one. And relax. Let's go into another squat. Take this one to eight. And stretch. All you have to do is hold it, ladies and gentlemen. Lock it in and rip the knob off. Worry about doing it correct, ladies and gentlemen. It doesn't matter. This is not a drop it like it's hot contest. We want to make sure we're doing it right. Make sure we're doing it right. I want to be like you. I don't want to be like a 15-year-old anymore. Do it correctly. You do the right thing, you can do it forever. You do the wrong thing, something will hurt. Then something will break. Slowly, slowly. Push it on out. Let's loosen up these shoulders real quick. Head and shoulders out and in. Then we'll grab ahold of your weights. If I break, I mean water break. Feel free to get some water. Don't get excited if your heart rate is going up. That's what happens when you do work, ladies and gentlemen. Starting position. Exercise. Head, shoulders, out and in. Head, shoulders, out. Looking good. Make sure we're breathing. In through the nose, out through the mouth. Believe it or not, when you get stressed, ladies and gentlemen, the first thing that happens is that you start holding your breath. It's important that you remember to breathe. Bring those palms on in and relax. Start feeling that life circulate through your upper body, ladies and gentlemen. Don't get comfortable. Reach over, grab the weights. Let's go. Take a break after class. We want to maintain your heart rate, ladies and gentlemen. We don't want to take breaks in the middle of your workout unless you really need it. Unless you really need it. We're going to go right into your curl. Right into the curl. The curl is dynamic for arm strength. Arm strength. The front of the arm picks things up. The back of the arm sets things down. We want to pick up nice and slow, but we equally want to sit down nice and slow. Starting position. Exercise. You breathe out. You breathe in. You breathe out. You breathe in. You breathe out. You breathe in. Keep it going. In, in. You breathe out. In, in. Keep your back nice and straight. Breathe out. In, in. Breathe out. Keep your elbows tight to your sacs. Do not move. In, in. We got three. And down. In through your nose and out through the mouth. And down. Here's one. You feel your shoulders moving. Slow down. And down. Hold it up. And hold it. And breathe. Come down on the ten count. Nice and slow. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five. Five is the halfway point, but it does not feel half as good. You should still feel this arm engaged right now at the halfway point because we're using the muscle. Five, four, three, two, one. And relax. The overhead press. This one is excellent for shoulder strength, ladies and gentlemen. Shoulder strength. You got boxes on the top cabinet. This is your exercise. If your shoulder hurts when you're doing this exercise, you do not want to do this exercise. You can still work the shoulder muscle by doing lateral raises. If this exercise hurts, we will show you the modification. Mr. Smith will show you the modification for the lateral raise. Starting position. Weight should be in line with the ear. Elbow also. They should all stay in line with the ear. Exercise. You breathe out. You breathe in. You breathe out. You breathe in. You breathe out. You breathe in. Get it up and put it down. Get it up and down. You breathe out and in. And two more. And down. And one more. And down. And up. Those elbows should be in line with your ear. Weight should be over the top of your head. The further forward the weight or the further backward, the more you're going to feel stress in the shoulder joint. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five. Now, from this position, bring those palms together like you're about to clap hands. Never just going to push up to the ceiling. Exercise. You breathe out. You breathe in. You breathe out. You breathe in. Get it up. Woo. Get it up. Woo. You breathe out and in. And four. And down. And three. And down. And two. And down. And one. And two. And down. And up. Coming down on the ten count. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five. Five should not feel easy, ladies and gentlemen. Five, four, three, two, one. And relax. To give us all through the shoulder joints. If you feel any pain whatsoever, this is how you do that exercise, ladies and gentlemen. It's called lateral raises. We're going to do these right now. Starting position. Exercise. You breathe out. You breathe in. You breathe out. You breathe in. You breathe out and slow down. You breathe out. You breathe in. And four. And down. And three. And down. And two. And down. And one. And down. And up. Just hold it right there for a second. Five, four, three, two, one. And relax. Set that weight down for a moment. Squat. Make this one a nine. And stretch. If you have difficulty with the squat, you're going to have difficulty standing and sitting. When this muscle gets weak, it gives you hints along the way. The first hint is when it's time to sit down. You won't be able to sit down without using your hands or making noise. It looks like this. If you sit down like that, you're going to have to stand like this. That'll work for a little while. Until Hollow Bay and you put on two or three more pounds. There's a tip to try. When it's time to stand, don't move your feet. Move your shoulders. It looks like this. Saves the knees. Reach on over. Bear those weights. Hammer curl. It's called a hammer curl because it looks like you're holding the hammer. Okay? Lock it in place. Most important part, keep your back nice and straight, ladies and gentlemen. Think about the purpose. Think about purpose. Back nice and straight. Out of position. Exercise. You breathe out. You breathe in. You breathe out. You breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. You got it. And in. And up. And down. Whenever we're doing exercises with the arm, the most important part is that you don't move the elbow. Prime example. I'm going to move my elbow and do it incorrectly. Moving my elbow, notice how the weight is going over my shoulder. If the elbow stays stationary as it's supposed to, the weight should come right through the shoulder all the time. Proper form. So if the weight is not lining with the shoulder, it's because you're moving your elbow. The elbows do not move when we're doing the curl. Let's do a tricep kickback. One arm at a time. Put your left leg down. Opposite foot forward of the hand that you're using. Let's use our right hand. Left foot forward. Chest up. We're going to move this elbow in the air. And all we're going to do is press it back and we're going to keep it on the ground. Breathe in. And breathe out. Breathe in. Exhale. Push out. And in. This is the tricep kickback. The tricep makes up over two-thirds of the arm. When it falls short, it makes the arm look short. You notice here, this is a very short part of the arm. This is the bicep. The rest is all tricep. So if your arm looks like jello and you don't like it, we need to be doing the tricep kickback. And relax. Set those weights on down. Keep the arms relative to the side. Stretch it on out, ladies and gentlemen. Keep the arms below your shoulders. Keep the arms below the shoulders and breathe. It's important that they stay below the shoulders. So notice the circulation of the veins when the arm is off below the shoulders. The minute you raise the arms above the shoulders, the veins will now evaporate back into the muscle. The heart has to work extra hard to pump the blood up here. So during the cool down, keep them down below the shoulders. Breathe in. It's very important to breathe. This is the cool down, ladies and gentlemen. During the cool down, you can feel like you're coming back home. And relax. Let's go straight to the rear without moving the shoulders or your face. Keep pushing right past the pants. Pop it. Straight to the rear. From the side view, this is what you look like with absolutely beautiful posture. If you have beautiful pimples, you might as well have beautiful posture. Breathe in deep, in through the nose, out through the mouth. Breathing is what keeps you here, ladies and gentlemen. Act like it. And slowly, slowly, slowly, relax. Hands together. Light bend in the knees. Looks like a squat. We're going to stretch those arms nice and wide like you're about to hug the whole classroom. Stretch. Breathe in and breathe out. And stretch. Breathe in and breathe out. And one more. And through. Breathe in. And thank you so very much for working out with us. Thank you so much for joining us for this Facebook Live Go4Life event here to mark and celebrate Go4Life Month. We want to thank Mr. Ye and Fit and Well Seniors of the Reward Academy of DC Leadership and Media. Patty Holmes Senior Wellness Center here in Washington, D.C. Under the leadership of Teresa Moore for having hosted us in this lovely facility. Thank you everybody for joining us for this Facebook Live event. And remember to move more with Go4Life. Thank you.