Strength Training

Strength Training is extremely vital to your health in addition to cardio exercise. As you age, you lose about one-third of a pound of muscle each year while gaining about a pound of fat starting in  your mid-thirties. Because muscle accounts for a higher metabolism, losing it can cause fat gain. As a result, it is imperative that weight lifting is part of your workout as well.

Strength Training = Preserves muscle mass + strength + metabolism

Ideally, you should work each major muscle group two or three times a week. Less means no result, more means overwork and fatigue. The easiest way to maintain your muscle is to first develop a significant amount of strength from training two or three days a week, then being able to just train once per week.

A good schedule given by Liz Neporent and Suzanne Scholosberg is:

Day 1: Upper Body

Day 2: Lower Body

Day 3: Rest

Day 4: Upper Body

Day 5: Lower Body

Day 6: Rest

Day 7: Rest

Upper body is working the chest, back, shoulders, triceps, biceps, and abs.

Lower body is working the buttocks, quads, hamstrings, calves, and lower back.

As you can see, in a given week, you are working each group twice. Allowing the other group to rest by alternating days.

It is best to do each rep 15 times during the beginning stage, then upping your weights so that your muscles fatigue within 10 reps. When lifting that amount of weight is no longer a challenge, then increase the amount. Good luck!