I am a 58 year old female in good health ( but with osteoporosis). I have had a regular work out habit since college, primarily cardio based ( my VO2 max is 45). In the last few years I have learned the importance of shifting to weight training. I work out at home with follow along videos. If prevention of sarcopenia/extension of healthspan / having enough muscle mass to impact my metabolism to prevent weight gain are my goals, what should my training look like ? I don’t care to be ‘in the weeds’ with training methods to develop hypertrophy or increase performance unless those weeds are also the ones I need to be in for my stated goals.
Hi there!
Thanks for the post and solid work on getting your exercise in. Regarding our general recommendations for exercise, this is what we’ve come up with:
-
Lift weights twice per week (or more)
-
Select exercises that train all the major muscle groups of the body
-
Do 2 to 3 sets of 3 to 20 reps at a weight that gets you within 4 reps of failure
- Perform conditioning most days of the week to accumulate 150 minutes (or more) of cardio at an intensity of RPE 4-5 or higher
- Adjust programming as needed to ensure improvements in strength and cardiorespiratory fitness are occurring
We would strongly encourage you to lift weights in addition to your cardiovascular exercise. You likely will need access to gym equipment to sufficiently load your body. This is a good starting place: