- Oh wow!
If you're over 50, I'm personally 60
and I'm realizing that my muscle mass
is actually decreasing.
It's a process called sarcopenia.
It happens to everyone.
- And after age 65, research has shown
that you can lose up to 3% of your muscle mass per year.
- We are gonna show you five exercises that are gonna
help prevent this and actually reverse it.
And this is proven by research.
So let's get on.
(upbeat music)
- Studies have consistently shown
that resistance training into your seventies
and eighties can help retain your muscle mass.
- So resistance training includes with bands, weights,
anything that provides resistance and volume
and intensity of these exercises is absolutely
key to grow your muscle size.
- So in other words, it's how many repetitions you do
and how much weight or resistance you are using
with each exercise.
- We're gonna show you some excellent exercises for this.
And not only that, the formula, so you know how
many reps to do and how much per week, et cetera.
Okay. It's very critical that you know, like I mentioned
how many repetitions and the volume, et cetera.
So on the screen we're putting the magic formula.
This is per research, so it is accurate.
For, go ahead, Mike.
- [Mike] So for beginners, you're gonna start
with doing eight to 12 repetitions per set.
You can start with eight and progress up to 12.
As it becomes easier, you're gonna do all exercises.
There's five of them for a total of one time each.
And you're gonna do this two times per week
- Right. So as you get on with this,
you're gonna have some sore muscles probably
if you've been sedentary, that's okay.
That's why we only do it two times per week.
You'll get used to this and you're gonna
want a little bit more to build those muscles.
So you're gonna progress up again, eight to 12 repetitions
and then you're gonna rest between sets for a minute or so.
And then you're gonna do three sets.
So if you're gonna do curls
and we'll show you this as we get into the video
three sets of each and the rest time is really important.
And then you progress two to three times per week.
So Monday, Wednesday, Friday,
Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday.
Have a day in between so your muscles can rebuild
and your body can relax.
All right, we're gonna show you five exercises.
Mike is gonna demonstrate and we'll talk
about 'em so it's clear on how to do them properly.
And then we're gonna show you five more exercises
that are an advanced set.
So after you feel comfortable
with this and you want more advanced, then we'll do that.
It'll be an option.
- So the first exercise is a simple sit to stand.
It mimics a squat, but in a safe way,
especially if you are weak.
So slide your butt to the edge
of the chair and you're just gonna stand up
and then try to control your sit on the way back down.
You can certainly use your hands to start,
if you need the help.
If you feel it's too easy,
and you wanna get more leg strengthening
you can cross your arms
over your chest like this and do the same thing.
Go up and control it on the way down.
And for even more advancement, if your shoulders are okay,
you can put your hands behind your head
and do the same exact thing.
- Now, if you do have balance problems
and you don't feel steady and you have a walker,
put the walker in front of you so you have something
to hold onto.
If you have a a walking stick or a cane,
simply use that for balance.
Be very safe.
You should feel very comfortable,
particularly with this exercise.
No falls.
Okay, let's go to number two.
The next exercise is the old traditional curls.
So you can, for weight
maybe don't need any weight at all.
And you may just do this open-handed after 10 to 12 reps.
If you need some weight, simply grab some dumbbells.
You do not have to go purchase dumbbells.
You can simply use a can of soup.
Mike here has a can of balls.
- Stress balls. Where they making soup?
- Like tennis balls and that works well.
Good posture. Breathe while you do these.
Again, you can do one arm at a time, like Mike.
If you have two cans of soup, do two at a time.
If you happen to have some resistance bands
it's an excellent option.
Go underneath your feet like Mike is doing.
- Don't lift your feet up or it'll shoot you in the legs.
- Yep. So be careful.
Shoes on is always the best when you're doing that type
of band.
Let's go to the next one, Mike.
- And the third exercise is shoulder horizontal abduction.
So you're gonna grab a band of sorts.
I'm doing it the easy way.
Brad is gonna do it the harder way by folding up the band.
And you're gonna pull apart and bring the band to your chest
and then bring it back.
You do nice, slow and controlled.
We don't wanna play an accordion here.
- (chuckles) Again. So this is also a good posture exercise.
So think about bringing the shoulders back, chest out.
If you don't happen to have bands,
you can do this without a weight, it'll be helpful.
You won't get the muscle mass building
that the bands have, but you still, it's gonna be helpful.
We'll go to the next one
which will also help for your hands and wrists.
And the next one is hand and wrist strength
as well as getting those wrists bigger.
And you're gonna use squish balls.
Now Mike has two of them here.
That one is from a dollar store, just squishy in it.
This is a nice squishy ball, like a soft tennis ball.
You can simply take a rolled up towel like this
squeeze and twist, like you're ringing it out.
Now you may wonder why are we working the hands?
'Cause you don't care about muscles in your hands
but it's very critical as you age, as your hands get weaker,
your function actually drops
and you'll become less mobile function
and safe with everything you grab.
So this is probably one of the most important exercises
of the five.
Squeeze!
- I've already done a hundred reps.
- You've done a hundred?
Sorry, I really felt I had to talk about that one.
- Next one.
All right.
And the last exercise we're gonna do is Plantar Flex
and Dorsiflex.
So just rocking back and forth on your toes.
What do you have to add to this?
- Well, and on this one in particular,
if your balance is off,
you have to do like I'm using the mop.
I'm gonna hold it here for balance and I'm fine.
If that's not solid enough,
Mike is gonna talk about two better positions.
- You can use a solid chair.
If your chair is rocking like this one is
you can certainly do 'em on a countertop or hold
onto the kitchen sink and you're gonna strengthen
your calves and the front of your ankle muscles.
- Which is very critical for your balance and walking.
And you're gonna get that muscle mass built up.
Now if you found that all of these are too easy for you,
our next set of five is challenging and the advanced mode.
Okay? For the advanced mode
you will need some resistance bands.
We also have some wall anchors that come in very handy.
You'll see why.
Again, this is advanced
and you're assuming you're gonna want to do this.
Mike is going to also use, you can use a stick there.
Again, a boomer mop handle like this works really well.
Okay, let's get on with the first squats.
Go ahead Mike.
- Oh, we're going right into it?
So the first one is squats.
So just hold onto something for support.
If you feel unbalanced and you're just gonna simply
squat down, go to where you feel safe and then come back up.
If you only feel safe doing partial range, that's fine.
You can certainly have a chair behind you as well.
- Now if you want a little more resistance,
simply use the bands like here.
You can hold on here and squat.
The higher you go, the more resistance there is.
Again, eight to 10 repetitions.
If you do have some wall anchors that comes in handy.
We can simply on the low anchor,
you'll have three or four of 'em, at least three.
And then at this point you use that
so you don't have to stand on it.
Right here and squat down.
And now this is really nice.
It actually supports you.
You don't fall forward 'cause it's actually
pulling you back.
It helps your balance as well.
- So the next progression for the bicep curls is simply
you can use a heavier duty band.
So I have a black band here, it's rated at 50 pounds
of force and you can just do the curls standing or seated
if you need to.
If you don't feel balanced.
To make this even more difficult, I could spread my legs
out wider, putting more resistance and tension on it.
Or you can even add more bands.
But Brad has a different option over there.
- Right.
So I'm gonna use the wall anchor. And this is a big benefit.
You put it to the anchor there very simply.
And I'm going to do my curls here.
Now, if I wanna make it more difficult,
I simply take a step farther away
and you could vary your resistance much easier this way
as opposed to standing on it.
Almost ran out of breath there.
I'm getting tired. There you go.
So that's a nice option.
And if you really feel you really want to get them biceps
you can double it up and just do one at a time.
This is Bob's favorite,
strong like bull!
All right.
- I will add
make sure the band is loose when you step off it.
I have broken a ceiling tile at a gym once
'cause I didn't do that.
- You sprung up there?
- At my school gym, the band broke the ceiling tile.
- Oh wow.
Alright, the next exercise, or actually this is a group
of exercises 'cause it's very easy to do.
And by the way, if you don't have any wall anchors,
at the end of the video I'm gonna show you something else
that you can use at home as an alternative.
So this, you can do seated, I'll be standing,
Mike is seated.
I almost got tongue-tied there.
And you'll put it in the middle anchor.
And we're simply gonna pull elbows back
shoulders back like this.
This is a nice one for those shoulders.
The shoulder blades as well as the arms.
And with this, again, change color resistance
or simply move back farther to add resistance.
A big advantage of using bands when you have 'em attached
to the wall with the anchor or whatever.
All right, now the next one you can do
you can do one of these.
All three of 'em or two of them
but the next one is out like this.
We call 'em reverse flies.
You'll probably find that you need to move
in a little bit closer 'cause your arms are not as strong
when you do the reverse flies.
- I feel like we're synchronize exercising here.
- Yeah, there you go. - It's about to hit you.
- And what's the third one, Mike?
- And the last one is gonna be the chest press.
So in a chair, I gotta switch this around.
So you do have to get up that way and you might
wanna lower anchor
but I'm just gonna deal with this one for now.
- It'll work and with your standing
you simply turn around and it's very easy.
- And you're just gonna press forward.
Kind of like you're doing a pushup, but it's a chest press.
It's little easy for me considering this is a yellow band.
But press forward and go like this.
- We believe you're strong like bull.
- The reverse.
You might wanna switch bands 'cause the reverse fly,
the last one we did is a lot harder than this one. So.
- Alright, and we've got one more position to work.
- And the last exercise is another combination
of two exercises into one.
So first we're gonna do some seated tricep extensions.
So keep your elbow in the same place
as you press down just like this.
Do not bring your arms up like this.
That's a totally different exercise.
Keep the elbows nice and stationary and just press down.
Then we're gonna get into a lat pull down.
So for this, you're gonna go out to the side
and then pull down towards the side of your hips
and you're gonna work the lat muscle as Brad is showing.
And he once again gave me the baby band.
- Have you ever worked on an airline before?
You sound like one of the airline steward.
- No, they're normally short.
- Anyways, I wanna get to serious now.
Now if you do have some anchors, one of the beauties
of 'em is, why don't my let go, Mike?
I just leave mine hang up there and then I have another one
at the middle section.
So you don't have to keep changing them.
It's very efficient, works very well.
When you do purchase these, they come in instead of four
or five, you get either three or four anchors.
So once it's all set up, it becomes very efficient.
It becomes part of your household.
People will wonder, what are you doing with these
in your house?
And we'll say, (laughs) that's our Bob and Brad
wall anchor set.
Okay, let's show you how you can do it
if you don't have anchors.
All right, if you don't have the wall anchors
it's very simple.
You can use a doorknob, open up the door, put the band
around the doorknob, you can use an arm rail like this.
If you have a stairway, simply go like this
and that will work.
Not as well, but it works adequately.
The other thing is, Bob used to use his bed post.
He's got one of those big California king beds
anchored down, works very well.
So you use whatever works one way or another.
The bands can be very beneficial.
And oh, mention that.
- You can also, these sets typically come
with a door locker.
So you just put this in the door
and then shut the door and it'll stay put.
So you can put it up high, down low, or in between.
- Just make sure nobody walks through the door
from the other side when you're doing the exercises.
- You might wanna lock it.
- That's a good idea.
All right. Once again, the three or four Bs:
- Be helpful.
- Be careful.
- Be happy.
- And be helpful. (laughs)
There you go.
Take care and enjoy your exercises.
(upbeat music)