Stronger Than Ever in Her 50s
"When I was connected with Ben for personal training, I suffered from low bone mass, and weakened muscle and core strength. Ben is extremely knowledgeable and designed a customized program for me. He is very motivating and has a wonderful positive attitude. After 6 months of dedicated training with Ben I have observed an increase in short and long term endurance, and increase in core strength for balance and focus and an increase in muscle size and strength. His constant updates of my sessions keeps me progressing consistently. I would highly recommend Ben’s services.
Skinny Trends in Youth Become Low Bone Mass While Aging
Michelle, a radiologist in her early 50s had 40% body fat and was unable to do a single pushup. This was a big difference from her younger days, when she was very active. She even taught aerobics classes, but kept away from weight training as popular beauty standards at the time were to be as thin as possible.
Fast forward to perimenopause and those standards led to low bone mass (osteopenia), muscle loss, and weight gain. This was a significant concern as she has a family history of osteopenia, osteoporosis, and bone cancer. Her goals were to slow the progression of her bone loss by gaining muscle and improving functional strength for daily activities.
Fitness Assessment Findings
My initial assessment found that Michelle's core stability was lacking the necessary endurance to handle the heavy compound lifts needed to build her strength and muscle.
Building Strength with Bodyweight Workouts
We trained Michelle like a 14-year old male, building maximum muscle, strength, and power. We trained twice a week together, and she trained another two days a week alone in her building’s gym. As Michelle has never weight trained before, giving her an intense program of squats, deadlifts, and sled pushes without adequate joint stability would push injury risk above a level I was comfortable with. Thus, her first phase was to build the trunk stability needed to support heavy axial loads while introducing basic movement patterns of squatting, hinging, pushing, pulling, lunging and carrying. This early phase also taught Michelle neural drive cues to enhance her mechanical stability during exercises which would help her lift heavier loads more safely. This phase lasted 6 weeks.
Building Power with Weights
We were able to incorporate weights into the next stage. We spent the next 6 months building muscle and raw strength. Her next phase would be to build sprint-like power. Given that there is a mountain of scientific evidence that shows age-related declines in type 2 muscle fiber size and content (fast twitch muscle fibers responsible for high strength and speed output), this would be a critical phase for Michelle's improvement in activities of daily living. Given that power is a function of force and speed, the previous phases gave her the foundation of strength and stability to generate force. This phase would train Michelle to move heavy weights quickly.
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Newfound Strength and Conditioning
As we continued to train, Michelle was able to now manage her own weight room sessions. While on vacation Michelle picked up pickleball and fell in love with the idea of being able to move her body explosively yet safely in three dimensions. When she returned to Toronto, Michelle was dismayed that her friends her age were unable to keep up with her on the pickleball courts.
Michelle’s Most Expensive Hobby
Michelle experienced a body recomposition early into her training. She kept at the same weight but reduced bodyfat by over 10%, which means her muscle mass also increased by over 10%. More importantly, Michelle had a new sense of self and self confidence that comes with the feeling of being physically strong. She realized training was now a lifelong commitment and called it her 'most expensive hobby' as she was forced to buy a new wardrobe as none of her old clothes fit anymore.
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