Home Gym or Gym Workout? What’s Best for Seniors

I’ve asked many of my senior friends which they prefer: working out in a home gym, or going to a real gym? I’ve been getting a lot of interesting responses, including what I’d call award-winning excuses! Some claim to prefer a root canal to working out at all.

Recently I saw an ad on TV for The Mirror: you work out in front of it, it reflects you and an image of a professional trainer encouraging you up in the corner, like a huge interactive computer screen! It’s described on the site as a type of “nearly invisible interactive home gym.” Pretty nifty, and probably pretty expensive.

Home gyms are convenient because there will always be days you can’t make it to the gym.  What can you do to create an effective home gym without a lot of expensive equipment? For example, you can pick up some inexpensive stretch bands at Walmart. Even household items can be used for resistance training: jugs of water, boxes of books, step ladders and chairs all have a place in a workout routine.

Resistance Training Preserves Muscles for Seniors

What is resistance training? According to Trek Education, “Resistance training is any exercise that causes the muscles to contract against an external resistance with the expectation of increases in strength, power, hypertrophy, and/or endurance.”

Different types of resistance training include:

• Free weights – classic strength training tools such as dumbbells, barbells, or kettle balls.
• Weight machines – devices that have adjustable seats with handles attached either to weights or hydraulics. There are many versions adapted for home gyms.
• Medicine balls – weighted balls, and kettle balls.
• Resistance bands – like giant rubber bands – these provide resistance when stretched. They are portable and can be adapted to most workouts. The bands provide continuous resistance throughout a movement.
• Your own body weight – can be used for squats, push-ups and chin-ups. Using your own body weight is convenient, especially when traveling or at work. Some seniors, however, will have to start with modified push-ups, for example, until they are strong enough to use full body weight.

Set-up Your Home Gym

Set up your home gym in a room that allows you to escape interruptions, like a basement, garage, or simply any room with a door you can shut. It helps to have a full-length mirror to monitor your form.Also, I find that music helps me get into a rhythm and generates energy.

If you don’t have dumbbells, fill large soda bottles with water and perform a variety of exercises that make you raise the weights above your head, out to your sides and in front of you.

Create a Home Gym Routine

Practice exercises that require you to move and maintain your balance, if you’re able. For “young” seniors in their 50s, 60s, and even 70s, perform workouts that simulate the aerobics classes at a gym. Try hopping, quick dance steps, or a step aerobics workout. Do half-squats and lunges while holding dumbbells or resistance bands, bending down as low as your knees will comfortably allow.

Stretch Those Muscles

Take time to stretch your muscles after each workout to help prevent later stiffness and soreness, and to improve your flexibility. Don’t “bounce” while you stretch, to prevent injury. Move your muscles just past their point of natural resistance and hold them there for 15 to 30 seconds. Save this type of stretching for after workouts, since stretching before resistance training temporarily decreases your strength and you can get injured.

For our home gym, we have invested in a professional elliptical machine, stretch bands, pushup handles, and lightweight dumbbells. Typically, we use the elliptical trainer nearly every morning before tennis to warm up. The other items are great for the days when our gym is closed, such as Sundays and holidays.

Get Motivated

There is something magical that happens to my inspiration levels when I enter a gym having a multitude of free weights, cardio equipment, and exercise machines. That’s one of the reasons I highly recommend having a gym membership, or going out to a gym, in addition to the home variety. I am highly motivated by other people who are building body, mind, and spirit. I am much less motivated working out by myself at home.

What about you?