Transcription
Did you know there's a hidden reason your arms get weaker after 60? And it's not just because you're getting older. And weak arms don't just make daily tasks harder. They can quietly steal your freedom. But the good news is weak arms can be strengthened. And today I'm going to show you a science-backed step-by-step exercise plan to help you regain your strength starting today.
The reason we lose strength in our arms as we age is because of something called sarcopenia, which literally means poverty of the flesh in Greek. And it's a fancy term for muscle loss with age, and it happens to all of us if we don't do anything about it. In fact, the average person loses almost 10% of their total muscle mass every decade after the age of 50.
But research shows that we don't lose strength gradually over time after 50. Most people stay pretty strong from 40 to 50, and then we hit 60, we start to decline. But in our late 60s, it drops off more rapidly, with a really steep decline from 60 down to 80 and beyond.
I'm going to tell you a story that's going to get me into a lot of trouble. This summer, we were at my house with my wife's family, and we've got a very basic gym in our garage with some dumbbells and a weightlifting bench. Now, my wife's 12-year-old nephew picked up one of the big dumbbells and lifted it over his head as a joke to show off his strength and then challenged my mother-in-law to do the same. So, she stepped up to the weight feeling pretty confident. She's only in her 60s. She plays tennis every week and she leads a really active life. You'd think she'd be able to lift it easily, but when she tried, she couldn't even lift it off the rack. And we all found this hilarious at the time, but after the laughter wore off, my mother-in-law was actually really shocked by the whole thing. She said to me in private how it was a bit of a wakeup call.
And losing a little bit of arm strength can make a massive difference to your life. A 10% loss of arm strength could be the difference between not being able to open a heavy door, not being able to lift a suitcase, or not being able to show off to your grandson at a party. But what most people don't realize is that it's possible to reverse this process with something called resistance training. And I've made it my mission to help people prevent this kind of strength loss that happens with age. And the research shows us it's 100% possible with this approach. And it's never too late to begin. One study showed that people in their 80s and 90s gained just as much muscle as people in their 50s and 60s after a 12-week resistance training program. So I think we can safely say that age is not a limiting factor.
So what did these people do for such great results in such a short period of time? Well, they followed a structured resistance training plan, just like the kind that I share with my members inside Lifelong Mobility, which is my online program that's helped thousands of people to experience the kind of transformation that exercise can deliver later in life. You can check it out using the link below this video. And the routines inside are just like the plan I'm going to show you in today's video. I call it my arm transformation plan, and it's designed to be done just two or three times a week. It only takes 20 minutes each time. And let's have a look at how to do it now. But before I do, I just need to make you aware that exercises are not suitable for everyone, and please avoid them if they cause you pain.
Most people think the best way to strengthen their arms is to do lots of bicep curls. And we call moves like the bicep curl isolation exercises, meaning they only work one muscle group at a time. But they're the least efficient way to get stronger arms. But there's a much better way to do it by choosing exercises that work multiple muscle groups at once. We call these compound exercises. And here's the first one I recommend. It's called the dumbbell row, and it will give you stronger arms, but also stronger shoulders and a stronger back from one simple movement. You're going to need one weight, so a dumbbell like this, and you're going to put a chair up against the wall with the backrest facing out towards you. Now, you're going to put your non-working hand on the backrest. You're going to step forward with that same leg, and then you're going to let the arm holding the dumbbell hang down like this. Now, when you're in this position, you're then just going to pretend that you're starting a lawn mower. And you're going to pull that dumbbell up until it touches your tummy and then slowly allow it to come back down. It's as simple as that. And as we come up here, we want to contract the back muscles so that your shoulder blade is pulled towards your spine. And then slowly let it off like this. And what I'd recommend here is to do eight to 15 repetitions in a row. Do three sets on each arm.
And then we're going to move on to the next exercise, which is another one that builds strength in all the right muscles. So this next exercise hits your biceps, your triceps, your deltoids, and your rotator cuff. It's called the curl, twist, and press. And here is how we're going to do it. You're going to take two dumbbells or two little weights. And you're going to sit on the edge of a chair. And it's got three parts to it. The first is the curl, which is this. So we go from dumbbell down here to dumbbell up here. The second is the twist, which is where we go from dumbbells facing you to dumbbells facing out. And the third part is the press, which is where you push it up overhead like this, working those shoulder muscles. And then it comes down, in, and down. So, ready? So, curl, twist, and press. And then down, in, and down. This is how the exercise looks in real time. And this is the tempo you want to do it at. So, it's probably about 3 seconds up, 3 seconds down in total, but each phase is only taking 1 second. Now, I'd recommend you do eight to 15 of those in a row. Do three sets and then move on to the next arm strengthening exercise, which is probably the most practical.
Okay, for this next one, I'm going to give you four variations, and you're just going to choose the one out of these that's most suitable for your personal ability levels. Now, this one works by working those pushing muscles, which are so important for moving heavy things, but also for self-defense because you don't want anyone getting too close to you and not being able to push them away. So, the first variation of this is called the wall press. And here's how it looks. This is the most basic. So, to do this, you just need a wall. You're going to stand in front of it. You're going to put two hands on just below your shoulder height and just walk your feet back until you've got about a meter or a yard between your toes and the wall like this. You're leaning. You want your body in a nice straight line. Just rise up slightly onto your tip toes because your toes are going to be like a pivot point. And then keeping your back nice and straight, you're going to bend your arms until your nose touches the wall. Touch the wall and then push away. Simple as that. So come down, touch, and push. And we're working those chest muscles and also the triceps at the back of the arm. And I would recommend doing eight to 15 repetitions of this about three times per day.
Now, if you can do more than 15 of these and you don't feel anything working at all, try this next variation. This one's slightly tougher and it's called the chair press. And what we're going to do here is put a nice sturdy chair up against the wall with the backrest facing you. You're going to turn and face the chair. And it's the exact same exercise, but this time you're incline forward a little bit more. So, you're going to put your hands on the back of the chair like this. You want your feet probably a bit more than a meter away from the chair, back nice and straight. Again, keep everything tall, and then bend your arms until your chest touches the chair, and then push away. So, it's the same movement, but because we've turned ourselves a little bit more horizontal, we've got the effects of gravity working a bit harder. So, you'll be able to feel this more on your chest and your arms.
If that was too easy, try this next variation. But before I show you it, if you're enjoying this routine so far, we've got loads more, but laid out in a structured program and done at a pace that you can follow along with at home in my lifelong mobility program. There's a link to it below if you're interested in checking it out. If that last one was too easy, we're going to move over to a knee pushup, which again makes this exercise slightly harder. So, for this one, you can do it on your bed or a mat on the floor. You're going to go onto all fours like this, hands underneath shoulders, and then just walk your knees back a little bit and walk your hands forward. So, we've got a bigger gap between your hands and your knees like this. Right, you're going to keep your back nice and straight. And now we're just going to bend your arms, touch your nose on the bed, and then come back up. So again, what we've done here is we've made you more horizontal, which means gravity is now working even harder. You'll feel your core switching on. So that's an added additional benefit.
Now, if that was too easy for you and you're really advanced, you're going to want to think about a full pushup, which looks something like this. We're just going to extend you out from hands to toes. So you're in this position with a straight body. and then bend, touch, and push. Simple as that. Whichever of these you can get eight to 15 reps on, that is the one you should be working on.
So, that little routine will keep your arms strong. But what about your legs? And the scary truth is that sarcopenia is even more dramatic in the legs. But with the right routine, you can reverse it there, too. And I've got another video on the screen right now to help you do that. So, click on it if you're interested and I'll see you over.