It’s no surprise that when you hit your mid 30’s and move into your 40s and 50s, you inevitably start to notice your body aging.
Maybe you just don’t have the strength and energy as you did in your early 20s.
And ultimately, maybe you just aren’t feeling as confident in your body as you used to be.
But the good news is, although aging is a natural part of life – you don’t need to feel the negative effects of getting older.
Strength training is one of the most powerful tools that you have at your disposal to make you feel younger.
In this article and video, I’m going to teach you the best strength exercise to feel young again.
Exercise and Aging
A quick little aside about exercise and aging before we dive into the best strength exercise to feel young again.
According to a Harvard Health Medical report, the average 30-year old loses about a quarter of their muscle strength by their 70th birthday.
The process is called sarcopenia and you lose muscle at roughly 2% each year.
This decline in muscle mass should be of big concern to you because you don’t want to end up feeling weak and decrepit by the time you hit your elderly years.
The good news is, you can get ahead of sarcopenia by strength training because, by definition, strength training increases your muscle mass.
Harvard Health wrote in their newsletter:
“Strength training is critical to preserving the ability to perform the most ordinary activities of daily living.”
As a personal trainer, I can say with certainty that my clients that started strength training during their middle-age years are in a much healthier place now in their 70s.
It comes down to building up your muscle mass reserve.
The Single Best Anti-Aging Exercise: The Deadlift
The deadlift is the best anti-aging exercise because it works your entire body.
The more muscles that you can tax in a single exercise, the more metabolic benefit that you will receive.
Not to mention the deadlift is an incredibly functional exercise because we all need the ability to pick things off of the floor.
And the deadlift is the exercise that trains exactly that position.
There are many ways to deadlift and you don’t need to use a barbell with heavy weights.
As long as you are hinging your hips back with a neutral spine and picking an object off of the floor, guess what?
You are deadlifting.
Deadlift Form
In the below video, I show you how to deadlift with perfect form.
You don’t even need to be in the gym.
All you need is a dumbbell and you can perform the deadlift in your house.
- Walk up to the dumbbell and make sure that when you look down, the dumbbell is positioned evenly in between your two feet.
- Stand up tall, flex your stomach muscles and take a big breath in through your nose. You should notice tension in your stomach as you take that breath in.
- While maintaining that braced position, hinge your hips back with a neutral spine and grab the dumbbell between your feet.
- Exhale and push your feet through the floor, simultaneously extending your hips and knees to bring the dumbbell up between your legs – completing the movement.
How to Do a Deadlift Workout
I collaborated with Insider on a deadlift article and recommended the following strategy:
Start off with light weight and perform 3 sets of 12 reps.
Then when that starts to feel easier, you can add more weight and decrease the total repetitions per set.
It’s important to keep in mind that there should be an inverse relationship between weight and reps.
If you are adding more weight, you should do fewer reps.
If you are sticking with a lighter weight, you can add more reps.
“Roze suggests adding weights in increments of 10 pounds, but if that sounds like too much for you add however much feels reasonable. Don’t risk overdoing it and injuring yourself.”
With my clients, I always err on the side of being cautious because you don’t want to get injured.
It’s best to undershoot the weight a little bit so that you can maintain proper form.
Tips for Deadlifting and Preventing Injury
You always want to engage your core by bracing your abdominal muscles. By doing this, you protect your lower back from injury.
Pretend like you are pushing the floor away from you by driving your feet and legs into the ground. This will help to evenly distribute the weight, activating your legs and putting less pressure on your lower back.
Be sure to set your stance up correctly so when you look down, the dumbbell is directly between your feet. This sets you up in the optimal position to lift it off the floor.
Deadlift Mistakes
1. One of the biggest mistakes that people typically make when deadlifting is not bracing their abdominal muscles before picking up the weight.
2. This can cause your lower back to round, putting a lot of pressure on the intervertebral discs of your spine and potentially causing injury to them.
3. Another mistake is yanking the weight off the floor instead of driving pressure through their feet as they push into the ground.
This can also lead to disc injuries.
RozeFit Takeaway
If you want to feel young again, the best anti-aging medicine is exercise.
You will improve your metabolic health, increase your muscle mass, and ultimately have more energy and feel more vibrant.
Strength training should be a big part of your exercise routine in addition to zone 2 training.
You can learn more about zone 2 training and its benefits in this article I wrote about how to feel younger and more energetic.
If you need any help at all, don’t hesitate to reach out.
I’ve helped hundreds of people like you and I’d be happy to share my knowledge with you as well so you can start feeling healthier and younger.
Shoot me an email at jakob@rozefit.com or leave a comment below.