Resistance Beyond Weights

10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

Resistance, Your Way

We’ve talked before about the importance of resistance training:

Resistance Is Useful! (Especially As We Get Older)

And we’ve even talked about how to make resistance training more effective:

HIIT, But Make It HIRT

(High Intensity Interval Training, but make it High Intensity Resistance Training)

Which resistance training exercises are best?

There are two reasonable correct answers here:

  1. The resistance training exercises that you will actually do (because it’s no good knowing the best exercise ever if you’re not going to do it because it is in some way offputting to you)
  2. The resistance training exercises that will prevent you from getting a broken bone in the event of some accident or incident

This latter is interesting, because when people think resistance training, the usually immediate go-to exercises are often things like the bench press, or the chest machine in the gym.

But ask yourself: how often do we hear about some friend or relative who in their old age has broken their humerus?

It can happen, for sure, but it’s not as often as breaking a hip, a tarsal (ankle bones), or a carpal (wrist bones).

So, how can we train to make those bones strong?

Strong bones grow under strong muscles

When archaeologists dig up a skeleton from a thousand years ago, one of the occupations that’s easy to recognize is an archer. Why?

An archer has an unusual frequent exercise: pushing with their left arm while pulling with their right arm. This will strengthen different muscles on each side, and thus, increase bone density in different places on each arm. The left first metacarpal and right first and second metacarpals and phalanges are also a giveaway.

This is because: one cannot grow strong muscles on weak bones (or else the muscles would just break the bones), so training muscles will force the body to strengthen the relevant bones.

So: if you want strong bones, train the muscles attached to those bones

This answers the question of “how am I supposed to exercise my hips” etc.

Weights, bodyweight, resistance bands

If you go to the gym, there’s a machine for everything, and a member of gym staff will be able to advise which of their machines will strengthen which muscles.

If you train with free weights at home:

  • Wrist curls (forearm supported and stationary, lifting a dumbbell in your hand, palm-upwards) will strengthen the wrist
  • The farmer’s walk (carrying a heavy weight in each hand) will also strengthen your wrist
    • A modified version of this involves holding the weight with just your fingertips, and then raising and lowering it by curling and uncurling your fingers)
  • Lateral leg raises (you will need ankle-weights for this) will strengthen your ankles and your hips, as will hip abductions (as in today’s featured video), especially with a weight attached.
  • Ankle raises (going up on your tip-toes and down again, repeat) while holding weights in your hands will strengthen your ankles

If you don’t like weights:

  • Press-ups will strengthen your wrists
    • Fingertip press-ups are even better: to do these, do your press-ups as normal, except that the only parts of your hands in contact with the ground are your fingertips
    • This same exercise can be done the other way around, by doing pull-ups
    • And that same “even better” works by doing pull-ups, but holding the bar only with one’s fingertips, and curling one’s fingers to raise oneself up
  • Lateral leg raises and hip abductions can be done with a resistance band instead of with weights. The great thing about these is that whereas weights are a fixed weight, resistance bands will always provide the right amount of resistance (because if it’s too easy, you just raise your leg further until it becomes difficult again, since the resistance offered is proportional to how much tension the band is under).

Remember, resistance training is still resistance training even if “all” you’re resisting is gravity!

If it fells like work, then it’s working

As for the rest of preparing to get older?

Check out:

Training Mobility Ready For Later Life

Take care!

Don’t Forget…

Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!

Recommended

  • How To Rebuild Your Cartilage
  • Aging Backwards – by Miranda Esmonde-White
    Ballet-dancer-turned-trainer Miranda Esmonde-White’s book mixes shaky science with solid workout advice to help you age in reverse.

Learn to Age Gracefully

Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:

  • The Immunostimulant Superfood

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    Eat These Greens!

    Chlorella vulgaris, henceforth “chlorella”, is a simple green algae that has a lot of health benefits.

    Note: most of the studies here are for Chlorella vulgaris specifically. However, some are for other species of the Chlorella genus, of which Chlorella vulgaris is by far the most common, hence the name (vulgaris = common). The relevant phytochemical properties appear to be the same regardless.

    Superfood

    While people generally take it as a supplement rather than a food item in any kind of bulk, it is more than 50% protein and contains all 9 essential amino acids.

    As you might expect of a green superfood, it’s also full of many antioxidants, most of them carotenoids, and these pack a punch, for example against cancer:

    Antiproliferative effects of carotenoids extracted from Chlorella ellipsoidea and Chlorella vulgaris on human colon cancer cells

    It also has a lot of vitamins and minerals, and even omega-3.

    Which latter also means it helps improve lipids and is thus particularly…

    Heart healthy

    ❝Daily consumption of Chlorella supplements provided the potential of health benefits reducing serum lipid risk factors, mainly triglycerides and total cholesterol❞

    ~ Dr. Na Hee Ryu et al.

    Read more: Impact of daily Chlorella consumption on serum lipid and carotenoid profiles in mildly hypercholesterolemic adults: a double-blinded, randomized, placebo-controlled study

    Its heart-healthy benefits don’t stop at lipids though, and include blood pressure management, as in this study that found…

    ❝GABA-rich Chlorella significantly decreased high-normal blood pressure and borderline hypertension, and is a beneficial dietary supplement for prevention of the development of hypertension. ❞

    ~ Dr. Morio Shimada et al.

    Read more: Anti-hypertensive effect of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-rich Chlorella on high-normal blood pressure and borderline hypertension in placebo-controlled double blind study

    About that GABA, if you’re curious about that, check out:

    GABA Against Stress, Anxiety, & More

    May remove heavy metals

    We’re going with “may” for this one as we could only find animal studies so far (probably because most humans don’t have megadoses of heavy metals in them, which makes testing harder).

    Here’s an example animal study, though:

    Enhanced elimination of tissue methyl mercury in [Chlorella]-fed mice

    Immunostimulant

    This one’s clearer, for example in this 8-week study (with humans) that found…

    ❝Serum concentrations of interferon-γ (p<0.05) and interleukin-1β (p<0.001) significantly increased and that of interleukin-12 (p<0.1) tended to increase in the Chlorella group.

    The increments of these cytokines after the intervention were significantly bigger in the Chlorella group than those in the placebo group. In addition, NK cell activities (%) were significantly increased in Chlorella group, but not in Placebo group.

    The increments of NK cell activities (%) were also significantly bigger in the Chlorella group than the placebo group.

    Additionally, changed levels of NK cell activity were positively correlated with those of serum interleukin-1β (r=0.280, p=0.047) and interferon-γ (r=0.271, p<0.005).❞

    ~ Dr. Jung Hyun Kwak et al.

    tl;dr = it boosts numerous different kinds of immune cells

    Read more: Beneficial immunostimulatory effect of short-term Chlorella supplementation: enhancement of natural killer cell activity and early inflammatory response (randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial)

    PS, if you click though to the study, you may be momentarily alarmed by the first paragraph of the abstract that says “However, there were no direct evidences for the effect of Chlorella supplementation on immune/inflammation response in healthy humans“

    this is from the “Background” section of the abstract, so what they are saying is “before we did this study, nobody had done this yet”.

    So, be assured that the results are worthwhile and compelling.

    Is it safe?

    Based on the studies, it has a good safety profile. However, as it boosts the immune system, you may want to check with your doctor if you have an autoimmune disorder, and/or you are on immunosuppressants.

    And in general, of course always check with your doctor/pharmacist if unsure about any potential drug interactions.

    Want some?

    We don’t sell it, but here for your convenience is an example product on Amazon

    Enjoy!

    Share This Post

  • Blood-Sugar-Friendly Ice Pops

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    This generic food product has so many regional variant names that it’s difficult to get a universal name, but in N. America they’re also known by the genericized brand name of popsicles. Anyway, they’re usually very bad news for blood sugars, being merely frozen juice even if extra sugar wasn’t added. Today’s recipe, on the other hand, makes for a refreshing and nutrient-dense treat that won’t spike your blood glucose!

    You will need

    • 1 cup fresh blueberries
    • 1 can (12oz/400g) coconut milk
    • ½ cup yogurt with minimal additives
    • 1 tbsp honey (omit if you prefer less sweetness)
    • Juice of ¼ lime (increase if you prefer more sourness)

    Method

    (we suggest you read everything at least once before doing anything)

    1) Blend everything

    2) Pour into ice pop molds and freeze overnight

    3) Serve at your leisure:

    Enjoy!

    Want to learn more?

    For those interested in some of the science of what we have going on today:

    Take care!

    Share This Post

  • Walnut, Apricot, & Sage Nut Roast

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    It’s important to have at least one good nut roast recipe in your repertoire. It’s something that’s very good for making a good dish out of odds and ends that are in your house, and done well, it’s not only filling and nutritious, but a tasty treat too. Done badly, everyone knows the results can be unfortunate… Making this the perfect way to show off your skills!

    You will need

    • 1 cup walnuts
    • ½ cup almonds
    • ¼ cup whole mixed seeds (chia, pumpkin, & poppy are great)
    • ¼ cup ground flax (also called flax meal)
    • 1 medium onion, finely chopped
    • 1 large carrot, grated
    • 4 oz dried apricots, chopped
    • 3 oz mushrooms, chopped
    • 1 oz dried goji berries
    • ½ bulb garlic, crushed
    • 2 tbsp fresh sage, chopped
    • 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
    • 2 tsp dried rosemary
    • 2 tsp dried thyme
    • 2 tsp black pepper, coarse ground
    • 1 tsp yeast extract (even if you don’t like it; trust us; it will work) dissolved in ¼ cup hot water
    • ½ tsp MSG or 1 tsp low-sodium salt
    • Extra virgin olive oil

    Method

    (we suggest you read everything at least once before doing anything)

    1) Preheat the oven to 350℉ / 180℃, and line a 2 lb loaf tin with baking paper.

    2) Heat some oil in a skillet over a moderate heat, and fry the onion for a few minutes until translucent. Add the garlic, carrot, and mushrooms, cooking for another 5 minutes, stirring well. Set aside to cool a little once done.

    3) Process the nuts in a food processor, pulsing until they are well-chopped but not so much that they turn into flour.

    4) Combine the nuts, vegetables, and all the other ingredients in a big bowl, and mix thoroughly. If it doesn’t have enough structural integrity to be thick and sticky and somewhat standing up by itself if you shape it, add more ground flax. If it is too dry, add a little water but be sparing.

    5) Spoon the mixture into the loaf tin, press down well (or else it will break upon removal), cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil, and bake for a further 15 minutes, until firm and golden. When done, allow it to rest in the tin for a further 15 minutes, before turning it out.

    6) Serve, as part of a roast dinner (roast potatoes, vegetables, gravy, etc).

    Enjoy!

    Want to learn more?

    For those interested in some of the science of what we have going on today:

    Take care!

    Share This Post

Related Posts

  • How To Rebuild Your Cartilage
  • Creatine: Very Different For Young & Old People

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    What’s the Deal with Creatine?

    Creatine is best-known for its use as a sports supplement. It has a few other uses too, usually in the case of helping to treat (or recover from) specific medical conditions.

    What actually is it?

    Creatine is an organic compound formed from amino acids (mostly l-arginine and lysine, can be l-methionine, but that’s not too important for our purposes here).

    We can take it as a supplement, we can get it in our diet (unless we’re vegan, because plants don’t make it; vertebrates do), and we can synthesize it in our own bodies.

    What does it do?

    While creatine supplements mostly take the form of creatine monohydrate, in the body it’s mostly stored in our muscle tissue as phosphocreatine, and it helps cells produce adenosine triphosphate, (ATP).

    ATP is how energy is kept ready to use by cells, and is cells’ immediate go-to when they need to do something. For this reason, it’s highly instrumental in cell repair and rebuilding—which is why it’s used so much by athletes, especially bodybuilders or other athletes that have a vested interest in gaining muscle mass and enjoying faster recovery times.

    See: Creatine use among young athletes

    However! For reasons as yet not fully known, it doesn’t seem to have the same beneficial effect after a certain age:

    Read: Differential response of muscle phosphocreatine to creatine supplementation in young and old subjects

    What about the uses outside of sport?

    Almost all studies outside of athletic performance have been on animals, despite it being suggested as potentially helpful for many things, including:

    • Alzheimer’s disease
    • Parkinson’s disease
    • Huntington’s disease
    • ischemic stroke
    • epilepsy
    • brain or spinal cord injuries
    • motor neuron disease
    • memory and brain function in older adults

    However, research that’s been done on humans has been scant, if promising:

    In short: creatine may reduce symptoms and slow the progression of some neurological diseases, although more research in humans is needed, and words such as “promising”, “potential”, etc are doing a lot of the heavy lifting in those papers we just cited.

    Is it safe?

    It seems so: Creatine supplementation and health variables: a retrospective study

    Nor does it appear to create the sometimes-rumored kidney problems, cramps, or dehydration:

    Common questions and misconceptions about creatine supplementation: what does the scientific evidence really show?

    Where can I get it?

    You can get it from pretty much any sports nutrition outlet, or you can order online. For example:

    Click here to check it out on Amazon!

    Don’t Forget…

    Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!

    Learn to Age Gracefully

    Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:

  • What’s the difference between period pain and endometriosis pain?

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    Menstruation, or a period, is the bleeding that occurs about monthly in healthy people born with a uterus, from puberty to menopause. This happens when the endometrium, the tissue that lines the inside of the uterus, is shed.

    Endometriosis is a condition that occurs when endometrium-like tissue is found outside the uterus, usually within the pelvic cavity. It is often considered a major cause of pelvic pain.

    Pelvic pain significantly impacts quality of life. But how can you tell the difference between period pain and endometriosis?

    Polina Zimmerman/Pexels

    Periods and period pain

    Periods involve shedding the 4-6 millimetre-thick endometrial lining from the inside of the uterus.

    As the lining detaches from the wall of the uterus, the blood vessels which previously supplied the lining bleed. The uterine muscles contract, expelling the blood and crumbled endometrium.

    The crumbled endometrium and blood mostly pass through the cervix and vagina. But almost everyone back-bleeds via their fallopian tubes into their pelvic cavity. This is known as “retrograde menstruation”.

    Woman holds uterus model
    Most of the lining is shed through the vagina. Andrey_Popov/Shutterstock

    The process of menstrual shedding is caused by inflammatory substances, which also cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, headaches, aches, pains, dizziness, feeling faint, as well as stimulating pain receptors.

    These inflammatory substances are responsible for the pain and symptoms in the week before a period and the first few days.

    For women with heavy periods, their worst days of pain are usually the heaviest days of their period, coinciding with more cramps to expel clots and more retrograde bleeding.

    Many women also have pain when they are releasing an egg from their ovary at the time of ovulation. Ovulation or mid-cycle pain can be worse in those who bleed more, as those women are more likely to bleed into the ovulation follicle.

    Around 90% of adolescents experience period pain. Among these adolescents, 20% will experience such severe period pain they need time off from school and miss activities. These symptoms are too often normalised, without validation or acknowledgement.

    What about endometriosis?

    Many symptoms have been attributed to endometriosis, including painful periods, pain with sex, bladder and bowel-related pain, low back pain and thigh pain.

    Other pain-related conditions such migraines and chronic fatigue have also been linked to endometriosis. But these other pain-related symptoms occur equally often in people with pelvic pain who don’t have endometriosis.

    Girl holds pad
    One in five adolescents who menstrate experience severe symptoms. CGN089/Shutterstock

    Repeated, significant period and ovulation pain can eventually lead some people to develop persistent or chronic pelvic pain, which lasts longer than six months. This appears to occur through a process known as central sensitisation, where the brain becomes more sensitive to pain and other sensory stimuli.

    Central sensitisation can occur in people with persistent pain, independent of the presence or absence of endometriosis.

    Eventually, many people with period and/or persistent pelvic pain will have an operation called a laparoscopy, which allows surgeons to examine organs in the pelvis and abdomen, and diagnose and treat endometriosis.

    Yet only 50% of those with identical pain symptoms who undergo a laparoscopy will end up having endometriosis.

    Endometriosis is also found in pain-free women. So we cannot predict who does and doesn’t have endometriosis from symptoms alone.

    How is this pain managed?

    Endometriosis surgery usually involves removing lesions and adhesions. But at least 30% of people return to pre-surgery pain levels within six months or have more pain than before.

    After surgery, emergency department presentations for pain are unchanged and 50% have repeat surgery within a few years.

    Suppressing periods using hormonal therapies (such as continuous oral contraceptive pills or progesterone-only approaches) can suppress endometriosis and reduce or eliminate pain, independent of the presence or absence of endometriosis.

    Not every type or dose of hormonal medications suits everyone, so medications need to be individualised.

    The current gold-standard approach to manage persistent pelvic pain involves a multidisciplinary team approach, with the aim of achieving sustained remission and improving quality of life. This may include:

    • physiotherapy for pelvic floor and other musculoskeletal problems
    • management of bladder and bowel symptoms
    • support for self-managing pain
    • lifestyle changes including diet and exercise
    • psychological or group therapy, as our moods, stress levels and childhood events can affect how we feel and experience pain.

    Whether you have period pain, chronic pelvic pain or pain you think is associated with endometriosis, if you feel pain, it’s real. If it’s disrupting your life, you deserve to be taken seriously and treated as the whole person you are.

    Sonia R. Grover, Senior Research Fellow, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute; Clinical Professor of Gynaecology, The University of Melbourne

    This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

    Don’t Forget…

    Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!

    Learn to Age Gracefully

    Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:

  • Healthiest-Three-Nut Butter

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    We’re often telling you to “diversify your nuts”, so here’s a great way to get in three at once with no added sugar, palm oil, or preservatives, and only the salt you choose to put in. We’ve picked three of the healthiest nuts around, but if you happen to be allergic, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered too.

    You will need

    • 1 cup almonds (if allergic, substitute a seed, e.g. chia, and make it ½ cup)
    • 1 cup walnuts (if allergic, substitute a seed, e.g. pumpkin, and make it ½ cup)
    • 1 cup pistachios (if allergic, substitute a seed, e.g. poppy, and make it ½ cup)
    • 1 tbsp almond oil (if allergic, substitute extra virgin olive oil) (if you prefer sweet nut butter, substitute 1 tbsp maple syrup; the role here is to emulsify the nuts, and this will do the same job)
    • Optional: ¼ tsp MSG or ½ tsp low-sodium salt

    Method

    (we suggest you read everything at least once before doing anything)

    1a) If using nuts, heat your oven to 350℉ / 180℃. Place the nuts on a baking tray lined with baking paper, and bake/roast for about 10 minutes, but keep an eye on it to ensure the nuts don’t burn, and jiggle them if necessary to ensure they toast evenly. Once done, allow to cool.

    1b) If using seeds, you can either omit that step, or do the same for 5 minutes if you want to, but really it’s not necessary.

    2) Blend all ingredients (nuts/seeds, oil, MSG/salt) in a high-speed blender. Note: this will take about 10 minutes in total, and we recommend you do it in 30-second bursts so as to not overheat the motor. You also may need to periodically scrape the mixture down the side of the blender, to ensure a smooth consistency.

    3) Transfer to a clean jar, and enjoy at your leisure:

    Enjoy!

    Want to learn more?

    For those interested in some of the science of what we have going on today:

    Take care!

    Don’t Forget…

    Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!

    Learn to Age Gracefully

    Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails: