It’s 10:00 pm, do you know where your strength is?

"It's 10:00 pm, do you know where your children are?" was a popular question used as a television public service announcement for parents.  My recollection of this question was before the 10:00 p.m. evening news back in the days when our family owned a television, and I’d watch the nightly news before bedtime.  

So, my version of this is as follows: “It’s 10:00 pm, do you know where your strength is?"  Let’s ponder this question for a moment.

What is strength and how is it measured? 

In our gracefully aging fitness, strength is our power and ability to exert force, to support our body weight and lift heavy objects without assistance. Muscular strength and muscular endurance are attributes of our physical fitness. We measure our strength by the amount of weight lifted and for how long, such as repetitions completed or time under tension.

Does our strength decline in our gracefully aging journey? Yes, according to research, it does.

For example, a recent research study last year, one of many, investigated the effects of aging on muscle mass and strength from an examination of twenty-six leg-healthy participants who were examined in a university medical center in Germany. Participants were subdivided into two groups. The first group were younger participants under age 40.  The second group were 40 years of age and older. 

The study concluded that aging leads to muscle mass and strength loss. The decline of the muscle strength of people who were younger than 40 years, in comparison to those who were older than 40 years ranged between 16.6% and 40.9%.

You can read more here if you’re interested:

Strength and muscle mass loss with aging process. Age and strength loss

Not every older person is necessarily weaker than their yesteryear self.  Take someone, for example, who may not have devoted time during their youthful past engaging in physical fitness strength building activities but took it up later in life.  This person would be stronger now than his youthful past.  But keeping everything constant except aging, the evidence is convincing that we lose strength as we age.

But strength isn’t worth a bucket of spit unless we can apply it efficiently.  In physical fitness, training is how we build strength and learn how to efficiently use it. And, Pierini Fitness believes the strength we have should be available on demand. 

Therefore, the strength training he does seldom include significant warm-up activities such as warm-up sets with lighter weights to prepare for the peak heavy lifting that I intend to do. 

One of my recent strength workouts, for example, was using a pair of double 24kg kettlebells to clean and overhead press them for as many non-stop repetitions as possible. This weight was challenging and heavy for me. My warmup was limited to briefly stretching my shoulders getting them ready for the challenge.  I didn’t complete lighter weight sets as a warm-up but, rather, went right for the test weight load and got to work.  

Strength training this way goes against the conventional wisdom of stretching and warming up before engaging in strength training, but it aligns with my belief that my strength must be available on demand for when it’s required for my daily lifestyle living needs. In daily living when our strength is called upon to perform a challenging task or respond to an emergency, we don’t have the luxury of warming up for the strength challenge. 

Strength on demand training is something I’ve been doing for a while and believe it’s serving me well.  Thus far, I’ve been able to remain injury free training this way.  Obviously, I smartly pick my weight loads wisely and only perform the repetitions I can safely complete with good form.

Training this way helps me cultivate my strength on demand performance so I’m able to answer the question: It’s 10:00 pm, do you know where your strength is?

 

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum