Everyone keeps saying I should lift?

I’m in my 70s and very fit - mostly thanks to weight and resistance training.

if you do nothing else, do this:

• daily plank - try the Bowflex 3-minute plank
• work out with dumbbells at least 2-3 times a week; start with 3kg and work your way up - PT initially to ensure good form, but there are lots of workouts on YouTube: Fitness Blender, Growingannanas, Heather Robertson, Caroline Girvan.
• consider walking with a weighted vest and/or ankle and wrist weights.

I'm obsessed with strength training! I've been doing it seriously since the beginning of the year. I'm now bench pressing 30kg for 4 sets of 8, and can deadlift my body weight of 55kg.
I eat a high protein diet which had made me look the most toned I've been in my life.
My mum - 73 - has had a couple of minor injuries in the past few years, and because she has zero strength, she's not had any physical resilience and has literally melted infront of my eyes - she's so weak, she's starting to crumple. I was determined to have 30 years of strength training behind me by her age.

Yep, google sarcopenia and think deeply about how you want your last decade to look...I can see my last decade in front of me, as my DM is there and we have very similar genetics.

Yeah - it really changes your shape.

@lljkk we lose muscle mass as we age and it's a major factor in frailty in old age. Strength training - in can be body weight exercises, doesn't have to involve lifting actual weights - builds muscle and is really beneficial for women as it helps build bone density. You don't have e to spend hours doing it either. Give it a go instead of dissing those of us who advocate it as being in an echo chamber.

This too. Every inch is sacred, and I'm already seeing far too much of my teenager's nasal hair as he gloats down on me. At least he seems to have tall DH's genes in the mix.

The women in my family max out at 5'1"-5'2" and then shrink into tiny little old ladies by their 70s as they lose several inches.

I don't want to be a shrunken, little old lady of 4'something, I want to be a kick-ass old lady

I’m in my 50s, I have just started having PT sessions, I’m doing resistance training with light weights and interval training on the rowing machine. Early days but I’m really enjoying it

Edited to add I also do yoga and Pilates

I'm in my 50s and about to go off and do an S & C course...will be nice to get training again, after a diversion into other stuff recently.

One thing I will say is that I'm pretty heavy atm and still smaller than when I was fat, fat, if that makes sense?

You don't have to lift but it's fun. Bodyweight stuff, resistance bands, cable machines, all sorts of fun stuff.

Lots of other ways to build strength, which is as you say, very important. Weave it into your day...

Weights - best thing ever and really helped me feel/look physically fitter . Lots of evidence too around importance.

The other thing someone pointed out recently, & I think it was on MN, was that maintaining bone density means you’re less likely to shrink with age. And at 4’11 I can’t afford to shrink!

It's much better to be in an era when "everyone says to lift weights" than previous eras when "everyone" said "running is bad for your knees" and "weights will make you bulky" aka not thin, and risking being "not feminine"

After seeing DM spending the last 20+ years with osteoarthritis ruining her lifestyle (like her mother before her) anything that stands a chance of me getting further through 65-90 without chronic pain and broken bones is worth a try!

I want to be falling over doing fun stuff in my 60s and picking myself up laughing, not "having falls" and ending up in a cast for 6 weeks... actually, past 58. Her first broken limb was at 58, not even 60s.

Weights are so important. In any weight loss, muscle is lost alongside fat, and if you don’t rebuilt you are potentially storing up problems - both metabolic (easier to gain the weight back) and also ongoing issues with sarcopenia.
Listen to Stacey Sims on this. You need to lift heavy (ie so heavy that when you can only manage 5-8 reps) but obviously as a beginner you need help or you’ll get injured.

I’m 50, i can bench press 55kg, deadlift 90kg, shoulder press 30kg and squat 80kg. I say this as whilst 2/3kg dumbells at home will get you started if you want to improve you will need bigger weights.

I hate gyms, cannot afford a pt and have very little enthusiasm for anything remotely related to exercise. Instead I have an 8kg kettlebell which I use at home. As well as walking a lot as I don’t have a car and live in London, it seems to keep me in shape and I even have a wee bit of muscle definition.

Yes, strength in aging people is important- not just in terms of maintaining bone density, but also just the mechanics of mobility when you’re old- being able to get up and down easily from a chair, bed, the loo or the floor! The longer you can hang on to that kind of strength, the more independent you can remain in older age. I do some ‘Home Help’ work with older people. My two male clients have those special loo seats which are higher up, because they can’t squat down far enough to sit on an ordinary loo. My female client (who is the oldest of the three by nearly ten years and who had a knee replacement about three months ago!) has a normal loo. She has kept herself fit all her life and has obviously retained some significant leg strength.

Sally Gunnell the ex-Olympian who’s also in her 50s has done good simple intros for lifting weights & why it’s helpful to be stronger on her social media channel so you can live your life easier as you age. I too lost 3st last year and in my 50s. I started with a 10min Caroline Givan YouTube workout & 3kg weights I’m now doing 20-30mins with two 7.5kg dumbbells. I could barely do one full push up but can now do 12 full ones in 40secs. Set goals appropriate to you and it’s lovely to see progress. Good luck.

Yes, probably. And also lots of people who do actually lift weights and have seen and felt the difference it has made to their body and want to spread the news 🤷🏼‍♀️ Some of us get a bit evangelical about it which is probably annoying, I admit, but it’s difficult not to enthuse about it when you know how beneficial it is.

My ‘everyone’ was MNers like you & maybe you, @Waitingfordoggo.

I mean, I manage to never go running despite knowing that it has many health benefits- both physical and mental; and knowing dozens of people who love it, and have changed their lives through it.

But it’s not for me, so I don’t do it.

Yes, probably. And also lots of people who do actually lift weights and have seen and felt the difference it has made to their body and want to spread the news 🤷🏼‍♀️ Some of us get a bit evangelical about it which is probably annoying, I admit, but it’s difficult not to enthuse about it when you know how beneficial it is.

A woman in my Strength Development class who I think is probably in her mid 60s, told me last week that she is in pain all the time and is being investigated for neuropathy. She says that her pain is 75% improved now that she regularly lifts weights and her GP is very pleased that she’s doing it.

But of course everyone is still free to make up their own mind. It makes no difference to me whether other people lift weights or not. But those who are interested in it can certainly ask questions and hear from others who have some experience to share.

so... the "everyone" that says to do this is in fact lots of websites that are copying each other and also their advice is generic not specific to OP?

A plagiaristic echo chambre, then.

Do as you please, I just wondered what the "everyone" meant. A load of strangers with opinions they publish digitally plus a large number of re-distributors, I guess.

I started because of all the advice on MN. But then when I saw my GP about something else, she agreed enthusiastically that weightlifting was exactly what I ought to be doing.

Yes if you care about your bones. It’s fun too seeing how much stronger you get over time

Who is "everyone" telling you this, OP?
Is it personal advice to you or stuff you read after you put search phrases into Google like "what exercise should I do" ?
I only ever encounter such advice (love of lifting, lifting endorsements) on MN. Nowhere else in my life.

I get lots of exercise and I don't ask for exercise advice so maybe that's why I never get told such things.