Strength Snacks: Strength Training for Everyone (and Anyone!)

By Valerie Driscoll, Lead Coach and Coaching Program Developer for Apollo Health

“Delightedly – Farns” was the email sign-off from the Mastering Nutrition participant telling me about his Planet Fitness membership and 3-times-a-week commitment. The P.S. stated: “Prior to this, I had been to a gym three times in my life.” Delightedly, in this case, referred to his recent success with ketosis, which had evaded him despite his diligence with the KetoFLEX 12/3 nutrition plan. A big shout-out here to his coach, Beth Adams-Smith, who told him that he wouldn’t get into ketosis until he got serious about exercise, including weight training. She was right.

Oh, the faces I get, however, whenever I mention strength training to anyone who has never been there and done that, which is many of our members.

Yet for so many struggling to get into ketosis, it can be a game changer. And to be honest, whether desiring ketosis or not, if you are not strength training, you should be … immediately, if not sooner. Of all the vast research connected to health and longevity, there is likely nothing as universally agreed upon as the benefits of moving against resistance.

Like many bits of the Bredesen Protocol, strength training can feel strange and overwhelming, yet it doesn’t have to be. And like everything else BP-related, we have a fantastic guide available that explains why building muscle mass is so important to your protocol efforts. Members can find a link to that guide here. This guide also has several videos that instruct you on how to safely perform basic movements.

If you are ready to go a little bigger with exercise, find a gym in your area where you feel comfortable. It can be big or small, fancy or not, but somewhere easy to be in and easy to get to. Look for somewhere offering Silver Sneakers group exercise or another program designed for seniors. If it is in your budget, hire a certified trainer for a few sessions, both to help you design a balanced program and to teach you to properly perform the movements. Look for a trainer certified in working with older bodies. If the gym is larger, find someone with whom you connect; having someone to help pull you into the gym is easier than having to push yourself.

If you are not ready for a big meal of strength training, try a snack instead! Also sometimes referred to as “incidental exercise”, this is a wonderful way to break into resistance work a bit more slowly.

Start by identifying times during your day when you have a minute. I often have time in my kitchen or laundry when I am waiting for something to finish. This is a perfect place for an exercise snack. Watch our video on squats and get started! Hold onto the counter for balance, if needed, and do 1-12 squats. Remember to start slowly, both in execution and number. Also important: form trumps frequency: 2 perfect squats are better than 8 sloppy ones.

Another strategy is to take a movement you are already doing and add a few more: getting up out of the chair? Do it 3x rather than once. Putting a can into the cupboard? Do 3 and lift, then do 3 and lift again with the other arm.

Start to build up these snacks through the day; even one set of calf raises while brushing your teeth counts! While our ultimate goal is a full-body workout three to four times per week, consistently bringing incidental exercise into your day will eventually allow you to achieve that goal. And even if that goal is never hit, these snacks are helping you to achieve metabolic flexibility.

The other thing achieved will be continued independence, for getting stronger will allow you to do everything you want to do in life longer: play with your grandkids, drive, grocery shop, cook, get out of your chair or off the toilet, live with less pain.  Whatever you want to keep doing until you die, resistance training is going to support it.

You may even be able to trade snack for snack! I know that my daily workouts allow me a larger dosage of sweet potatoes or crackers or chia pudding or roasted chickpeas or blueberries. Nothing eats up post-indulgence glucose in the blood like a leg workout using all those big muscles.

All of that metabolism stuff is great, but nothing more consistently pulls me into working out than the looks of disbelief I get when my gray head handily lifts my carry-on into the overhead compartment of the plane or train I have boarded. Although, I did recently allow a Marvel superhero to do it for me, but that is a story for another time.