No room for equipment, no time, no idea where to start or simply not motivated? The list of excuses is long and many people still think of pumped up muscle men in smelly gyms when they think of strength workouts. An idea we should all quickly forget, as many studies have found that normal age-related muscle loss starts at the tender age of 25. We can quickly feel the loss of muscle strength in our day-to-day lives, if we don’t do something about it. We should be grateful for our humble muscle mass that is responsible for so much more than just movement. It supports our metabolism, produces energy, keeps us warm and protects inner organs, to name just a few.
And all you need to start targeted strength exercises is a mat, your body weight and regular resistance exercises. You can now find these with Peloton’s very own Erik and Irène. Both are creating German-language strength classes that are aimed at effectively working your arms, legs and upper body. Both Erik and Irène know that Strength training is more than simply acquiring a beautiful sculpted body. “Strength workouts should be the foundation of our training programs, everything else builds on it," Erik says.
The more, we build the more we need to remember to rest, because our bodies don’t build muscles in the training phase, but in the regeneration phase. New muscles adapt to new stimulus and energy reserves are being filled up again. That is important because your body will be overwhelmed if you don’t add regular regeneration into your training schedule. “You should restrict your strength workouts to a few times a week in order to make progress, even when you are resting. They can be short sessions and a great option is to build on that with more intense strength training and cardio exercises," says Erik.
For Irène, movement is life. "If there are days when you really don’t feel it, you should remember that there are days on their way, where you will feel it again,” she says. If you are still lacking motivation, you should have look out for classes with the fun factor, as Erik knows: “Nothing motivates more than a workout where you have fun.”