Load Bearing: Make & take opportunities for strengthening as we age
We all know that we lose muscle mass from quite an early stage in our lives and that bone density decreases due to losing minerals faster than we can lay down new bone. Great! So, does that mean we’ve all got to don some lycra and hit the gym whether we like it or not?! No! I always think it’s best to start adding in daily movements that involve load bearing and then, if you enjoy the way it feels to be stronger and more capable, it might lead you to create your own intentional ‘loading’ practise. But it’s best not to jump the gun though and instead work up from where your body is at right now!
Why it IS worth thinking about ‘load’ bearing
I like to think of load-bearing in 3 ways. There’s:
working with our own bodyweight (that requiring our own personal power to weight ratio, depending on our unique make up)
adding load to these same movements to increase the demand on our muscles and bones, to increase the beneficial outcomes of these movements
specific movements that are all about moving extra loads either up and down (lifting) and from A to B (carrying, pushing and pulling)
Start with our own body weight
This is a great place to start as we often miss this one out and skip forward and then wonder why we get injured.
The best types of movements to start with are (often less used as well as unusual) whole-body movement patterns that I work through with my clients, starting at ground level, such as taking our weight through our arms, legs or both (whether on all fours or inverted) to either move around at a low level, such as crawling in all its various forms, bum shuffling, hip walking, or pushing our body off the ground in a whole variety of ways.
To continue to be capable of getting off the ground with minimal help as we age (in a variety of different ways) it means practising these movements regularly. We need to see it as a key skill we don’t want to lose. Losing it can often result in a reduction in the variety of things we can choose to do, but did you know, our ability to do so is also seen as a significant independent predictor of lifespan. Read about a key study in this previous blog.
This is not to say that just learning and maintaining a few of these movements will cause a long healthspan, but rather a link was found that people who could do these movements tended to have maintained higher levels of mobility, strength, coordination and power to body weight ratio that were all needed to keep us healthy into later life.
Try this tutorial from my YouTube channel to increase your get up repertoire, and if you enjoy it and want to learn other ways, then come and see the ‘Get ups for life’ folder in the Reclaim Movement membership. There’s a 7-Day Free Trial or you can try before you commit with a 3 Day all access pass.
Add increasing levels of load
Adding additional load when moving around at ground level and particularly getting up and down only serves to increase the strengthening (and mobilising) benefits of these types of movements. A great practical example of this, and a goal of mine, is to be able to pick up a toddler whilst I’m at their (ground) level and lift them the whole way up to standing and then of course walk around with them on my back or shoulders for fun!
I tried this recently with my 13 year old whilst out on a walk (who is pretty much as tall as me!) and we decided that carrying on my back was as much as I can do with that size of body, but I thought it was pretty darn good! To practise in class, we hold bags (filled with as many books as we choose) close to our bodies and move methodically the whole way up to standing, learning good technique and keeping it slow to increased the ‘time under tension’ to build strength.
To practise in class, we hold bags (filled with as many books as we choose) close to our bodies and move methodically the whole way up to standing, learning good technique and keeping it slow to increased the ‘time under tension’ to build strength.
Body weight bearing is not just lifting
Upright versions of bearing our own body weight are also simply how we move our body around from A to B, so walking, running and for the more adventurous; jumping and climbing.
We may not see walking as a ‘strengthening’ movement, but it absolutely is, and again, if we want to keep walking well over a variety of terrains and distances, we need to keep practising it for life! Not such a hardship if it’s something you love anyway.
Climbing and pulling yourself up and over things is also pulling or pushing your body weight against gravity and so great for improving your strength, but also maintaining movement patterns that can be very useful, such as getting out the deep end of a pool (see one of this week’s Reclaim Movement Instagram reels!), or being able to climb up a trellis in your 70s, like Margaret Fulton, a much loved Australian cookbook author did, to get to an open upstairs window when she was locked out! Thanks for that story from a follower in the comments! Working on being ‘strong to be useful’ (a mantra of my certification system MovNat) for others, but also to be able to help ourselves in times of need, or even emergency.
Audit how often you lift or carry
So that just leaves adding load by lifting and carrying. This is where we it’s useful to look at how much we do in our daily lives and if we feel we could do more, starting to create opportunities that we otherwise might not have thought about.
Here are a few suggestions to make you question the times you might find yourself not lifting and carrying due to modern conveniences. So often we have even stopped seeing them as a choice.
Using a trolley in the supermarket rather than a basket
Parking as near as we can to the shops so we don’t need to carry our shopping very far
Using a wheeled suitcase instead of one without wheels
Using a wheelbarrow instead of lifting a bag of compost and carrying it over to where it’s needed
Asking someone else to lift the bed to get the thing from underneath
Getting someone else to carry the bag of provisions on a long walk
Making multiple journeys to carry lots of light things (ok, not so bad as lots of movement I know, as long as it’s an intentional choice!) instead of loading them all in a container and lifting them in one go
Putting heavy things on shelves at body level instead of up high or down low
Accepting offers of help when you don’t actually need it
Walking around obstacles you could have fun clambering over
Not doing something you could actually choose to do at ground level
Passing a tree that looks pretty tempting to climb, whatever your age!
You get the jist! This is not intended as a list to beat ourselves up with, instead to demonstrate the point that we often don’t even see them as mny opportunities to bear loads for your health. I have and still find myself doing some of these without thinking sometimes, after all, nobody’s perfect!
The point is to try to help us become aware that, unconsciously, we are making ‘choices’ and therefore there is always a cost to pay. That cost is missing out on the opportunity to work on your strength.
An added extra of carrying (and hanging!)
Have you ever heard that grip strength is also an indicator of longevity? Again, it’s not that actively strengthening your grip (with those hand grippy things) will directly cause you to age well, but instead, that it’s likely you are someone who is actively choosing to carry things and possibly even hold your own body weight through your hands.
We all know how important hands are for so many movements, so if using those hand grippy things strengthen your hands in order to start being able to carry more and trying to hang off things, then that’s a great thing too.
Weight lifting
Finally - if all this new working against your body weight, carrying load, lifting and more is making you feel stronger, then having some hand weights nearby to put in a few extra movements as you go past them each day (or adding a pull up bar in your kitchen doorway for a quick hang), then go for it!
I enjoy weight training in my own home as one part of my varied movement repertoire, but mostly I enjoy feeling strong and capable when I lift for practical reasons - and sometimes even surprise myself with the weight I can lift safely.
All movement is good movement in my book and you don’t need to go to a gym and pump weight if that’s not your thing, but it’s key for you to fit strengthening movements into your life as you age in whichever way suits you.
Start where your body is currently at, applaud yourself for every movement you might not otherwise have achieved and you’ll soon be feeling stronger, more capable and therefore more confident to do all those things you love, for life!
Who knows, you might even be climbing trellis’s into your 90s!
To start building your strength from the ground up, either contact me at wendy@reclaimmovement.co.uk to discuss your current movement ability or hop over to (click here:) the Membership page and have a look at the videos, live classes and more that’s on offer.
