CORE TIPS
I’m a fit 68-year-old trainer – my body’s stronger today than it was in my 30s
A 68-YEAR-OLD trainer has better strength now than in her 30s — and shared tips on how she did it.
Liz Hilliard, owner of Hilliard Studio Method in Charlotte, North Carolina, shared three moves that helped her strengthen her arms.
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She that she does arm-strength training three times a week on top of her usual routine to ensure that she's stronger than in her 30s.
“We begin losing muscle mass beginning around the age of 30,” Hilliard said.
"While traditional workouts such as cardio and stretching are important, nothing beats resistance training for keeping our bones strong and our body healthy.”
She indulged three of her favorite moves for upper-body training.
First, incline pushups: Place your hands slightly wider than chest-width on the edges of a stable surface, then walk your legs back so you're in a straight incline from head to heels.
Keeping your legs together, come to the balls of the feet, engage the core, keep your neck long,and gaze forward.
Bending the elbows, lower your body until your chest is in line with your elbows, then return back up to straight arms by engaging the core, chest and biceps.
Next, she recommended tricep dips: using a sofa or chair, placing your hands on the edge of the seat and moving your tailbone off, and walking your feet away until your knees and hips make 90-degree angles.
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Make sure to keep your core engaged, and squeeze your tricep muscles as you do the exercise.
Last but not least, she added iron cross-circle arms: standing shoulder-width apart and weights in hand, raise your arms out to the sides to shoulder height to form a T shape (or "Iron Cross").
Then begin to circle the weights up and around in circles about the size of a softball.
In order to get the maximum benefits of these exercises, Liz recommended completing each move 10 times and then moving on to the next, as well as doing three sets at a time and increasing reps to 20 as you build strength.
Her followers were blown away by the fitness influencer and took to her social media.
"You are such an inspiration!! THANK YOU," said one follower.
"You amaze me! Defying time and gravity!!!" said another.
"This is everything!" said a third.
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