Longevity Strength Training
Why This Should Be Your New Style Of Exercise
By: Zack Mathews, NASM - CPT, CES, & PES, PN-L1
Longevity strength training is a style of training that I created after working with hundreds of clients in my personal training studio & online.
When I first started working with clients, I thought everyone needed to be destroyed by the time their session was over. Boy was I wrong.
After seeing how people move, what they do outside of the gym (or lack thereof), and with thinking long term, I knew my style of training needed to change.
What Is Longevity Based Strength Training?
The definition of longevity is a long duration of individual life. I started to think about what needed to be done with client workouts in order to achieve.
The three traits you want in your body as you age are to have strength and muscle to do things on your own, strong bone density to lower your risk of injury, and you want to have the mobility to move freely without restriction.
This style of training should be adopted by people in their 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s to set themselves up for the future.
And what about the NOW?
This isn’t just about longevity. You still want to be strong, have muscle, and look good naked right?
Of course you do!
That’s the benefit of longevity based strength training.
I blend joint friendly strength movements with mobility training to give you a complete workout that will have you looking and feeling your best now AND for years to come.
How Many Longevity Weight Lifting Sessions Should You Have Each Week?
To optimize your results, an effective program that is 3 or 4 days a week will get you all the results you desire.
You don’t need to lift 6 days per week or do two a days.
3 - 4 is the sweet spot where you are doing enough to see changes and giving your body adequate rest.
Now the question is what type of structure should these 3 - 4 days be?
Here are a few different longevity strength training programming structures I like to use with my clients:
3x/week:
Monday - Full Body
Wednesday - Full Body
Friday - Full Body
3x/week:
Monday - Push
Wednesday - Pull
Friday - Legs
3x/week:
Monday: Lower Body
Wednesday: Upper Body
Friday: Full Body
4x/week:
Monday - Lower Body
Tuesday - Upper Body
Thursday - Lower Body
Friday - Upper Body
4x/week:
Monday - Full Body
Wednesday - Push
Thursday - Pull
Friday - Legs
Exercises For A Longevity Based Strength Training Program
As I mentioned above, joint friendly exercises are going to be your ticket to longevity.
You want to be performing exercises that will get you stronger and build muscle without causing pain.
In a gym setting, one of our main philosophies is “never train through pain”.
For exercise selection, a mix of compound exercises, isolation movements, and mobility exercises should be blended throughout your workout. Here are a few of my favorite longevity exercises to do with clients:
- Squat variations: goblet squats, safety bar squat, bodyweight squats, band squats
- Unilateral leg exercises: Lunge variations, Bulgarian split squats, single leg squats, skier squats
- Hinge exercises: trap bar deadlifts, dumbbell deadlifts, single leg deadlifts
- Push movements: dumbbell chest press, push-ups, neutral grip barbell press
- Pull movements: Pull-ups, inverted rows, dumbbell rows, lat pulldowns
- Isolation exercises: bicep curls, lateral raises, skull crushers
- Core exercises: Plank variations, Pallof Press
- Carries: Farmer carry, suitcase carry
- Mobility: Dead hangs, 90/90 variations, superman handcuffs, world’s greatest stretch, frog pose variations
Cardio For Longevity
In addition to your longevity strength training, you can’t forget about good ole cardio!
Luckily for you, that doesn’t mean pounding the pavement for multiple miles each week.
Remember, we want joint friendly movements and excessive running can lead to knee, hip, and back pain. Also, the fatigue from long distance running can negatively affect your strength training workouts.
Instead do this:
Focus on 2 - 4 zone 2 cardio sessions that last 30 - 60 minutes. Zone 2 means you’ll keep your heart rate between 120 - 150.
If you don’t have a HR monitor or a watch that does it, pretend you are talking to someone on the phone. You should be able to get 8 - 12 words out before you need a breath. They should know you are exercising but you shouldn’t be huffing and puffing.
With your zone 2 longevity cardio, you can do any type of cardio you love. Treadmill, stairmaster, elliptical, hiking, sports, etc etc.
Working Out For Longevity - Build Your Schedule
There you have a brief rundown on how you should structure your workout schedule if you want to be fit for life. You’ll build muscle, strength, and improve the way you look and feel that will set you up for a long, healthy life!
To recap, 3 - 4 longevity based strength workouts that blend joint friendly exercises with mobility training, along with 2 - 4 zone 2 cardio sessions per week is a realistic, effective plan.
Now what you need to do is build a schedule that is realistic for you to follow. If you are interested in my longevity based strength training style of workouts, click here to learn more about coaching.