Since hitting my 40s I've come to crave the endorphins that come from thirty minutes or so of moving around vigorously. I like to run, jump around, break a sweat - the usual fat-burning stuff. Though, I'm not so fond of the kind of workout that involves a lot of grunting and heavy lifting. Not only is it intimidating lining up at the squat rack with a bunch of bodybuilding blokes, there's risk of injury if one doesn't know what they're doing. And I don't. Plus, weight training just looks hard. And dare I say, a bit boring.
Having said all that, once you are firmly in your forth decade there are other matters to consider such as balance, posture and muscle loss. While I'm relatively fit for a female my age, in the last 18 months I've fallen over at least three times when jogging and pulled the ligaments in my left ankle twice. As my job is deskbound, my posture is pretty shocking and though I manage to maintain a healthy weight, no amount of HIIT classes will firm up the wobbly bits. In other words, strength training is necessary for optimizing health as you get older – plus, it's really the only route to toning up. And, let's be honest it's also rather gratifying to be able to lift a piece of heavy furniture when required.
With muscle strengthening and posture correcting as my goal, I booked in a session with Dalton Wong, A-list trainer and founder of twentytwotraining.com. He's the man Jennifer Lawrence, Alice Eve and Game of Thrones heart throb, Kit Harington, call to whip them into shape before filming. Yet, while he's an expert at honing and toning celebrity limbs, Dalton wants his resistance training method to be accessible to everyone, and so he's created a clever at- home workout programme that requires no more than a fancy elastic band for equipment.
The Dalton Wong Mini Band Workout includes a choice of three bands (beginner, intermediate and advanced) as well as a brilliant instruction booklet of workout programmes that focus on 5 key areas: Posture, fat burning, hips & bum, core and upper body. The idea is that you mix and match any combination of exercises depending on your goals and the time you have.
"After the age of 35, your muscle mass deteriorates a little every year, therefore it's important to take up strength training to maintain lean muscle mass and keep your metabolism from slowing down." Dalton admits that some women can be put off by heavy weights, therefore he's designed an easy alternative that doesn't involve weight lifting. "Resistance band training is the perfect alternative to lifting weights - it strengthens the muscles as well as improving posture and stability without bulking up."
