Working on Healthspan at 60+: Strength Training
Aug 01, 2025 06:00AM ● By Paul Chen
My single best habit is working out. I rarely need to talk myself into doing it. I’m pretty automatic. Well, okay, I did get lazy yesterday and skipped.
But while consistent, I really haven’t been very thoughtful about it. By thoughtful, I mean actually having goals and training for something specifically. I just know that exercising is good for you, and I generally feel good after doing so.
That is until now. At my age—I’m 67—healthspan, the topic of a June Healing Ways article, is now very much top of mind. And that’s because of all the little physical conditions that are appearing. My right knee has been bothering me for a while, putting a halt to jogging. My right shoulder had some pain for most of last year, but that has receded. My left elbow has a sharp pain on occasion. Elbow???
Fortunately, as my body is demanding more careful attention, AI is providing more considered answers. I’ve had a series of conversations with ChatGPT and thought I’d share them here for those readers who are older than 50, and especially those older than 60.
My ideal workout schedule, with emphasis on “ideal”—since practice rarely meets plan—is to do two sessions of strength training and two sessions of aerobic training and one session of yoga each week, plus after-meal short walks on my two days of rest. What I share here are specifics of the strength training, but the reason I’m sharing the “ideal” is because ChatGPT concluded thusly: “You’re doing nearly everything that modern exercise science recommends for maximizing healthspan.”
First and foremost, strength training is the most important of these. When I turned 50, a similarly aged friend gave me a book on a particular style of strength training. Now that we’re in our 50s, he said, strength training becomes more important because of sarcopenia, the loss of muscle mass and strength. Indeed, the graph shown here is a “hypothetical and illustrative” one created by ChatGPT that “illustrates the typical decline in muscle mass due to sarcopenia as people age, starting from a peak at age 30.”
When talking about working out with weights, there are three general approaches one can take to a given session: increase strength, increase muscle mass and increase endurance. They are differentiated by the number of repetitions of a given exercise until failure. If one is training for strength, the target number of reps is one to five. For hypertrophy, six to 12 reps. And for endurance, 13-plus reps.
I previously came upon some apparently bad information/advice that said that someone my age should only train for strength 10% of the time, or just once out of every 10 sessions. That seemed too low, so I intuitively came up with this pattern: one for endurance, two for hypertrophy, then one for strength. Repeat. ChatGPT approved, but switched the order to hypertrophy-strength-hypertrophy-endurance.
I have been doing six exercises per session, three sets per exercise, with the first set always being lower weights to warm up. ChatGPT says six exercises per session is a great number, with a reasonable range being four to eight. The choice of exercises has been a function of opposing muscles, e.g., quads/hamstrings, biceps/triceps, but I do believe this is the area in which I can improve the most. To be sure, it’s the one aspect of strength training about which I haven’t talked with ChatGPT!
We’re pleased to introduce a new monthly column on aromatherapy. It is the idea of our longtime customer, Roz Zollinger, director and co-owner of Heal Center in Sandy Springs and Atlanta’s “grande dame” of aromatherapy. In other words, she has been giving in-depth instruction to Atlantans on aromatherapy for more than 30 years! And by in-depth, we’re talking about 50 in-class hours. According to the company’s website, the classes help people “build a strong foundation of knowledge and experience in safe therapeutic applications and blending of over 40 essential oils.”
Actually, the aromatherapy column began last month with “Staying Safe in the Sun with Aromatherapy.” This month’s and next month’s columns will be published exclusively online, which will be the pattern going forward; published in print on a quarterly basis, online otherwise. And we will always publicize the online titles in our print magazine’s Online Table of Contents.
But while consistent, I really haven’t been very thoughtful about it. By thoughtful, I mean actually having goals and training for something specifically. I just know that exercising is good for you, and I generally feel good after doing so.
That is until now. At my age—I’m 67—healthspan, the topic of a June Healing Ways article, is now very much top of mind. And that’s because of all the little physical conditions that are appearing. My right knee has been bothering me for a while, putting a halt to jogging. My right shoulder had some pain for most of last year, but that has receded. My left elbow has a sharp pain on occasion. Elbow???
Fortunately, as my body is demanding more careful attention, AI is providing more considered answers. I’ve had a series of conversations with ChatGPT and thought I’d share them here for those readers who are older than 50, and especially those older than 60.
My ideal workout schedule, with emphasis on “ideal”—since practice rarely meets plan—is to do two sessions of strength training and two sessions of aerobic training and one session of yoga each week, plus after-meal short walks on my two days of rest. What I share here are specifics of the strength training, but the reason I’m sharing the “ideal” is because ChatGPT concluded thusly: “You’re doing nearly everything that modern exercise science recommends for maximizing healthspan.”
When talking about working out with weights, there are three general approaches one can take to a given session: increase strength, increase muscle mass and increase endurance. They are differentiated by the number of repetitions of a given exercise until failure. If one is training for strength, the target number of reps is one to five. For hypertrophy, six to 12 reps. And for endurance, 13-plus reps.
I previously came upon some apparently bad information/advice that said that someone my age should only train for strength 10% of the time, or just once out of every 10 sessions. That seemed too low, so I intuitively came up with this pattern: one for endurance, two for hypertrophy, then one for strength. Repeat. ChatGPT approved, but switched the order to hypertrophy-strength-hypertrophy-endurance.
I have been doing six exercises per session, three sets per exercise, with the first set always being lower weights to warm up. ChatGPT says six exercises per session is a great number, with a reasonable range being four to eight. The choice of exercises has been a function of opposing muscles, e.g., quads/hamstrings, biceps/triceps, but I do believe this is the area in which I can improve the most. To be sure, it’s the one aspect of strength training about which I haven’t talked with ChatGPT!
We’re pleased to introduce a new monthly column on aromatherapy. It is the idea of our longtime customer, Roz Zollinger, director and co-owner of Heal Center in Sandy Springs and Atlanta’s “grande dame” of aromatherapy. In other words, she has been giving in-depth instruction to Atlantans on aromatherapy for more than 30 years! And by in-depth, we’re talking about 50 in-class hours. According to the company’s website, the classes help people “build a strong foundation of knowledge and experience in safe therapeutic applications and blending of over 40 essential oils.”
Actually, the aromatherapy column began last month with “Staying Safe in the Sun with Aromatherapy.” This month’s and next month’s columns will be published exclusively online, which will be the pattern going forward; published in print on a quarterly basis, online otherwise. And we will always publicize the online titles in our print magazine’s Online Table of Contents.
Besides sharing a lifetime of expertise, Roz’s columns include at least one recipe. We’re hoping Roz’s offering becomes our next big hit! ❧
Publisher of Natural Awakenings Atlanta since 2017, Paul Chen’s professional background includes strategic planning, marketing management and qualitative research. He practices Mahayana Buddhism and kriya yoga. Contact him at [email protected].
