10-Minute Strength Training Exercises for Seniors: Exercises and Routines to Build Muscle, Balance, and Stamina

I'm not a senior and I can lift heavy when the mood strikes. So why did I get this book? Well, it's not uncommon to go through times when you want to keep the body moving, but you don't necessarily want to push your body to the limits with crazy-high heart rates, puddles of sweat, and big weights. This book makes exercising accessible and uncomplicated, and when you take away "seniors" from the title that sentiment (plus the workouts listed) will applicable to really anyone. Honestly, the most age-specific sentiment of the book is the illustrations, which all feature retirees. And that's no problem because they're nice illustrations that show different body types, diversity, and--probably most important--they all have a gentle smile and look happy to be moving, rather than super serious. (Because we all know certain YouTube fitness personalities who equate doing a workout with going through the fire of battle or some over the top comparison....) Okay, about the book: The first half of the book offers lovely illustrations and tips on how to do each exercise. The back half provides you with a daily routine that shows you a reminder illustration of each move, the rep count (usually the standard 8-12 for 2-3 sets), and gives the page number so you can easily re-reference a move if you need any reminders. I do love the book's uncomplicated, straightforward style. There's 4 moves per workout that are practical and functional. I stress this because as much as there is on YouTube, it's easy to get caught up in instructors who preach complex "party trick, wow-factor moves". Sure, it's fun to see what the body can do, but there's so much to be said for your standard compound movements. As someone who grew up in gymnastics, cheerleading, and a bit of dance, parts of my body are most definitely hypermobile and I need to be careful with those "wow factor" moves that feel okay while doing but I regret the rest of the week. Instead these are your traditional exercises. When it comes to the weight lifting aspect, the weights they show are of people using soup cans or water bottles. Of course you could modify with heavier weights, but the vibe of the book is more fitness and strength to protect your bones, keep you moving daily (i.e., not maxing out on the regular), and sustainable fitness that will carry you, well, into your senior years. I personally aim to do one of these workouts 4x a week without weights or light 1-2lbs, and then once or twice a week I'll do a harder, heavier workout from YouTube. See, I don't totally hate YouTube fitness ;) And side note, even doing the arm workouts without weights lets you focus on correct movement, mobility, and bilateral discrepancies, so it's not pointless. Overall, this is a fabulous book that's approachable and serves as a great reference. And if you like to know what you'll be doing in a workout before you start, it'll just take a minute to review the pictures and read any reminders. Compare that to fitness videos where unless you watch through at a fast speed you come in unaware of the next moves, pacing, etc. I mention this because if you're like me and do need to amp yourself up to workout, knowing what's on the docket so to speak can take some of that underlying anxiety away and make it mentally easier to set aside the time and just get your 10-20 minutes in.

This is an awesome. Highly recommend.. it is clearly laid out with great art and large print and great plan to get you started! Many 10 minute workouts to keep you motivated! Thinking of buying more for gifts! Thank you Ed DeBoo for a wonderful & encouraging book for seniors!

I got this book from the library and liked it so much that I ordered my own copy the next day. The author, who is a physical therapist, gives clear, concise descriptions of what the purpose or focus of each exercise is, and he obviously understands limitations and concerns of older people, so he mentions advantages or how the exercises will help and increase strength, flexibility and help us remain independent. Illustrations show how to do each exercise. About 3 of the illustrations didn't quite match the text explanation, so I had reread once or twice to figure out what the image should have shown. The intense skin colors of the people in the illustrations were overdone and distracting, but were certainly "inclusive," and I'm glad they weren't all women or white people. One thing that would be helpful as a related option: Tall cards. To me, it's far too cumbersome to use a book for reference while learning new movements. If the book is spiral-bound, that helps. But even better: glossy, wipe-clean, light cardboard cards for each exercise with all of the same information that's in the book (images could be on the back if necessary). My adaptation is using 4 different colors of page markers to identify the target / purpose of the exercise and a 5th color to tag which ones use dumbbells, so I can do those together. For example, blue tags mean Balance or Bones, and orange tags are for exercises that involve weights or dumbbells. The photo shows what I mean, I hope.

Great Layout / Up to date / Easy to understand picture , No guess work , on what they are trying to show you/ Information about the the muscles groups , you will be working , on is very important , most do not have that / It also shows different way to use household item , to make your workout more cost effective , for a senior program ,Also a section with preloaded routines , makes working out more fun , and not so boring , you change it up each day if you want to ~ Thank You

First let me say I preordered this book after watching some of Mr Deboo's videos on YouTube and waited a good two months before it came out. Just received today, and I was not disappointed. Love the illustrations which are large and colorful. No problem seeing these at all and they are on every page. First part of book details the benefits of strength training, second part are the exercises and third part are short routines for different purposes. What I especially like about the third part is that there is a smaller picture of each exercise in brilliant color to jog your memory about what the exercise is. The exercises themselves are pretty basic and can be done with homemade props if you actually do not have handweights. They are also simple to do and let me tell you while a younger person might scoff at wall pushups, when you are old and stiff those easier options are so welcome. The exercises in this book might not turn you into a champion weight lifter or pump you up like a body builder, but they are doable for most of us oldies and that is exactly what I wanted.

Working in the medical profession, I have done a lot of research on muscle rebuilding. When walking all it build up our lower leg muscles and cardio. In fact doing walking does more harm on our legs knees and hips, especially if you have any signs of arthritis. They will get more inflamed each time you put more pressure on them. It doesn’t help the core body or any other muscles in our body. Our core muscles are the most important ones that helps us keep our balance. And helps us not fall, we need to build them up as we age. They are the most important muscle to work on as we age. They say when we have good core muscles we age longer. I say only the good Lord knows that answer! As we get older, we need to work on all of our muscles, also. This book really impressed me while looking at it. I’ve had to have a lot of physical therapy all over my body. I know how it’s all done and I know that they don’t put pressure on the points that are hurting. When I saw this book, I thought this is ideal or older, or really any age people to use to build their muscles up. Because it won’t cause damage on the joints that all the hard work of lifting the weights and such would do at the gems. We could use it and build our muscles and it would not hurt our cause inflammation in our joints while doing it. It has three different sections. The first section tells goes through each exercise, extremely well explaining how it is done. Second section goes through the strength of the exercises and tells about where the strength of the exercise come from from and what they strengthen each exercise in the third section shows all the exercises that you could do and put them all together in one timing. If you look in my pictures, my third picture and my fourth picture you say illustration of how it shows how he has written per page how you can sit and go through your exercises and it tells on each page which ones you could do. I really like that they’re 16 pages of that or you can just flip through and find the ones you want to do. The second picture is illustrating how one exercise is done and he explains how they exercise. It’s totally done. He explains it all out very well. That way you know exactly how to do each exercise. This book is well worth your money. It will really help build your muscles and your core as we age. One thing I liked about it I can just be sitting in my chair and be doing exercises and not have to hurt my body and still do exercises. I know it’s his 10 minute strength exercises. But I think if we built up more, it would be better for us, but we could all do it at our own pace and it would be a whole lot better than nothing. I hope this all helped y’all all because I want us all to live old. I saw my mother get in a wheelchair and refused to do physical therapy. And that really made my heart break. So I hope y’all all take this to heart and try to do as much for your body as you can as you age. I love y’all all and I hope this is help y’all and maybe this will help you if you buy the book. I know this will help me and my husband.

I’m doing physical therapy and have done so for various ailments. A number of these exercises are the same as those my therapist has taught me but there are many others. The book is well organized and instructions are clear. Suggestions are given to increase or of reduce the level of difficulty of each exercise. I especially appreciate that it says what muscles each of targets and what common activities they govern.

The writer is obviously an expert, and the book is loaded with good information, even for a non-athletic reader with several decades on his CV. It handles awkwardly, meaning the pages are stiff and difficult to quickly navigate. My guess is the spine will break in two weeks. I may as well drill holes in it now and install strong lacing cord to hold it together. If one doesn't know Latin names for body parts, it seems pointless to identify muscle group(s) in Latin. A fold-out muscle chart with arrows could be of great help! I may learn to like it, but at present it seems little thought was given to one's ease of using this book and to the books durability

Amazing book.

Exercises straight forward to understand, so far so good.

Great direction and explains each exercise as it should be done. Also has plenty of suggestions of work outs put together for you. Good size and easy to read. Easy for seniors and younger also. Has suggestions to make suggested routines easier or harder if needed.

Ik heb het boek vandaag ontvangen.ik was al lang op zoek naar oefeningen voor senioren en dit boek ziet er veelbelovend uit. Ik kan niet wachten om te beginnen! Je krijgt er bovendien volledig gratis toegang tot instructievideos en weekplannen bij.

It arrived quickly and it had the right level of easy exercises that I hope will help my Dad build up leg muscles etc. to increase steadiness (was looking for safe/useful/easy instructions he could try for building leg strength, and these look good for exactly that).