Strength Training for Seniors: An Instructor Guide for Developing Safe and Effective Programs [Paperback]

Wayne L. Westcott (Author), Thomas R. Baechle (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0873229525 | ISBN-13: 978-0873229524 | Publication Date: January 15, 1999 | Edition: 1

Research-based guide for instructors of health clubs, nursing homes, and other organizations working with older adults. Includes general guide- lines, teaching strategies, sample 10-week free- weight and machine workout programs, practical methods for assessing progress, and nutritional guidelines. Halftone illustrations. Softcover.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

With more than 35 years in strength training as an athlete, coach, teacher, professor, researcher, writer, and speaker, Wayne Westcott, PhD, is recognized as a leading authority on fitness. He has served as a strength training consultant for numerous organizations and programs, including Nautilus, the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, the National Sports Performance Association, the International Association of Fitness Professionals (IDEA), the American Council on Exercise, the YMCA of the USA, and the National Youth Sports Safety Foundation. He was awarded the IDEA Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993 and was honored with a Healthy American Fitness Leader Award in 1995.

Westcott is currently the fitness research director at the South Shore YMCA in Quincy, Massachusetts, where he has carefully studied the physiological responses of adults to various programs of strength exercise. In 1996 he conducted a landmark study of 1,132 subjects showing that men and women over age 50 build strength and develop muscle at the same rate as younger adults. Together with co-author Tom Baechle, he wrote Strength Training Past 50, which was ranked as one of the ten best health and fitness books of 1997.

Westcott has authored ten other books on strength training, including Building Strength and Stamina and Strength Fitness: Physiological Principles and Training Techniques. He has published over 300 articles in professional fitness journals and has written a weekly fitness column for one of Boston’s largest newspapers since 1986. He has served on the editorial boards of Prevention, Shape, Men’s Health, Fitness, Club Industry, American Fitness Quarterly, and Nautilus.

Westcott lives in Abington, Massachusetts, with his wife, Claudia. He enjoys strength training, running, cycling, and gardening.

As an exercise leader for 16 years at the Creighton University Cardiac Rehabilitation program (one of the earliest to include a bona fide strength training component), Thomas R. Baechle, EdD, has a great deal of practical experience working with the over 50 population. He also has more than 20 years’ experience teaching weight training and strength training for athletes at the college level. He currently serves as chair of the exercise science department at Creighton University, where his honors include an Excellence in Teaching Award.

Baechle is the executive director of the NSCA Certification Commission, the certifying body for the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA), and is president of the National Organization for Competency Assurance, an international organization that sets quality standards for credentialing organizations. He has earned credentials from the NSCA’s Certification Commission as a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and Certified Personal Trainer; from the American College of Sports Medicine as a Test Technologist and Exercise Specialist; and from the United States Weightlifting Federation as a Level 1 Weightlifting Coach. He is cofounder, past president, and former director of education for NSCA, and in 1998 he received the organization’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Baechle has authored seven previous strength training texts, including the highly popular Fitness Weight Training. He also served as editor for NSCA’s Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning, a comprehensive text that has contributed to the growing number of university-level courses that prepare professionals for careers in strength and conditioning. Three of Baechle’s texts have been translated into French or Japanese.

Baechle lives in Omaha, Nebraska, with his wife Susan and two sons, Todd and Clark. He enjoys strength training, woodworking, and making crafts.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Human Kinetics Publishers; 1 edition (January 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0873229525
• ISBN-13: 978-0873229524
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,070,697 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Encocuragement for Older Weight Lifting, January 10, 2007

By 

Andrew Rock (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Strength Training for Seniors: An Instructor Guide for Developing Safe and Effective Programs (Paperback)

I'd recommend the version meant for the end user, however, unless you are actually an instructor. I got both but it was redundant. The core stuff for the weight lifter is in both books. Key thing is that it is very convincing that older folk, those above say 50, can and should do weight lifting. It's a good addition to all the other good stuff you should be doing. This book eases nubie's like myself, into weightlifting, even if we opt to use set equipment rather than free weights. Both free weights and other gym equipment is portrayed in this book.

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Super basic, March 8, 2007

By 

Charlotte Buglio (Langhorne, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Strength Training for Seniors: An Instructor Guide for Developing Safe and Effective Programs (Paperback)

I'm an ACE-certified personal trainer and was looking for some good information and new exercises to use with my client who is in their 60s. This book took basic strength training exercises and had a picture of a senior doing the exercise. Nothing in this book was new to me. If you are a physically active senior, this book may be all right for you. If you are a senior who has been sedentary or who is looking to improve upon daily activities of living, this book may not be right for you.