Strength Training
- You lose muscle mass with aging
- Weight training is more important as you get older
- Pumping Iron at any age is beneficial
- Strength training
While the benefits of aerobic exercise are known to most of us, the contributions
of strength training to healthy aging have not been as widely recognized.
Strength training is important because it makes you stronger and helps
you to remain independent as you grow older. Small increases in muscle
strength can make a big difference in the ability to perform activities.
Strength training can also increase your metabolism which helps you to
maintain a healthy weight and to prevent diabetes. Obesity and diabetes
are major health problems for older adults.
| Before Starting Any Weight Training Program
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You lose muscle mass with aging
Weight training is more important as you get older
Much of the disability, functional decline, and loss of independence in the elderly results from diminished muscle strength as well as low aerobic fitness. By lifting weights, using exercise machines, or doing other forms of strength training you can prevent the loss of muscle and bone that occurs as you grow older. Increasing muscle strength correlates directly with gains in performing daily activities. Thus, while strength training may not help you run a marathon, it may assist you to rise from a chair and go to the bathroom when you are older. While to a twenty year old this might not seem like much, maintaining these activities of daily living can keep you independent at age 80.
Pumping Iron at any age is beneficial
Until recently it was thought that older adults could not increase their muscle strength or regain their lost muscle mass. A number of studies have shown that this is not true:
- Pioneering studies from Tufts University found that resistance strength training brought significant gains in muscle strength, size, and mobility, even in very old and frail nursing home residents. Fiatarone, Marks and associates (JAMA, 1990) studied the reversibility of muscle weakness by starting strength training of frail nursing home residents whose average age was 89! An 8 week program of high-intensity resistance training led to significant gains in muscle strength, size, and functional mobility. Strength training increased muscle strength on average 174 percent and the walking speed of individuals increased by 48 percent. Even more amazing-- no plateau had been reached by the conclusion of the study. When the participants resumed a sedentary lifestyle they found a 32 percent loss in maximum strength after only 4 weeks. However, improvements could be retained with only one weight lifting session a week.
- Evans (1997) randomly assigned nursing home residents to a high intensity strength training program that resulted in significant gains in strength and functional status compared to the sedentary control group. Results show that exercise may minimize or reverse the physical frailty which is so prevalent among very old individuals.
Strength training fights depression, improves sleep, and helps keep your waistline in check.
There are additional benefits from strength training. It is an effective antidepressant, while also improving strength, morale, and quality of life. Strength training improves sleep quality. (Singh, Clements, and Fiatarone, 1997)
Pumping iron can help you lose or prevent you from gaining weight! As you build more muscle mass, your basal metabolic rate will increase and you will burn more calories. (Fielding, 1995)
Strength training can be done with free weights (e.g. barbells and dumbbells) or with universal gyms which work various parts of your body in a more controlled way. It should be done 2 or 3 times a week for about 30 minutes. Don't use weights every day. We recommend an every other day schedule to allow your muscles to recover-- try not to exercise the same muscles two days in a row.
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