When Did You Last Use Your Muscles?
Strength training is particularly important for healthy aging. Not only can it help counteract age-related muscle loss, but weight-bearing exercise is also one of the most effective remedies against Osteoporosis. Loss of bone mass is a common sign of aging, because as you age your existing bone is absorbed by your body while new bone is created to replace it. In the case of Osteoporosis, the formation of new bone falls behind the rate of bone absorption, leading to weakened, thinner and more brittle bones. Strength training dynamically stimulates your osteoblasts the cells that build your bones. In addition, as you build more muscle you also increase the amount of constant tension on your bones, which also helps keep them strong and resilient.
After the age of 50 our strength declines by 15% per decade. Our muscles begin to lose their mass and strength. This applies to both men and women.
Strength is important in many things that we do in our daily lives e.g. it has been found that leg strength improves the distances that people are able to walk. Our breathing capacity declines as we age and half of this loss of aerobic capacity can be put down to loss of muscle mass.
Weakness in muscle strength and muscle mass contributes towards people falling over in their later years. Getting stronger reduces the chances of this happening. Balance is important in avoiding falls but muscle strength is what enables the good balance and adjustment to happen and therefore probably avoid falling.
Being fit and strong helps those unexpected things to be taken in your stride, so to speak.
The good news is that this can all be slowed down, stopped and even improved through resistance training. Resistance training is the use of weights, exercise bands, our own body weight etc. and doesn’t mean that we will all end up like some incredible hulk with bulging muscles. Women can’t have large bulky muscles anyway as there is not enough testosterone in their bodies. If women work at it they will have toned muscles and be stronger. The only way that women can have enormous developed muscles is through taking anabolic steroids.
Resistance training also improves bone health, postural stability, flexibility and range of movement.
Moderate cardio-vascular exercise e.g. walking, running, cycling, swimming etc. together with resistance training will slow down the decline in resting lung function.
Strength training also increases your body’s production of growth factors, which are responsible for cellular growth, proliferation, and differentiation. Some of these growth factors also promote the growth, differentiation and survival of neurons which helps explain why working your muscles also benefits your brain and helps prevent dementia.
