Exercise, or movement. I am talking specifically about Strength Training. You may also hear it referred to as weightlifting, resistance training, weight-bearing exercise. All are essentially the same basic thing with some variations in the type of weight training. For example, body-building vs power-lifting vs endurance training.
Aerobic exercises like running, walking, swimming, stair-stepping for heart, blood vessels and lung health complete the whole exercise picture. But for our purpose today, I am focusing on weight training.
If you haven’t exercised in quite a while or if you have some physiological concerns, it’s always a good idea to have a conversation with your doctor first before undertaking an exercise program.
Muscles are the engines of the body. We have about 700 muscles in our body. Included are the muscles used for walking, lifting, eating, breathing, seeing, laughing, frowning, talking, and so on. Your body’s moving even while you sleep.
Along with bones, muscles form the musculoskeletal framework that protects our internal organs and produces a leverage system that enables us to move.
Middle-aged adults who do not engage in resistance training lose about 3% to 8% percent of their muscle tissue every decade. Older adults experience even greater muscle loss of 5% to 10% of muscle tissue every year with no strength training.
To look at it in another perspective, on average, without strength training, adults in their 30’s and 40’s lose about ½-pound of muscle tissue every year. Adults in their 50’s and 60’s lose up to 1-pound of muscle tissue each year. And fat will typically replace muscle tissue during typical metabolic changes as one ages.
Weight bearing exercises build muscles. Muscle loss, known as sarcopenia, is strongly correlated with bone loss, called osteopenia. There are of course other factors involved with osteoporosis, but certainly osteopenia is one of those factors.
So, to name few considerations of the importance of weight bearing exercise, especially as one ages are:
- Muscle loss prevention.
- Bone loss prevention.
- Fall prevention.
- Increase the odds of greater Independence as one ages.
- Performing Activities of Daily Living at optimal levels.
Weight bearing exercises affect our body’s metabolism. Metabolism refers to the countless chemical processes going on continuously inside the body that allow life and normal functioning.
When you exercise or do something physically taxing, your body’s metabolism ramps up. The opposite of that state is known as resting metabolism.
More muscle means a higher resting metabolism. Less muscle means a lower resting metabolism. A lower resting metabolism rate is a significant factor for fat accumulation typically experienced during mid-life and older adult years.
Adults with low muscle mass are at a greater risk for experiencing certain diseases as well as premature death from all causes.
For Active Older Adults, AOA, I am not referring to muscle mass as one might see on body builders and serious amateur and professional athletes. The goal here is to have good muscle tone and muscle strength to conduct your activities of daily living in an optimal manner.
How you feel and how you look and how well you can enjoy physical activities without feeling worn out after a little, will be good indicators that you are on the right path.
There are five basic movements that we do. So, incorporate strength training exercise that will help bolster all the following movements:
- Bending/raising, and lifting/lowering (e.g. squatting
- Single-leg movements (walking upstairs, lunging)
- Pushing movements
- Pulling movements
- Rotational movements
Some people may be hesitant to take up weightlifting, in the belief that when they do stop weightlifting, for whatever reason, that the muscles that they’ve gained will turn into fat. That is not the case because muscle tissue and fat tissue are different types of cell tissues. Muscle does not turn into fat.
Without maintaining your muscle gains, the muscle just shrinks. What is common is that when you lose muscle mass, sarcopenia, your resting metabolic rate slows down, as mentioned before, and that will result in fat accumulation.
If you are an older adult who has not done strength training, or very little of it, it is possible to rebuild muscle and regain strength at a relatively rapid rate by engaging in a regular program of resistance exercise. It is recommended that you perform 150 minutes a week of moderate exercise. And that workout period does include aerobic exercise for cardiovascular health as well.
Studies have demonstrated that men and women, approximately 90 years of age can build muscle through basic and brief strength training sessions. In one study, called the John Knox Village study, 89-year-old subjects experienced a lean muscle mass gain of 3.8 pounds after 14-weeks of training sessions on resistance-machine exercises.
Furthermore, regardless of age, research shows that a single session of resistance exercise elevates resting metabolic rate between 5 and 9 percent for three days following the workout. It’s the gift that keeps on giving!
So, wrapping up, besides musculoskeletal benefits, some of the psychological benefits of exercise in general include promoting a positive mood, reduced stress, improving sleep, and reducing depression and anxiety.