Lexington, KY - Muscle is the key to a vital, healthy and independent life as we age," according to Miriam Nelson, director of the John Hancock Research Center on Physical Activity, Nutrition and Obesity Prevention, and I couldn't agree more - an abundance of recent research on muscle mass and the aging process supports this claim.
Interest in the role muscle mass plays started in the mid-80s when scientists discovered losing muscle mass as we age is not a normal part of the aging process. The loss of muscle mass is an age-related condition called sarcopenia, and it is avoidable and reversible.
Before this condition was identified in 1986, conventional wisdom held that at about age 35 we begin to lose muscle mass and that this loss would accelerate as we continue to age. Loss of muscle mass leads to a host of bad conditions: lower metabolism, loss of function and mobility, and in turn, loss of independence.
This was a terrible view of the aging process, to think that we all are doomed to get fat and increasingly feeble well before the end of our life. However, once science identified that sarcopenia could be stopped, and even reversed, the view of aging changed.
Strength training is a proven safeguard against the effects of sarcopenia. In one study group of healthy men in their 60s and 70s, the participants did strength training three times a week for nine weeks on one leg (the other was the control). At the end of the training period, the men's exercised legs increased in size and were 30 percent stronger. At that age, that's an excellent return on your investment of time and effort.
Increased strength through proper resistance training does not just mean you get stronger; it means you develop more muscle power too. Muscle power is the ability to produce force quickly - it helps you avoid falling down by reacting quickly to a stumble and do daily tasks, like getting out of a car or chair. Don't confuse raw strength with muscle power.
Avoiding or reversing sarcopenia is just one benefit strength training provides, keeping your bone health and density is another. One study of a group of postmenopausal women in their 50s, who did just two weight lifting exercises twice a week for a year, showed an increase in their spinal bone density of about half a percent. That may not sound like much, but the group that didn't do the exercises lost over 3 percent of the bone density in their spine. That was just in one year - think about what would happen over a decade.
The point I am trying to make is that there is tremendous value in adding or keeping strength training as a part of your fitness routine. Cardiovascular exercise is important -
yoga and pilates, dance classes, and spinning are all wonderful activities to participate in -
but it is not a substitute for strength training.
It does not take much to make a difference in the health of your bones and to help you keep the muscle you have; a couple times a week is plenty, as long as you focus on your "big" muscle groups (legs, back and chest). Lifting weights is one of your best defenses against the loss of your independence and mobility as you age; for your health and quality of life, please include it in your workout routine.