Raise your hand if you often find yourself taking the stairs. What about carrying heavy grocery bags? How about picking up your kids or grandkids? Most of us would raise our hands and do at least one of these every week or even every day.
As you age, it may become increasingly difficult to perform some physical tasks, even those normal activities of daily living. However, as you age, prioritizing your physical health and wellness can help you go about your normal daily life without feeling physically exhausted at the end of the day.
It can also help you continue to make special memories with your family and loved ones that you might not have had if you weren’t physically active. For example, when my dad was in his 60s, I ran two half marathons with him!
I’m an exercise physiologist who studies how people use resistance training to improve human performance, whether in sports and other recreational settings, in daily life, or both. I am also a certified strength and conditioning specialist. My career has given me the opportunity to design exercise programs for children, college athletes, and seniors.
Staying physically active as you age doesn’t need to include running a half marathon or trying to become a bodybuilder; it can be as simple as trying to get through the day without feeling out of breath after climbing a flight of stairs. Although our muscles naturally weaken as we age, there are ways we can combat this to help improve our quality of life as we age.
Muscle loss and chronic disease
No matter who I work with, one of the most important parts of an exercise program is proper resistance training to build muscle strength. Some degree of age-related loss of muscle function is normal and inevitable. However, by incorporating appropriate and safe resistance training at any ability level, you can slow down the rate of decline and even prevent loss of muscle function.
The medical term for a condition involving age-related loss of muscle function and mass is sarcopenia. Sarcopenia can begin as early as age 40, but is more common in adults 60 and older. Sarcopenia is associated with many health problems, such as increased risk of falls, cardiovascular disease, and metabolic disease.
In a previous study by our team, we found that healthy individuals with sarcopenia have problems delivering important nutrients to their muscles. This can lead to a greater likelihood of various diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, and slow recovery from exercise.
Recent estimates indicate that sarcopenia affects 10% to 16% of the elderly population worldwide. But even if a person doesn’t have a clinical diagnosis of sarcopenia, they may still have underlying symptoms that, if left unaddressed, can lead to sarcopenia.
Strength training is key
So the question is, how to reverse this decline?
Recent evidence suggests that one of the key factors leading to sarcopenia is low muscle strength. In other words, combating or reversing sarcopenia, or both, is best accomplished through a proper resistance training program that prioritizes improving strength. In fact, muscle strength appears to decline much faster than muscle size, highlighting the importance of proper strength training as we age.
Continuing regular strength training with moderate to heavy weights has been shown to be effective not only in combating the symptoms of sarcopenia, but also in improving them. Very safe when done correctly. The best way to ensure you’re doing strength training correctly is to seek guidance from a qualified person, such as a personal trainer or strength and conditioning specialist.
Despite the clear benefits of strength training, research shows that only about 13% of Americans age 50 and older engage in some form of training Strength training at least twice a week.
Find what works for you
So how does a person perform strength training correctly as they age?
The American Strength and Conditioning Association, the world’s leading organization promoting strength and conditioning, states that for older adults, two to three days of strength training per week can be very helpful in maintaining muscle and bone health and combating some chronic diseases. situation.
The organization recommends that these workouts involve one to two exercises involving multiple joints per major muscle group, with each set being repeated 6 to 12 times. The intensity of these exercises ranges from 50 to 85 percent of the so-called one-rep max (the maximum weight you can hold for a single repetition), except for bodyweight exercises that use your own body weight as resistance, such as push-ups.
I also recommend resting for about two to three minutes between sets, or even up to five minutes if the set is challenging. For older adults, especially those 60 and older, American Strength and Conditioning Association guidelines recommend doing this program two to three days per week, with 24 to 48 hours between sessions.
Make life’s tasks easier
The above guides are just a sample of many options, but they provide a framework you can use to build your own programs. However, I strongly recommend that you seek out a professional in the field to provide specific exercise program recommendations that can be tailored to your own needs and goals as you age.
Following a program like this will provide your muscles with an excellent stimulus to build strength while also allowing for adequate recovery, a very important consideration as people age. You might think this seems like a lot of time, but daily exercise like this can be done in less than an hour. This means that less than three hours of strength training per week can help improve muscle health and reduce the risk of sarcopenia and related health problems.
It’s also important to note that there is no right way to perform resistance training, and it doesn’t require the use of traditional weight lifting equipment. Group classes like Pilates and yoga, or classes that involve circuit training and the use of resistance bands, can produce similar results. The key is to get out and exercise regularly, no matter what it takes.
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