Strength Training and Seniors

Anti Aging Exercise

Strength training is good for everyone…especially seniors.

Wisdom is the reward that seniors enjoy. The experiences of life have tempered them and wisdom is the result.

That’s a good thing.

But aging also presents numerous health and fitness challenges and is the very reason we need to adopt some form of weight training, strength training or resistance training.

Exercise can add years to your life and life to your years. It can slow and even reverse many components of the aging process. It can rejuvenate you and take years off your chronological age.

Strength training exercise (resistance training) is the most effective exercise in addressing the biomarkers that effect not only how young we look but how young we feel.

Strength is no longer a luxury as we age…it is an absolute necessity for healthy longevity.Increasing strength is now a proven way to make the aging process turn around at the genetic level within the cell.

After you exercise, you change the chemical makeup of your blood for eight to 12 hours. So basically for the majority of your day you are regenerating cells and building a better body and brain. A well-conditioned sixty-year old is equivalent to a sedentary forty-year-old.

Molecular, hormonal, enzymatic and chemical levels are all positively changed for the better with resistance training.

Here’s 8 ways that strength training or resistance exercise keeps your body young:

Builds Muscle: This is the obvious one. Age steals away our muscles…they actually decline 5-10 percent every decade after the age of 50. Muscle loss results in a decline in strength, injuries and illnesses. Without training, by the time someone reaches 80 years of age nearly 50 percent of muscle mass will have deteriorated.

Quicker Metabolism: As we age our metabolism naturally slows down. Resistance training stimulates your metabolism which burns calories while you are resting. More muscle requires more calories so those who are stronger can have the same kind of metabolism they had when they were twenty years young.

Builds Bone Density: Osteoporosis is a condition that generally sets in as we age if our bones have not been properly tended to. Resistance training slows down bone loss and stimulates new bone growth.

Improved Cardiovascular health: Your heart and lungs work hard during resistance training making them more efficient and protecting you against a host of cardiovascular diseases.

Blood Glucose Control: Strength training is super beneficial for keeping glucose levels under control. It’s imperative to normalize glucose levels in order to avoid cardiovascular disease.

Burns Fat: Most times when people diet it’s because they want to lose excess fat. Strength training is the only solution to altering your body composition…your muscle to fat ratio.

Improves Sleep: Strength training provides the same kind of benefits that medication does…without the side effects. Those who use resistance training regularly rarely encounter sleep issues.

Strong Core: A strong core means good posture. Poor posture is often seen in older people…a strong core alleviates any pressure on your lower back. When the muscles around your lower spine are strong it’s a whole lots easier to rise up or sit down.

Not only is strength training a key component to looking and feeling young, it increases cognitive functions and our overall quality of life.