The secret to feeling better and living longer is exercise. Regular exercise can prevent diabetes and heart trouble. It can also reduce arthritis pain, anxiety and depression. It can help maintain independence.
Seniors need resistance training to build muscle and bone. Resistance training keeps the body limber and flexible. It improves balance to reduce the risk of falls.
If you are interested in feeling stronger, healthier and more vital, a strength training program is for you. Strengthening exercises increase the strength of your muscles, maintains and builds bones, improves your balance, coordination and mobility. The health benefits far outweigh the risk of injury, a concern that prevents many elderly people from adding more physical activity to their lives.
Research has shown that resistance exercises are both safe and effective for women and men of all ages, including those who are not in very good health. In fact, people with health concerns benefit from lifting weights a few times each week.
ARTHRITIS RELIEF
Tufts University recently completed a strength training program with older men and women with knee arthritis. The results showed that strength training decreased pain by 43%, increased muscle strength and general physical performance, improved symptoms of the disease and decreased disability. In the study resistance training was just as effective if not more effective than medications for easing pain. Similar effects of resistance training have been seen in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
RESTORATION OF BALANCE
As people age, poor balance and flexibility contribute to falls and broken bones. Resistance exercises increase flexibility and balance, which decrease the likelihood and severity of falls.
STRENGTHEN BONE
Post menopausal women can lose 1-2% of their bone mass every year. Results from studies showed that resistance training increases bone density and reduces the risk for fractures.
PROPER WEIGHT MAINTENANCE
Strength training is crucial to weight control because more muscle means a higher metabolic rate. Muscle is active tissue that consumes calories while fat uses very little energy. Strength training is extremely helpful for weight loss and long-term weight control.
BLOOD SUGAR
Studies show that resistance training has a profound impact on helping older adults manage diabetes. In a recent study, resistance training produced dramatic improvements in blood sugar that are comparable to taking medications. In addition, the men and women in the study were stronger, gained muscle, lost body fat, had less depression and felt more confident.
HEALTHY STATE OF MIND
Strength training provides similar improvements for depression as anti-depressant medications. Currently, it is not known if this is because people feel better when they are stronger or if strength training produces a helpful biochemical change in the brain. It is most likely both.
SLEEP IMPROVEMENT
People who exercise regularly fall asleep more quickly, sleep more deeply, awaken less often and sleep longer. As with depression, the sleep benefits obtained as a result of resistance training are comparable to treatment with medications but without the side effects or the expense.
HEALTHY HEART
Studies have prompted the American Heart Association to recommend resistance training as a way to reduce risk of heart disease and as therapy for patients in cardiac rehabilitation programs.
Scientific research has shown that resistance exercise can slow the aging clock. Studies have shown that lifting weights 2 or 3 times a week increases strength by building muscle mass and bone density.
One 12-month study conducted on postmenopausal women showed 1% gains in hip and spine bone density, 75% increase in strength and 13% increase in balance with just 2 days per week of strength training. The control group had losses in bone, strength and balance. Strength training can also have a profound effect on reducing falls, the number one cause of death in the elderly.
