The Many Benefits of Strength Training… Even For You, Graybeard

The Wall Street Journal article profiles Tim Carrigan, who when he reached 50, suffered lower back so severe that he could barely walk. Like many injuries that become more pronounced as we age, Carrigan’s happened in a childhood accident.

The pain was intermittent and the muscle tone that was lost happened slowly, but finally he realized that needed to do something.

Here’s Carrigan doing something:

He did strength training twice a week on a circuit of a dozen of weight machines. Two times per week of strength training is the minimum required to improve strength and body composition, and to get on track for experiencing the many benefits of strength training.

Soon, Carrigan was feeling better, stronger, and sleeping better.

This is completely unsurprising.

In The Anti-aging Effects of Exercise, I concluded:

… with exercise, you get less fat, more mobility, greater strength, and resistance to dreaded old age diseases like dementia and Alzheimer’s…. Given that in the United States, only 5% of adults are meeting what might be described as minimal physical activity guidelines, and with the obesity statistics getting absurd, it’s time to join the minority and have a long, strong life.

 

You Can Do It!

Once upon a time there was some bunk circulating in the ether that said older adults were too frail to pump iron. Now the research demonstrates that strength training helps stave off age-related disability, preserve bone mass (particularly) in women and even boosts brainpower.

“It’s way more dangerous to not be active as an older adult,” says Miriam Nelson, professor of nutrition at Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy in Boston. (1)

She sure is right, and so get a handle on the following six pointers and strength training benefits culled from the aforementioned Wall Street Journal article (2):

1. You can train intensely and safely at any age as long as you prepare right and exercise with good form. A healthy person at 60 can gain two to three pounds of lean muscle in as short as six months, and this is without optimizing nutrition.
2. Beyond their physical benefits, cardiovascular workouts aid in memory tasks and strength training boosts “executive function” or higher-level brain tasks.
3. Strength training can improve mobility and reduce pain in arthritic joints.
4. When strength training, older adults should ingest 1.5 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight, spread throughout the day. Take two-thirds of your weight in pounds, and the resulting number is roughly your daily protein per day in grams.
5. Make sure you don’t begin your exercise regimen injured.  Although exercise can speed up the healing process, you must know what you’re doing and should be guided by a trainer, physical therapist or doctor if you’re injured or are otherwise encumbered.
6. Know the proper form.  Don’t necessarily copy what others are doing in the gym, because many people do not use proper form.  Get a trainer to show you how to exercise. It’s worth the expense.