Sunday, October 15, 2006 Paquiao: Strength training for seniors By Calixto S. Paquiao Fitness & you
STRENGTH training programs are meeting the demand of the now aging generation who will invest in maintaining youthful health, mobility and physical grace. In the past few years there has been a lot of interest in the aging process and in strategies for delaying degenerative problems. Although we grow older physical inactivity appears to accelerate the adverse effects of aging.
It is an unfortunate fact that about 90 percent of all Filipinos do too little exercise to receive any fitness benefits. Most of those who do perform regular exercise, engage in aerobic activities such as walking, jogging, cycling, dancing and swimming. Although those activities are beneficial to our cardiovascular system, they do little to prevent deterioration of our musculoskeletal system. Unless we perform strength building exercise, we lose approximately five to seven pounds of lean-lean tissue (mostly muscle) every decade. Because our muscles are the engines of our bodies, this loss has a major impact on our physical ability and functional capacity. In essence, we go from an eight cylinder engine to a six-cylinder engine to a four-cylinder engine.
The average aging adult addresses weight gain by periodically dieting. Unfortunately dieting without exercise is largely counterproductive. First about 25 percent of the weight loss from low-calorie diets is muscle tissue. This further reduces the resting metabolism. Second, about 95 percent of all dieters regain the weight they lose within one year. Because the regained weight is mostly fat, their body composition becomes worse after each diet. That’s the reason why most dieters regain the weight lost because the muscles are not being activated. Just bear in mind that active muscles are responsible for burning especially surface fats.
Most adults misunderstand the cause and solution to the weight gain problem. They do not realize that the loss of muscle leads to the addition of fat. They are even less aware that the loss of muscle is related to osteoporosis (bone thinning) and a variety of degenerative diseases.
Several studies have demonstrated that seniors can increase their strength and muscle mass. Researchers studied senior men and women who performed about 30 minutes of strength exercise three days per week for a period of 12 weeks. They added three pounds of muscle and lost four pounds of fat while eating 370 additional calories per day to maintain their initial bodyweight. This represents a win-win-situation in which brief strength training sessions enabled the exercisers to simultaneously add muscle, lose fat and actually eat more food.
If one’s training objective is to reduce body weight, strength exercise in conjunction with endurance exercise and low-fat nutrition appears to be highly effective in this regard.
In a study I conducted, 60 adults and 50 seniors performed 25 minutes of strength exercise and 25 minutes of endurance exercise two or three days for a period or eight weeks, the adults gained three pounds of muscle and lost about nine pounds of fat, for a 12 pound improvement in body composition. In addition to increasing their muscle mass, the 110 subjects increased their strength by more than 50 percent! Not only that their blood lipid levels and glucose metabolism improved better. Most of those who suffered back pain and arthritis lost their discomfort.
So, if you want to improve your physical condition and at the same time regain back your lost strength why don’t you engage yourself in strength training. Getting old is not the reason why you shy away from physical activity. In fact the more you improve your strength the more you feel good and healthy. It’s not too late.
