Weight Training for Seniors

Study after study has found the single most important thing a person can do to slow down and even reverse the aging process is regular exercise. Fitness, not fatness may be the real key to health and longevity, according to a survey which followed 22,000 men over an eight year period. True proponents say an active senior can slow the aging process by up to ten years on average, without exotic hormone injections or surgical tucks.

However, seniors often perceive barriers to exercise. "I'm too old to do that or I have a chronic condition," are the standard replies. Also, there's a huge misconception that only exercise done at an intense pace is valuable. In truth, every little bit counts. Even if it's been a long time since you last ventured out to the work place or for a brisk walk, it may be just what your body is craving.

Although aerobics was the "in" fitness trend of the 80s and 90s, many felt something was missing from that fitness regiment. If lacked balance. What good was physical fitness if you still could not carry your luggage through an airport? Experts began looking at different ways to correct this imbalance and determined one of the best methods is strength training.

For most of us, muscle strength peaks between ages 20 and 30 and slowly declines afterward at a rate of about one percent per year. Over the past two decades, researchers have taken a closer look at strength training and found it can have an extremely beneficial effect on bone mass as well as muscle. NASA studies found with the absence of the pull of gravity, when bones were no longer required to support the weight of the body--they began to deteriorate rapidly. When a person is bedridden, he or she may lose as much as five percent of bone mass per month!