There’s strength in keeping up exercise routine
“YOU can’t stop yourself from ageing, but you can certainly prevent yourself from getting old.”
It’s a mantra that sports scientist and National Fitness Day ambassador David Nolan swears by.
And the secret to staying younger than the number of candles on your birthday cake? Plenty of exercise.
Not just cardiovascular workouts, such as walking, but weight training too.
That’s right, the older you get, the more important it is to put your muscles under stress, so that you can either slow down or reverse the natural decline in muscle mass.
“Strength training has a wealth of benefits for people’s health, especially as they grow older and suffer from age-related loss of muscle strength,” David told Fitter Happier.
“It has a massive consequence on people’s health and independence going into old age.
“Strength training is a real antidote to frailty and this loss of independence that we see in older people.
“Our muscle mass and strength tend to peak around the age of 30 and after that we see slow, steady decline. But exercise prevents or slows down this decline.
“Strength seems to be a bigger indicator of health than muscle size. And strength can easily be increased significantly in older adults with strength training.
“So even if they are not getting bigger, just increasing strength will improve overall function and quality of life.
“People often forget that the exercise guidelines recommend that we strength train twice a week.
“While people are familiar with the 150 minutes of aerobic exercise per week, they often forget that we should be strength training too.”
BUT I DON’T WANT TO BULK UP…
David Nolan said: “At a society level, our attitudes towards strength training have changed in recent years.
“People would have had misconceptions about going to the gym and strength training, thinking lifting weights is only for aesthetic reasons.
“The science over the past couple of decades is overwhelming and shows the benefits of strength training for people of all ages, from children right through to older adults.
Ability
“Strength training is the ability to stand up and down out of your chair by yourself.
“If you struggle to do that, practicing that a handful of times every day is going to improve your ability to carry out basic functions of daily living.”
“If you don’t have the strength in your legs to stand up out of your chair by yourself, then you don’t have the ability to go to the toilet by yourself.
“You might not have the ability to dress yourself.
“So that is what strength is, these abilities that a lot of us take for granted. Those of us with lower levels of muscular strength have a higher risk of disease and mortality.”
I’M TOO OLD TO START PUMPING IRON…
David Nolan said: “People think that because they are in their 60s it’s too late to start.
“But studies have been carried out on people who start strength training in their 80s and they were able to build muscle and strength after 12 weeks.
“The American College of Sports Medicine specifically warn against under-dosing and under-training older adults.
“The problem is, we have this perception that if we are old we need to go easy, and that we shouldn’t push older people hard, but their muscles still need this stress in order to force them to adapt and grow.
“Just because you are old, it doesn’t mean you are past it or you can’t train hard.”
SO WHAT SHOULD I BE DOING?
David Nolan said: “You should be focusing on whole body movements that involve a lot of muscles and movements in their joints.
“You should be doing exercises that potentially mimic the tasks you are going to be doing in their daily lives.
“When you think about the risks of falls and fractures in older adults, it usually comes from a lack of lower body strength and ability.
“So you want to be doing exercises like squats, picking stuff off the floor, like deadlifts, or loaded carries.
“Stuff that challenges whole-body movements, multiple muscles and multiple joints, and then mimics tasks they are going to face in their everyday lives.
Balance
“This will improve strength and balance.”
WHERE DO I START?
David Nolan said: “No matter what you are doing, even doing a little bit more is going to improve your health.
“Don’t think you have to go from zero to the guidelines straight away. Every stepping stone towards that is going to lead to an improvement in health.
“Strength training or loaded resistance training is the best way to improve bone density and bone strength. So even if you do fall, you will have a reduced risk of fracture. “If you look at some of the data around the economic costs of frailty and age-related muscle strength, it costs billions every year globally in terms of an economic burden.
“If people are frail, they are more likely to fall, they will be in the health system and will need more support.
“If people are stronger, it has public health and economic benefits.”