Not only should older adults exercise to prevent loss of strength and muscle as they age, butthe “golden years” can be good for getting stronger, according to a study carried out by the University of Michigan (USA), which recommends doingresistance exercises from 50, or even 40, “forincrease muscle tissue and the ability to function more efficiently in daily life“.
Normally,Sedentary adults over the age of 50 can expect a loss of muscle mass of up to 180 grams per year. This only gets worse as people get older. But even earlier in adulthood, in your 30s, 40s, 50s, you can start to see deterioration if you don’t do activities to build strength, “says Mark Peterson, a researcher in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Michigan. “Our analyzes show that it doesn’t matter how old a person is, because they can improve their strength significantly with progressive resistance exercises, even in their 80s and 90s,” he says.
Progressive resistance training means that the amount of weight used, the frequency, and the duration of training sessions are altered over time to accommodate individual progress. In an article published in the magazineThe American Journal of Medicine, Peterson and colleagues show that after an average of18-20 weeks of progressive resistance training, an adult canadd more than 1,000 grams of muscle and increase your overall strength by 25 to 30 percent.
Peterson concludes that everyone over the age of 50 should seriously consider participating in resistance exercise. A good way to start a resistance training program, especially for relatively sedentary people – and after you have a doctor’s permission to do so – is to use your own body mass as the weight for various exercises. Exercises you can do using your own body weight include squatting, hip lifts, as well as non-traditional exercises that progress through a full range of motion, such asTai Chi the Yoga of Pilates. After getting used to these activities, older adults can do amore advanced resistance training in a gym. A professional coach with experience with special groups can help you make the transition.
As resistance training progresses and weights and machines are introduced, Peterson recommends incorporating full-body exercises that use more than one joint and muscle group simultaneously, such asleg, chest and rowing exercises. These are safer and more effective in building muscle mass.
