Strength training for elderly: Why is it never too late to start?

Being young, you are engrossed in the career race, growing your family and making old age better. As busy youth, most of us forget to take care of our health. This can affect us later in life too.

While you age, life slows down. Ageing is a natural process everyone goes through. Your working hours become less. You tend to spend more hours sitting. There are fewer physical activities in which you get involved. This sedentary lifestyle affects you physically, physiologically and mentally.

A] Changes in the body when you age

• Physiological changes: The body is made of millions of cells. With age, the number and size of the cells start declining. This reduction in cells affects the internal organs of the body. The heart becomes weak and pumps less blood, leading to hypertension. The kidney filters less than required, leading to toxins accumulation in the body. The liver also becomes weak, which leads to less production of red blood cells, deficiency of vitamin D, less cell regeneration and less production of glucose for fuel. The eyesight becomes weak. There is a decline in brain cells.
• Physical changes: Once you cross thirty, your muscle mass tends to reduce. There is an accumulation of more fat mass. The bones start becoming porous. The posture of the body changes if you don’t take care. The shoulders start drooping. The joints get stiff. The skin wrinkles.

• Mental changes:Once you age your brain cells decline, you become more forgetful. With retirement, you have more time in hand, but if you are not involved in any hobbies, you might feel lonely and depressed, or you will spend more time on the couch. This affects the body through weight gain, poor eating habits, deranged blood reports, weak bones, diabetes, stroke and lifestyle-related diseases.

All these changes mentioned above happen in due course of time as ageing is a slow process. You can prevent these changes if you engage yourself in some physical activity. It is very aptly said, use it or lose it. Once you start working out, your body transforms tremendously. The best part of the exercises is that you can perform the workouts at home, under professional supervision.

We have several questions in mind when we want to start working out later in life in our retirement age. Is it advisable for a senior individual to start the workout at his age with no history of exercise? Will the workout make the person weak? Will the senior person be able to lift the weights? How will a senior perform strength or resistance training?

Let us put an end to all your worries. Old age is just a number. You are old only if you think old. There are various exercises that any senior can perform. The only thing to keep in mind is to always consult a certified trainer before initiating any workout.

B] Exercises that seniors can perform

• Endurance: Endurance workouts include different cardio exercises, like walks, swimming, jogging, cycling, dancing, yoga and pilates. Endurance workout helps to improve heart function, maintains blood sugars, normalises high blood pressure, aids weight loss, improves PCOS and metabolic syndrome and keeps the brain cells healthy. It helps in excellent blood circulation in the body, which keeps all the internal organs healthy.You can perform the endurance workout at least thrice a week. Always adjust the frequency of workouts according to your requirement after consulting your trainer. You can also try different combinations of workouts during the week according to your liking. Combining the workouts prevents the weight loss plateau and keeps you motivated throughout.
• Strength: Strength training is generally related to people who want to build muscles or young adults who want to gain weight. But on the contrary, people of any age or gender can perform strength training. Strength training is a combination of weight training and resistance training. Weight training is when you use external weights for exercising. These include dead lifts, bicep curls, triceps pushdowns, overhead presses and leg presses. Whereas, strength training is when you use your weight to exercise. These include squats, lunges, push-ups, triceps dips, power training, and plank.It is advisable to balance your cardio and strength workout to maintain your internal health and outer physical appearance. You can perform muscle-strengthening training two to three times a week under professional supervision.

C] Benefits of strength training

• Increased muscle strength: Weight training helps to retain the original structure of every cell. The cell maintains its tenacity, absorbs adequate water to keep the muscle hydrated and also helps in increasing the number of muscle cells. With regular weight training, you can gain muscle strength. It is always better to regularly indulge in strength training or else the muscles lose all the strength. Without exercise, the muscles dehydrate and lose elasticity.

• Delayed ageing:Strength training helps to keep the skin healthy and glowing. Exercises help in enough blood circulation that transfers nutrients and removes toxins. With fewer toxins in the body, the skin becomes clear, glowing and remains elastic. Strength training keeps you away from sagging skin and wrinkles. With full muscles, the skin too looks tight and flawless. Sudden weight loss leads to stretch marks on the body. But weight loss with adequate strength training saves you from unnecessary stretch marks.
• Strong bones:Strength training helps to absorb more calcium from food. Not only it absorbs more but, with weight training, there is more calcium deposited in the bones. This regular supply of calcium along with other minerals prevents bones from getting porous and suffering from osteoporosis.

• Balanced gait:With old age, there is an imbalance while walking. It can lead to severe injury if the imbalance worsens. This can be partly because of reduced brain cell function or due to weak bones and muscles. Regular strength training ensures adequate blood supply to the brain cells, strong muscles and bones and a balanced gait.
• Flexibility:People have the wrong notion, that if you perform strength training, you lose your flexibility. Instead with firm muscles, there is maximum elasticity a person can ever have. Combining yoga with strength training helps to improve the flexibility of an individual.

• Alert mind:Exercising during the daytime keeps you active and fresh. It helps in managing the body’s normal metabolism. Enough blood is pumped from the heart throughout the day which keeps the brain cells active. There is no resistance between the exchange of nutrients in the brain that keeps the mind alert.
• Emotional stability:Exercising releases feel-good hormones. It releases endorphins that lead to a euphoric stage and helps to keep depression at bay. Regular exercise keeps you active the whole day which tends to you to get involved in some or the other activities. The whole day when you are busy, there is no lonely feeling or anxiety or depression one can experience.

Conclusion:

Once you start ageing, wealth and health are the only things that matter. It will be wise to invest your time in maintaining a healthy lifestyle, indulging in regular exercises, clean eating and living life to the fullest. The most important thing to keep in mind is to always enquire with a professional, before taking any decision regarding your health.