Seniors – patients – buff up or lose it.  My swim coach is transitioning me to the eleven-pound weights in our water workouts and I’m FEELING GOOD.

Feeling good includes decreased blood pressure and increased flexibility to bend over and pick up something from the floor, reaching up to an overhead cupboard and angling a heavy pan down from the shelf, and, gasp! – feeling formally loose fitting underwear snug tight around my thighs.

Why is tight underwear important?  Because it means – to me – that muscle is building around my hip joints to protect my bone on bone left hip from injury and enabling me to have a more mobile life. … From a patient point of view.  Ask your doctor what strength and aerobic exercising will  do for you as a senior or as a patient.

Feeling good means my left leg and joints aren’t frozen in place and my left ankle flexes again to help walk and balance.

Does that mean I threw the walking sticks away?  No – not yet, maybe never…they are tools to assist in a more secure balance and living.  They tie on to a recumbent trike so I can ride and have them to assist getting out of the seat.

“…If people lose 30% of their muscle strength between the ages of 50 and 70 years according to “Deutsches Arzteblatt International, Frank Mayer and colleagues from the University of Potsdam conclude that progressive strength (resistance) training counteracts muscular atrophy in old age (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2011; 108(21): 359-64).”

“Study Of Strength Training For Seniors Finds Increased Muscle Strength, Reduced Muscular Atrophy

….

The authors investigated the extent of the effects that can be achieved by strength (resistance) training in elderly persons and which intensities of exercise are useful and possible in persons older than 60 years. They found that regular strength (resistance) training increased muscle strength, reduced muscular atrophy, and that tendons and bones adapt too. These successes in turn had a preventive effect in terms of avoiding falls and injuries. Greater intensities of training yielded greater effects than moderate and low intensities. In order to increase muscle mass, an intensity of 60-85% of the one-repetition-maximum is required. In order to increase rapidly available muscle force, higher intensities (>85%) are required. The optimum amount of exercise for healthy elderly persons is 3 to 4 training units per week.

In the coming decades, the importance of maintaining the ability to work and to make a living will increase, as will the need for independence in everyday life and leisure activities. The increase in the retirement age to 67 years from 2012 means that one in three adults of working age will be older than 50 by 2020, and by 2050, the proportion of people older than 60 in Germany’s population will rise to an estimated 40%. Currently, the proportion of elderly persons who practice strength (resistance) training is about 10-15%.”

Dr. Frank Mayer

Deutsches Aerzteblatt International

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/228254.php

Thanks for reading… Sharon O’Hara