Resistance Training To Prevent Ageing

Most people over 50 associate exercise with light cardio or aerobic based exercise like cycling or walking but there is a lot of evidence to prove that there are just as many benefits from resistance or lifting weights in terms of decreasing the signs of ageing.

• Start doing some resistance based exercises 3 times a week using just your body weight such as squats, lunges and push ups. These exercises utilise the body weight to put stress on the muscles to repair and restore muscle loss
• If you are the member of a gym get in and start lifting weights. You shouldn't avoid lifting just because you are over 50 but actually it can help show real benefits. Just make sure you give a little longer to recover between workouts
• Exercise the body as a whole so when doing a weights session do movements that use more than one body part or join instead of single isolation moves such as a bicep curl, do a shoulder press instead.
• Do a weight or resistance workout 3 times a week for at least 30 minutes to see any gains

Why exercise?

Many clients I see over the age of 50 want to reverse the signs of ageing but this isn't possible.

You cant stop it obviously but maintaining an active lifestyle is essential to stop the declines mentioned at the start of the article.

Doing cardio work is proven to slow the signs of ageing because elevating your heart rate and keeping it elevated will strengthen the heart tissue and also helps keep delivery of oxygen and using that oxygen running effectively. It also helps to maintain elasticity in the arteries which will lower the risk of heart disease and other similar complications as you get older.

Resistance training is essential to maintain muscle and bone mass. Doing weight bearing exercise which resistance is (as well as cardio) puts stress through the bone tissue and makes it stronger and maintains that strength into your 50's. Lifting weights causes micro tears in the muscle and when you recover this tissue is repaired making it stronger and also increasing the amount of muscle mass you have. Slowing down the loss to about 0.5% or stopping it completely.

See Also: Study: Senior Citizens Benefit From 'High-Intensity Training'

Combining the points above with good nutrition will also help to decrease the risk of heart diseases and other complications that can occur as a result of age. If you are just starting to exercise then remember you need to start slowly and the worst thing you can do is to go to hard too soon because this will lead to injury and make the signs worse or stop you exercising altogether. But the best way to prevent the signs of ageing isn't using face creams or putting crazy foods on your eyes and skin but actually exercising and letting the body improve itself to maintain a great level of fitness to help with daily life.