Research by Penn State College of Medicine, Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and Columbia University has delivered more than a few surprises. As well as making people fitter, strength training helps against “diabetes, osteoporosis, low back pain and obesity”, just as an entrée to the main research. Now the really big deals — It also helps against cardiac diseases and cancer, reducing rates of death by 41 percent (@#$@#@$@???!!!) in cardiac disease, and 19 percent for cancers.
If you’re thinking sedentary lifestyles have a lot to do with the cardiac figures, bingo. Turning in to a pile of flabby gel can be very hazardous to your health, and your wallet. It’s unclear why strength training would show such high value against cancers, though.
Of course there’s a catch
The catch is that the best results were observed in married younger white males at the lower end of the age spectrum. These people also abstain from alcohol and tobacco, but the figures hold good for the higher 60+ age bracket. For the purposes of this article, we are assuming these people don’t live in suits in coffins in dolls houses.
(Fascinates me that so much new tech can be invented for any type of purpose, useless or otherwise, but no safe stimulants or stress reducers? Come on…How believable is that?)
The good news is that instead of using a gym until you become part of the furniture and have no conversation but your workout routines, you only need to do strength training twice a week.
A few pointers:
1. DO NOT, EVER, take on weights you may not be able to handle. Learn what’s possible and what’s suicidal.
2. Manage your exercise so you don’t kill yourself. (Douglas Adams, the author of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, actually died at the gym quite young at 49 as a result of an unsuspected cardiac condition, while he still had a few good books left in him at least.)
3. Strength training can be simply lifting easy weights over a period of time — no need to try for Olympic levels, just stick to obviously useful workout levels.
4. Good strength training makes you feel noticeably better. Your breathing improves, as does your confidence and stamina.
5. Yes, a pro trainer can help you avoid the risks and focus on needs. It’s also a lot cheaper than dying of expensive diseases.
You can check out a few videos on this link to see what they mean by “strength training for seniors”. Take the time to think about why these exercises work, and what’s getting exercised, and you’ll see why this type of training is so useful.
