We may wonder why society encourages older people to slow down and take it easy as they get more candles on their birthday cake.
Many of us laugh and say "Not to worry you are only as old as you feel" But the truth is you will not feel very young for long if you do not take care of your strength and fitness.
The problem with 'aging gracefully' and other such notions is that it really means inactively and sedentary.
It is bad enough that 8 out of 10 adults do not do enough muscle building and maintaining activity as it is but to further encourage inactivity in older people is a recipe for the nursing home.
We fall and break a hip because of muscles that have become weak and are unable to hold us up when we get off balance.
We get put into a wheelchair from disability caused by lack of muscle strength and we get put into a nursing home when our body becomes so weak from 20-30 or more years of disuse that we can no longer perform the necessities of daily living.
The villain here is a relatively new condition that did not even have a name 20 years ago.
Sarcopenia is a gradual wasting away of lean muscle tissue from one's body.
Usually seen in physically inactive people this condition is responsible for robbing both men and women of their strength, health, mobility and ultimately their independence in the last third of life.
But this loss of muscle tissue is not something that has happened suddenly.
It would have been happening in a stealth-like fashion very single year at a rate of around one half pound since the mid 20's.
That is unless enough muscle building and maintaining activity has been done throughout the years to prevent it.
Loss of muscle tissue is the single most serious long term threats to health as adult's age.
It is often not obvious as an increase of body fat settles into places where firm muscle tissue used to be.
Often the bathroom scales may not show a change in weight but body composition (muscle/fat ratio) has changed considerably.
The gradual loss of muscle seriously weakens the whole body.
It weakens the muscular system, the bones of the skeleton, immune system, cardiovascular (heart/lung) system, along with all cells, tissues and organs.
Without the challenge of proper strength building and maintaining exercise, your body has no stimulus to repair and rebuild itself so cells tissues weaken and become prone to disease.
But the very good news is just a simple proper exercise program containing mostly strength training exercise can prevent most of this decline in muscle tissue loss and strength.
Just 2-3 times each week is all that is needed to keep ones strength and functionality.
And yes, some responsibility and some personal action are needed to make this happen.
Your local gym or fitness center can provide everything you need to get started and never stop so this dreadful situation does not happen to you.
Many of us laugh and say "Not to worry you are only as old as you feel" But the truth is you will not feel very young for long if you do not take care of your strength and fitness.
The problem with 'aging gracefully' and other such notions is that it really means inactively and sedentary.
It is bad enough that 8 out of 10 adults do not do enough muscle building and maintaining activity as it is but to further encourage inactivity in older people is a recipe for the nursing home.
We fall and break a hip because of muscles that have become weak and are unable to hold us up when we get off balance.
We get put into a wheelchair from disability caused by lack of muscle strength and we get put into a nursing home when our body becomes so weak from 20-30 or more years of disuse that we can no longer perform the necessities of daily living.
The villain here is a relatively new condition that did not even have a name 20 years ago.
Sarcopenia is a gradual wasting away of lean muscle tissue from one's body.
Usually seen in physically inactive people this condition is responsible for robbing both men and women of their strength, health, mobility and ultimately their independence in the last third of life.
But this loss of muscle tissue is not something that has happened suddenly.
It would have been happening in a stealth-like fashion very single year at a rate of around one half pound since the mid 20's.
That is unless enough muscle building and maintaining activity has been done throughout the years to prevent it.
Loss of muscle tissue is the single most serious long term threats to health as adult's age.
It is often not obvious as an increase of body fat settles into places where firm muscle tissue used to be.
Often the bathroom scales may not show a change in weight but body composition (muscle/fat ratio) has changed considerably.
The gradual loss of muscle seriously weakens the whole body.
It weakens the muscular system, the bones of the skeleton, immune system, cardiovascular (heart/lung) system, along with all cells, tissues and organs.
Without the challenge of proper strength building and maintaining exercise, your body has no stimulus to repair and rebuild itself so cells tissues weaken and become prone to disease.
But the very good news is just a simple proper exercise program containing mostly strength training exercise can prevent most of this decline in muscle tissue loss and strength.
Just 2-3 times each week is all that is needed to keep ones strength and functionality.
And yes, some responsibility and some personal action are needed to make this happen.
Your local gym or fitness center can provide everything you need to get started and never stop so this dreadful situation does not happen to you.
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