You can’t stop the aging process, but you can slow it down through lifestyle habits that include a healthy diet, physical activity, stress management. Strength training is an integral part of your anti-aging toolkit. In fact, you can think of strength training as a form of physical therapy for slowing how quickly your body ages. Strength training isn’t just for people looking to bulk up and lift heavy objects. It’s also a great way to stay healthy as you age and sustain and improve your health and vitality.
Too often, people spend money on expensive anti-aging creams and Botox when there’s a free way to slow the aging process and get a more youthful physique. It’s strength training. Building muscle strength and increasing lean body mass helps delay the aging process in more ways than one. Here’s why strength training should be part of your healthy, anti-aging lifestyle.
Strength Training Reduces Age-Related Muscle Loss
With age, people become frail as their muscles weaken and thin. According to Harvard Health, you lose muscle mass at a rate of 3 to 5% per decade after 30 if you aren’t physically active. The best prescription for slowing this loss is strength training. To preserve and build new muscle, progressively increase the workload you place your muscles under, and you’ll boost the size of your muscles, thereby countering muscle loss.
Plus, you’ll maintain and build greater muscle strength. Although aerobic exercise can improve cardiovascular fitness and burn calories, it has less impact on muscle tone and strength. On the other hand, even small amounts of strength training can make a big difference in muscle strength and size.
Strength Training Protects Your Joints
Some people think it is unhealthy to lift weights because it creates wear and tear on your joints and hastens the onset of joint degeneration and osteoarthritis. Weight training can be problematic if you are lifting improperly or have poor technique, but it’s safe for your joints if you train properly. It’s safest to start without weights or using light weights until you master the technique.
When you work your muscles using proper form, you help keep your joints healthy. When you build muscle, the muscle helps protect and stabilize joints. Plus, some research shows strength training eases joint discomfort in people with arthritis.
If you have severe arthritis, talk to your healthcare provider before strength training. You may benefit from working with a physical therapist or personal trainer at first, who understands how to train with joint problems.
Strength Training Reduces the Risk of Bone Fractures
One of the biggest risks older people face is a bone fracture, particularly a hip fracture. Strength training lowers the risk by helping preserve bone density. When you lift heavy weights, you increase bone formation and counteract bone loss due to aging. Plus, strength training improves balance, thereby reducing the risk of falling. One study found that people with low muscle mass were at 2.3 times greater risk of fracturing a bone. So, strength train for your muscles, joints, and bones. It’s one of the best investments you can make in your future wellness.
Strength Training Helps You Stay Functional
Just as important as body composition and how your body looks is how functional it is. You need strength to carry out your daily activities – lifting boxes, getting out of your car, and doing everyday activities. You don’t think about if you’re young, but these activities become more challenging with age if you are deconditioned. Strength training also helps balance, posture, and coordination, which matter for functionality.
Navigating through the world and enjoying life requires strong muscles, healthy joints, coordination, and balance. The best exercises for functionality aren’t weight training machines but compound exercises that work multiple muscles simultaneously. Examples are squats, push-ups, lunges, deadlifts, pull-ups, and more.
Strength Training Improves Insulin Sensitivity
Strength is also correlated with better metabolic health and a lower risk of type 2 diabetes. Exercise enhances insulin sensitivity, which determines how cells manage blood glucose, and that benefits blood sugar control and metabolic health. When you have more muscle, it increases glucose uptake, and less glucose remains in your bloodstream. That’s why strength training is an excellent prescription for people with prediabetes or type 2 diabetes.
Strength Training Reduces Age-Related Weight Gain
Since strength training improves insulin sensitivity, it lowers your insulin level, making it favorable for weight control. When you have too much circulating insulin, it makes it easier for your body to store fat. And as you lose muscle due to aging, there’s less metabolically active muscle to take up glucose, so your blood glucose rises too. Strength training helps counteract this.
Because muscle is metabolically more active than fat, building more muscle also increases your resting metabolic rate modestly. One study found that 10 weeks of strength training boosted lean body mass by 1.4 kg, reduced body fat by 1.8 kg, and increased resting metabolic rate by 7%. Not bad, right?
Strength Training is Heart Healthy
Strength training is beneficial for another muscle: your heart. Some studies show strength training reduces triglycerides and LDL-cholesterol, two blood fats linked with cardiovascular disease. Plus, working your muscles against resistance modestly lowers blood pressure. Cardiovascular disease is still the number one cause of death in Western countries, and all forms of exercise reduce the risk, including strength training.
The Bottom Line
It should be obvious that strength training is a powerful anti-aging medicine, and you can get the benefits by training only a few hours per week. If you’re only doing cardiovascular exercise, scale back a bit and add more strength training to your fitness program. Doing so will give you more balanced fitness.
References:
“Preserve your muscle mass – Harvard Health.” 19 Feb. 2016, .health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/preserve-your-muscle-mass.
Strasser B, Pesta D. Resistance training for diabetes prevention and therapy: experimental findings and molecular mechanisms. Biomed Res Int. 2013;2013:805217. doi: 10.1155/2013/805217. Epub 2013 Dec 22. PMID: 24455726; PMCID: PMC3881442.
Westcott WL. Resistance training is medicine: effects of strength training on health. Curr Sports Med Rep. 2012 Jul-Aug;11(4):209-16. doi: 10.1249/JSR.0b013e31825dabb8. PMID: 22777332.
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