The need to keep muscle strength is being emphasized more and more. Getting and keeping strong muscles is important for all adults of all ages. It is one of the keys to being able to easily keep doing things when elderly. A thing that puts people off lifting weights is that we are told that [...]
Category Archives: Exercise
Active Heart = Younger Brain?
August 4, 2010 – 11:57 am
Now more evidence that what is good for your heart is good for your brain. As we age our brain shrinks and generally starts to show signs of aging. Signs of brain aging can be easy to determine such as occurs in Alzheimer’s disease, or it can be more subtle both in physical changes in [...]
As We Age, Not Protecting Ourselves Against Muscle Loss
June 16, 2010 – 9:36 am
Does getting old mean becoming weak and physical feeble? This is the perception of most of the population, including those who are aging. Though some loss of muscle strength and function occurs as a natural part of aging, this does not mean that we have to become very weak in old age. For more information [...]
Why We Gain Fat As We Age
February 25, 2010 – 12:26 pm
There was an interesting segment on NPR a couple of mornings ago, about the effects of aging on muscle – or more accurately, loss of muscle with aging. The segment was somewhat misnamed as “Why we gain weight as we age.” It should have been “Why we gain fat as we age.” The segment talked [...]
Exercise May Keep Your Cells Younger
January 27, 2010 – 1:52 pm
This is good news and bad news. Older exercisers seem to have younger, healthier cells. Good news that you can keep your cells younger. Bad news that you have to exercise. A study reported in the Washington Post looking at 2,400 pairs of twins suggests that those twins that exercised in their spare time over [...]
Why Does Muscle Age So Fast?
September 23, 2009 – 5:59 pm
As we age, we lose muscle mass and strength. This is known as sarcopenia. Even those who do lots of exercise, still lose muscle, though not as quickly as those who are inactive. Why does muscle age so much? The aging of muscle results in the loss of muscle mass, strength and function. Sarcopenia starts [...]
Can age-related muscle loss be reversed?
July 6, 2009 – 12:29 pm
One aspect of aging is loss of strength and the amount of muscle that we have. In our late 20’s we start to lose muscle. The age-related loss of muscle is called sarcopenia. This loss of muscle is slow at first, but then from the 40’, there is a more rapid loss of muscle. For [...]
Are Sit-Ups Good For Abdominals and Spine?
June 17, 2009 – 6:38 pm
Do you do abdominal exercises? If so, do you do crunches and pull in your abdominals? If so, perhaps this is not a good idea. If you use a DVD or go to a class to do exercise that involves abdominals, usually you are told repeatedly the same thing. “Pull in your tummy. Try to [...]
Stress, And Ways To Lower It
June 3, 2009 – 5:16 pm
Are you stressed out? Everybody feels some stress, but at times the stress can start to have a major impact on life. The trouble is that after a period of stress, it sometimes almost becomes addictive. We get a stress response, which makes us more sensitive to stress. We then over-respond to new stress and [...]