In the Telegraph a couple of weeks ago there was a great article about the numerous benefits of weight-training/lifting – especially if you are over 40 and I’ve been saying this for a loooong time. As I’m getting older, along with other exercise modalities, continuing to lift and keep building on the great strength base I already have is essential for my own health and well-being. People ask me, why do you lift, why do you train hard? I tell them I’m training for ‘life’ – to be fit, strong, healthy and able to do lots of fun stuff right up into my (much) later years!
You have two choices, the first choice is to neglect your body by eating crap, not moving much, and overdoing a party or workaholic lifestyle – this all leads to a host of lifestyle diseases. How does living with diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity and osteoporosis grab you? A decrepit old age awaits you here (if you make it that far…), reliant on medications, weak, unfit, and unable enjoy life to its full. You may technically be alive but you’re not really living.
Your second choice is to prioritise your physical health and well-being because at the end of the day, if you haven’t got your health, the rest of your life is built on a house of cards!
So barring accidents, you can choose to live a long, healthy, fun-filled life by eating well most of the time, training regularly and consistently with a variety of exercise modalities. Along with having a (mostly) healthy lifestyle to live a long, healthy, productive and fun-filled life.
From the Telegraph article: Why Lifting is the New Running
“If preventing middle-aged spread is a priority, strength training is key. Each decade after 30, muscle declines by 3-8 per cent and because it has a higher metabolic rate than fat, the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn not only during exercise but also at rest. ‘Muscle requires more blood and oxygen to be supplied to it than fat and that increases the energy expenditure the body has to do to maintain it,’ explains Professor John Brewer, head of sports and exercise science at St. Mary’s University Twickenham.
A 2011 paper from the ACSM called Resistance Training is Medicine asserts that muscle loss is the single greatest contributor to age-related decline in metabolism, claiming that by adding just 2-4 pounds of muscle to your body you could burn 100 extra calories a day at rest (that’s 3000 calories in a month, technically enough to lose a pound). Moreover, lifting workouts such as circuit training may burn about 200 calories while you’re doing them but unlike cardiovascular exercise such as running, they burn some 25 per cent more additional calories in the first hour following your workout and may keep your resting metabolic rate elevated by 100 calories a day for up to 72 hours afterwards.
It takes a surprisingly short time to build muscle. One large study from the Harvard School of Public Health followed 10,500 US men aged over 40 for 12 years and found that of all the activities they did, weight training for 20 minutes three times a week had the greatest effect on preventing age-related abdominal fat. ‘Muscle builds up quickly, even from the first session of exercise when you get sore, that minor damage repairs itself and you become stronger,’ says Prof. Brewer. ‘Within two weeks you should start to see benefits.’
Weight training can also help to control blood sugar levels in patients with Type-2 diabetes and one meta-analysis concluded that resistance training should be recommended in the prevention and management of Type-2 diabetes. Moreover, it might help age-related bone loss too, as with age in women comes a decrease in oestrogen, a hormone that helps with calcium production. Studies carried out at Glasgow Caledonian University found that strength training improved bone density in post-menopausal women.
A weight off your mind:
‘Previously it was thought only aerobic exercise could deliver positive mood benefits,’ says Dr Claire Marie Roberts, a lecturer in sports psychology at Worcester University and a Team GB psychologist. ‘But we now know that resistance and weight training can have the same or better effect on the brain by increasing the production of serotonin, the brain hormone that makes us feel good.’ Research from the University of South Carolina found that women who were put on a twice weekly programme of resistance training had a staggering 60 per cent decrease in anxiety levels and lowered levels of irritability in only six weeks. The effect also seemed best after moderate, not intense, strength training.
And while we know all forms of exercise improve depression, a review of 25 randomised controlled trials involving exercise training of depressed patients found strength training had twice the mood benefits that aerobic exercise alone had (though the best result was when patients did both). Studies of depressed patients have also found that those who did strength training improved their sleeplessness – a key symptoms of depression – by 30 per cent.
Dr Claire Marie Roberts, sports psychology lecturer:
So what’s going on? ‘Strength training taps into the brain’s reward system quickly by stimulating the neural mechanisms that make people feel better which involve brain (feel good) chemicals such as serotonin, dopamine and endorphins,’ says Roberts. ‘It also enhances the blood vessels’ ability to carry oxygen to the brain which can improve mood too.’ But there’s more to it than the neurobiological explanation, Roberts believes. ‘As you lift a certain weight, achieve a full push-up or a certain number of squats you feel your body can achieve something instantly measurable,’ she says. ‘That provides instantaneous feedback to your motivation system. It spurs you on to do more and filters into other areas of their lives and changes the way they see themselves and take on challenges.’”
These are the kind of things my clients learn when working with me, how to transform their bodies and their lives – to be healthier, happier. Contact me today jackie@age-drop.com to learn more about how I can help you look fabulous, feel fantastic and love the body you are in!
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