Posted on 06/21/2024 9:49:25 PM PDT by ConservativeMind
Twelve months of heavy resistance training—exercise that makes muscles work against force—around the time of retirement preserves vital leg strength years later, show the follow-up results of a clinical trial, published online.
Resistance training can help to counteract this loss, but most of the published research has involved relatively short periods of time (6-9 months) to monitor its effects.
The researchers therefore wanted to know whether a year of supervised resistance training with heavy loads would make any difference over the longer term.
At the time, participants who had recently retired and were healthy.
They were randomly assigned either to 1 year of lifting heavy weights 3 times a week (149), or to moderate intensity training (154), involving circuits that incorporated body weight exercises and resistance bands 3 times a week, or to a comparison group (148), all of whom were encouraged to maintain their usual levels of physical activity.
On average, participants were aged 71 (range 64–75) at year 4; 61% were women; and they were still active based on their daily physical activity, which averaged nearly 10,000 steps.
After 4 years, leg strength was still preserved at the same level in the heavy weights resistance training group, but fell in the moderate intensity training and comparison groups, possibly because of nervous system changes in response to resistance training, suggest the researchers.
They acknowledge that the study participants were healthier and more active than average despite having at least one long-term condition in 80% of cases, so aren't necessarily representative of the population as a whole.
But, they conclude, "This study provides evidence that resistance training with heavy loads at retirement age can have long-term effects over several years. The results, therefore, provide means for practitioners and policymakers to encourage older individuals to engage in heavy resistance training."
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
You and me
We gotta sweat and strain
Body all aching
And it’s wracked with pain
Tote that barge
Lift that bale
Get a little drunk
And you land in jail
I get’s weary
Yes I’ am sick of trying
I’m tired of living and I’m
Feared of dying
But that ol’ man river
Keeps rolling along
So what qualifies as *heavy* resistance training and *moderate*?
It’s good to know of the benefits, but useless without knowing what to do to achieve it.
Heavy generally means the most weight YOU can lift for a set of 8-12 repetitions using proper form. What’s heavy for. 65 year old woman is not going to be heavy for a 20 year old man.
Thanks. That’s helpful.
So, Sauron, would the goal of heavy be to increase weight and the goal of moderate to increase reps? And can one alternate heavy and moderate so as to do each three times a week (if one were able to work his or her way up to that) or would they work against each other?
I’m not an instructor, I just work out some.
When I lift, my goal is to avoid injury (which at my age would take a long time to heal). So I’m very cautious about increasing weight.
When I can do 3 sets of 10 reps without seeming to overstrain myself, I may increase weight slightly next time.
There’s lots of YouTube videos on how to do exercises using proper form
Would something like this workout qualify? It’s less than 15 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLBTU18pAY0
It's good to know of the benefits, but useless without knowing what to do to achieve it.
FTA .... (I know, I know :) ...
Resistance training, which can involve weights, body weight, or resistance bands, can help to counteract this loss, but most of the published research has involved relatively short periods of time (6-9 months) to monitor its effects.
I alternate cardio (fast walking or bike riding) with resistance (bands or weights) training ... seems to be a good mix, for me.
This article may answer some questions.
Again, older people need to be cautious
Thanks.
I have no intention of overdoing it.
I find when I do very hard physical work, I often don’t feel good for the rest of the day.
But something is far better than nothing.
Fine line between enjoying some exercise vs having it feel too much like work. For me the objective is to exercise consistently and moderately. The body ultimately winds up in the cemetery or crematorium.
Sounds like another famously bogus “study” in which they’re just making up facts.
How many 70 year olds are walking 5 miles daily — in addition to working out with heavy weights daily?
Pure fiction.
It sounds like these 20 year old YouTubers advising people that if they walk on their hands for 100 yards each day, they’ll never grow old. Yes, most will break their necks before then.
Give us some real world information and not these “photoshopped” studies in far away places — known to only these “researchers.”
Keep it real and it might be more believable.
📌
I do 5-6 sets of 10 reps before increasing weight.
That gets your heart going too.
Thank you so much! Yours seems like a good way to go about it — individualized yet still progressing!
I started the heavy upper body work at age 71. I had to discontinue most of it because of injuries to the shoulders. But I still climb a lot of stairs, walk and do the various exercise machines at the gym. I fast a couple times a week and do saunas and cold showers. I also get plenty of sleep. I’m laying in bed for 9-10 a night. don’t know how much of that is actually productive sleep as I get up regularly to go to the bathroom. I’ve lost 30 pounds.
I would love to keep up my current routine for decades. Don’t know if that will happen.
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