Weight training should be highly recommended for men over the age of 60 and there are many reasons why?
Quality of Life
Depression
Lipid profiles
Blood pressure
Blood glucose
Overall health
Quality of Life -
The quality of life is essentially your ability to function in normal living conditions. It covers everything from, being able to stand, being able to walk, being able to shower, being able to do you cooking, cleaning and shopping.
It’s also beneficial for enjoying your spare time doing physical activities such a as gardening and sport.
Quality of life is far more important than just being alive but more about being able to live and function.
The decline in muscle strength starts in your 30s and accelerates after retirement and especially when your job was physical. So building or maintaining muscle mass and strength helps to keep you active and functional.
Depression
Depression is so wide spread but in the elderly depression tends to come from the inability to do what you did when you were younger but worst still not being able to function at a minimal level to be able to live normally.
Weight training has so many positive benefits from maintaining and even building strength, endorphins secreted during exercise, increased testosterone output even in the elderly. Just being able to exercise is a great feeling.
Depression is greatly when people exercise and should always be highly recommended for the elderly over 60.
Lipid Profiles
Exercising especially weight training increases muscle mass and decreases fat mass and as result cholesterol can be reduced. Weight training is very beneficial for people in their 60s.
Blood Pressure
Blood pressure because of a reduction in fat mass, cholesterol generally goes down due to a lowering of inflammation of the arteries and blood vessels.
There is also a marked increase in blood peripheral circulation which helps to regulate body temperature and prevent other circulatory issues.
Reduction of blood pressure is a big step towards preventing future heart disease, potential strokes and kidney disease.
Blood Glucose
With weight training fast twitch fibres are being used which means that glucose is the primary fuel source meaning that blood glucose levels are much better controlled due to weight training.
The other advantage comes from reduced bodyfat and increased muscle and also because of just burning extra calories during and after exercise.
Overall Health
Many of the benefits above means that overall weight training for people over 60s is highly recommended. The main benefits are really depression and quality of life.
The loss of quality of life makes it difficult to do many of the things that are necessary to live including being able to do any sort of resistance training. This can lead to depression and all the other health factors above.
For this reason weight training should be recommended for all elderly over the age of 60.
Why wait till your over 60 to start weight training?
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