Why Do Resistance Exercise?

• It builds muscle strength and tone. Humans lose 5 pounds of muscle every decade after age 30.



• The number of muscle fibers declines with age. From age 30 to age 70 we can lose more than 25% of the type 2 muscle fibers in our bodies (type 2 fibers are our strength fibers). Resistance exercise can slow down or even reverse the aging process by building muscle mass and strength.



• It's been shown to build bone. Osteoporosis, a condition of accelerated bone mineral loss which leads to fractures, can be a crippling disease, particularly in women (although men get it, too), and research on resistance exercise suggests that it can build bone even in the elderly.



• There is some evidence that resistance exercise helps lower moderately high blood pressure.



• More strength can lead to fewer falls in the elderly.



• Resistance exercise can raise metabolic rate, an important factor in maintaining body weight.



• It's never too late to start. In one study of elderly men and women (mean age 87) who lifted weights three times per week for 10 weeks, strength increased a whopping 113%! The improvement in strength enabled the elderly participants to also walk faster (12% faster than before the study), climb 28% more stairs, and it even caused the muscles in their thighs to increase by more than 2.5%.