The results from this study Once-weekly resistance exercise improves muscle strength and neuromuscular performance in older adults:
" A program of once or twice weekly resistance exercise achieves muscle strength gains similar to 3 days per week training in older adults and is associated with improved neuromuscular performance. Such improvement
could potentially reduce the risk of falls and fracture in older adults".
Every new year we have great expectations of improvement in our well-being, but few achieve those improvements. One man did:
At 72 years old Marcus was slowing down; he could no longer play golf every day. He could play nine holes but lacked the stamina to pay eighteen holes. He began strength training at New Orleans Personal Trainers (our other location – Austin Fitness Trainers). He strength trained for about 30 minutes once a week for a year.
A year later Marcus would play 18 holes of golf, and the next day he would play 18 holes again. He was hitting the ball farther and enjoying golf again. Marcus had added quality years to his life, and it took just 30 minutes a week.
The list of benefits from strength training is very long and people of any age can benefit. A recent example:
FC, a petite 86 year old, has been strengthening with Ultimate Fitness for the last four years. While attempting to re-position a hanging basket in her yard she fell, breaking the top part of her ulna. The doctor commented that her muscles were the only thing holding her arm together as the bone had broken in two. She proudly flexed her bicep on the uninjured arm astonishing the doctor. Astonished, he yelled for the staff to come into the exam room. Upon a follow-up visit the doctor told FC she was healing like a teenager. Her conditioning, as a result of strength training, heightened her ability to heal. We are delighted that FC is now resuming her sessions at Ultimate Fitness, 10 weeks after her fall.
At 78 years of age Jack had few golfers his age to golf with.
His friend Marcus was 73 and about ready to hang up his cleats for good. Marcus could play nine holes and that was about it; the next day he’d be too rundown to play again. Jack insisted that Marcus start doing the strength training program Jack had been doing for years. Jack said, "Anybody can stick to one half hour a week. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain."
A year later Marcus was playing 18 holes of golf, and the next day, he would play 18 holes again. He was hitting the ball farther and enjoying golf again. Marcus had added quality years to his life, and it took just minutes a week.
Every time Marcus exercised he would do a little more. Each week he gave himself ample time to recover, and because of that each week he would improve. 52 weeks of continuing improvement add up.
From this LA Times article Strength training does more than bulk up muscles:
A growing body of research shows that working out with weights h
as health benefits beyond simply bulking up one's muscles and strengthening bones. Studies are finding that more lean muscle mass may allow kidney dialysis patients to live longer, give older people better cognitive function, reduce depression, boost good cholesterol, lessen the swelling and discomfort of lymphedema after breast cancer and help lower the risk of diabetes.
"Muscle is our largest metabolically active organ, and that's the backdrop that people usually forget," said Kent Adams, director of the exercise physiology lab at Cal State Monterey Bay. Strengthening the muscles "has a ripple effect throughout the body on things like metabolic syndrome and obesity."
From this Science News article Muscles remember past glory:
"Muscles hold memories of their former fitness in nuclei (green, shown on muscle fiber) that help the muscle bounce back to fitness when training begins after a period of inactivity.
Pumping up is easier for people who have been buff before, and now scientists think they know why — muscles retain a memory of their former fitness even as they wither from lack of use.
That memory is stored as DNA-containing nuclei, which proliferate when a muscle is exercised. Contrary to previous thinking, those nuclei aren’t lost when muscles atrophy, researchers report online August 16 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The extra nuclei form a type of muscle memory that allows the muscle to bounce back quickly when retrained.
The new study suggests that pumping muscles full of nuclei early in life could help stave off muscle loss with age."
From this Science Daily article White Tea Could Keep You Healthy And Looking Young:
From this Medscape article Drinking Up to Half a Glass of Wine Daily May Increase Longevity in Men:
From this Fox News report these highlights:
*Slow the aging process and adds quality years to your life.
*The French paradox – the French consume a large quality of red wine and lots with high fat foods
*This compound found in red wine postpones disease
*The compound activates a gene that slows the aging process.
*Not only does Resveratrol extend life it keeps you chronological younger.
http://www.youtube.com/v/-jqs9ROj81Q&hl=en&fs=1
From this Good Houeskeeping article Best Anti-Aging Foods, the best foods are:
1. Produce – with blueberries and berries in general being particularly good for you.
