Strength Training is the Fountain of Youth

I'm a missionary spreading the good news that strength training—lifting weights—pumping iron—is literally the fountain of youth. Yes, couch potato, I'm speaking to you. This news could change your life!

You can feel younger, stronger, and more vigorous—perhaps better than you've ever felt in your entire life. Advanced age is not a static, irreversible biological condition. It's a dynamic state that in most people can be changed for the better no matter how many years they've lived or how long they've neglected their bodies.

Perhaps you've been experiencing some of the signs of aging. After maturation (about age 30), we lose one-half pound of muscle each year.. If you are 60, this means you have 15 pounds less muscle than you did 30 years earlier--unless you have been doing exercises that help retain or build muscle.

Do you feel older than you'd like to feel? Are you worn out at the end of a busy day? Do you notice fat where you used to have muscle? Are your favorite sports more difficult than they used to be? Do you look at your older relatives and think that you don't want to ever look like that? Do you wish you have the energy to exercise?

Strength exercise can help solve these problems. You can have more energy, you can replace the fat now stored on your body with muscles, no matter how old you are. You can be brimming with vitality.

Let me share with you some of the benefits of resistance training. The first reason is that it helps keep you from aging—your body can be as much as 15 to 20 years younger than your actual age. If you're 60, wouldn't you like the body you live in to appear and function as if were 45 again? It's truly possible.

Miriam E. Nelson's book, Strong Women Stay Young describes a study done at Tuft University in Boston in which 20 women 35 and older lifted weights in a structured program for one year. At the end of that time their bodies were fifteen to twenty years more youthful than members of the control group who had not changed their lifestyles. Instead of losing bone density, they showed significant gains. They also traded fat for muscles so they looked trimmer, even though they had not lost weight. Some dropped a dress size or two.

And of course, women don't have a monopoly on strength training; men get similar results. A man I know who has been in a senior strength exercise class says that now he can easily lift a 50 pound bag of shelled corn from his car and carry it to the storage area where he keeps food for the wild ducks he feeds. Before beginning strength training, he had to have someone help him.

A women class member states that now she doesn't have to have help with the 25 pound bags of kitty litter to lift them out of her car trunk.

The second reason is that you will feel better. I cannot tell you how many times I hear that each week as I work with older adults. "I just feel so much better." In addition, weight lifting helps lower blood pressure and cholesterol, decreases depression, improves sleep patterns, and helps manage blood sugar in addition to offering a myriad of other health benefits. It also assists in guarding against osteoporosis by increasing bone strength.

The third reason to lift weights is to have more energy. If you take my advice and begin pumping iron, the first couple of workouts will leave you feeling very tired—pooped, in fact! But gradually you'll find that you're energized by your workouts and will feel much better afterward.

The fourth reason is that you will look better. Your body will replace fat with muscle and muscle is less bulky than fat. Many women in my classes tell me that after a few workout sessions, they can now wear clothes that had been too tight—without losing any weight. Men also say that they've had to tighten their belts a notch or two.

The fifth reason is to boost your self-esteem. Recently I worked out with a 27-year-old friend. I set the weights on the leg extension machine so I could barely do eight repetitions. When it was her turn, she slid onto the seat, hooked her legs under the pads, and attempted to lift them. She couldn't manage it, turned to me and said, "Phyllis, how did you do that?" as she decreased the amount of weight on the stack.

I teach strength trainng classes for seniors each week. When I finally convince new class members to leave their three-pound weights behind and move up to fives—and they do an exercise that would have been impossible just a couple of weeks before—they feel so much better about themselves. The next time they pick up a three-pound weight, they say, "How did I ever think this was heavy?"

The last reason is that your friends and family will think you're cool. One of the ladies in my class for women over 40 told the rest of us that her son who's been a weightlifter since college, said "Wow, Mom, look at the muscles in your arms." For the first time in her life, you could see muscle definition in her forearms. For me this means that I can remain vital and strong even though I am well past 60.
Why don't you join me on this journey? I promise you'll feel better, be healthier, have more energy and boost your self-esteem a little in the process.