To Weight-Workout Or Not To Weight-Workout if You're In Your 70's or 80's or very ill?

Aging is the enemy of muscles.

Muscles are the enemy of aging.

We need muscles.

When muscles are recruited (through resistant weight workouts), myokines and enzymes are released. These “care-take” eye and brain tissues.

We need muscles not just to propel ourselves forward, but to keep being able to continue thinking and seeing.

But there’s more.

Exercising, working out, fights fragility, even in the frail and ill.

However, many think, docs included, (especially younger ones) that we aren’t getting any younger, and it’s inevitable to lose muscle as we age. And it’s inevitable to get more frail as we continue to make carbon footprints on mother earth. So they say, “You know you aren’t getting any younger so you’re just supposed to act and feel your age.”

But hold on. That ain’t necessarily so.

Muscles

I am here to shout out that you will care as much about your life in your 70s and 80s as you do now in your younger more midline years.

What is partly responsible for supporting the quality of our health? Muscles!

Muscles help to keep us healthier for longer.

Hormones are partially responsible for maintaining muscle mass. Not just exercise.

As hormone levels decline, so does muscle mass.

Also, since older adults tend to be less active and eat less protein, which is important to keep muscles strong, we face more challenges as we get older.

Not only that but "satellite cells" responsible for muscle repair become less responsive as we age. Unless we are on hormone therapies, and demand use from our muscles, as we age, it gets harder and harder to keep our muscles watching our eyes and our brains, let alone preventing falls and fractures.

Besides hormonal therapies, there is another powerful remedy: lifting weights.

Even small ones wrapped around your wrists and ankles as you simply walk, help recruit your muscles.

Strength training helps stop what was before regarded as the inevitable loss of muscle function that comes with aging.

Weight training stimulates muscle growth and enhances muscle tissue quality.

Sarcopenia

Research shows we begin losing muscle around age 35, and the process picks up speed after we hit the stunning galaxy of our 60s.

As we are hoping to live our dreams during retirement, we can lose up to, if not more, 3% of our muscle mass per year. During our 60s and onward.

The loss of muscle due to aging is called sarcopenia.

Sarcopenia has been linked to eye disease, cognitive decline, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity.

Sarcopenia increases the risk of heart disease and stroke and takes years off your life.

Physical frailty is intertwined with sarcopenia.

Strength Training

Only 9% of people over 75 perform strength training regularly — which equals about twice a week.

I try to go to the gym about 5 days a week and when in town, kayak or canoe (which is very cardio and resistant strength-rich).

Both the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) and the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommend strength training for older adults, noting that programs can be adapted for those with frailty or chronic conditions.

The presence of diseases commonly linked to aged populations — from arthritis, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes to dementia, osteoporosis, and history of stroke — do not contraindicate your ability to take up weight lifting at ANY age.

For many of these conditions," the guidelines say, "exercise will offer benefits not achievable through medication alone."

Despite the common fear of pain or injury and what I hear folks say, I have a bad knee, a bad shoulder, a bad this or that… Sedentariness appears a far more dangerous condition than physical activity, even in the very old or the very ill.

Even the oldest of the old can improve with strength and increased muscle mass.

There is NO age too old to not do strength training.

Let that sink in.

There are bodybuilders who still compete in their 70s. Older adults don't gain muscle and strength as well as younger ones — the training response may be slower — but significant improvements in strength and muscle can be achieved with the right program.

Recommendations

The American College of Sports Medicine recommends that people ages 65 and up train two to four times per week in sessions lasting 30 to 60 minutes.

I mainly hit the gym these days for 30-45 minutes at a time. Not my old one to two hours.

Even just ONE workout per week is enough to start; a 2019 study in people over 75 suggests that as little as an hour of strength training per week can improve walking speed, leg strength, and one's ability to stand up out of a chair.

What to do?

The recommendations are to perform one to three sets of eight to 15 repetitions per exercise.

I listen to podcasts or music and add yogic postures on many of the machines so I am stretching a lot, too.

Stretching gets close to the bennies of strength training, so it’s no small thing.

Do multi-joint exercises, so you get all your joints in on the bennies.

Seeing the benefits can help keep you motivated, too.

Many people share they’ve been able to stop taking medication because started to strength train.

They'll say, “My blood sugar and cholesterol went down”. … “The pain in my shoulder went away.” “I’m seeing better.”

If you have a health problem or just live inside a “body suit” - the best thing you can do is exercise.

No matter how old you are.

Or how frail you are.

Knowledge is power.

And, motivation.

Dr. B.

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References:

• Harvard Health Publishing: "Preserve Your Muscle Mass."

• Frontiers Physiology: "Optimizing Skeletal Muscle Anabolic Response to Resistance Training in Aging."

• Clinical Interventions in Aging: "Why Do Seniors Leave Resistance Training Programs?"

• Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise: "ACSM Position Stand: Exercise and Physical Activity for Older Adults."

• American Journal of Physiology–Cell Physiology: "Human skeletal muscle acetylcholine receptor gene expression in elderly males performing heavy resistance exercise."

• Journal of the American Medical Association. "High-intensity strength training in nonagenarians. Effects on skeletal muscle."

• Health Psychology: "Group-Based Physical Activity for Older Adults (GOAL) Randomized Controlled Trial: Exercise Adherence Outcomes."

• Sean Hyson. How Old Is Too Old to Start Strength Training? - Medscape - Apr 14, 2023.