If you want to age well, you may already know the basics: eat a balanced diet, go to walk, and stay socially involved. But there is a single usually the experts say it is equally important-and in some cases, more-for long-term health: force training.
For decades, weightlifting was seen as the field of bodybuilders, weightlifting or young athletes. But research over the past twenty years has turned against this assumption. Lifting weights – or using your body weight against resistance – tends to be one of the most powerful tools that we have to protect health with the passage of contracts. It is not a matter of chasing the muscle with a larger or six bice. It comes to strengthening bones, maintaining metabolism, preventing falling, and even lowering the risk of chronic diseases.
The strongest bones mean lower rest periods
Bones may feel hard, but amazingly dynamic. They respond to the pressures you put on it, increasing strength when they are challenged and weaker when they are not.
“Every time you are squatting or exercising exercises or taking weight, you put a nice pressure on your bone structure,” says Christine Littenberger, a physicist in New York.
It explains that the pressure works as a sign of your body to enhance the bone, which stimulates cells that build new bone tissue. Over time, bone density increases and their structure becomes stronger.
Bone density Of course in our twenties of our twentieth century It begins to decrease in the thirties of the last century, and this decrease is slow in the beginning, but it accelerates with the transformation of hormones.
“While bone loss affects both men and women, menopause or any decrease in estrogen, such as postpartum early, speeds up,” says Lettenberger. “Low estrogen reduces bone density, causing bone loss, and increases the risk of osteoporosis and fractures.”
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For women in particular, force training can be one of the most effective ways to decline against these changes.
Dr. Rahul Shah, a bone spine surgeon in the New Jersey Prime Minister, stressed that this is not just a theory – it has been observed for more than a century. He says: “By loading joints and bones with increased load and progressive pregnancy, the cells inside the bones respond to stress,” he says.
Known as the Wolf Law, which was described by the orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Julius Wolf in Germany in the nineteenth century, bone tissue adapts and reshaped them to increase stress.
“This becomes a good weight of the natural changes that occur with our age,” says Shah.
The muscles are your metabolic engine
The benefits of force training do not stop with the bones. The muscles themselves are the active tissue in metabolism, which means that they burn calories even when they sit still. Think about it as a built -in engine for the body, as it fly quietly to keep your metabolism.
“The muscles are thermal by their nature,” says Littenberger. “They burn more calories in comfort.”
Compared to fats, the muscles are more efficient in burning energy in rest and during activity. This efficiency translates into a higher base metabolism (BMR)-burning calories for the body even when it does not move.
Dr. Lauren Bourovsky, a sports medicine doctor at the Women’s Sports Medicine Center at New York University Langon Health, adds that with our age, we lose bone density and muscle mass.
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“Most people know of osteoporosis and the loss of bone density, but they may not realize that there is actually loss of the meager muscle mass called sarcopinia that begins in about 40 years,” she says.
Doctors see this effect directly. According to Borowski and Lettenberger, patients with more meager muscles tend to better insulin and glucose, which in turn reduces the risk of metabolic syndrome and diabetes. In other words, maintaining muscles is not only a strong appearance-it is a long-term health protection.
But this is the challenge: muscle mass does not remain fixed. Starting in the thirties of life, the normal person About 3-8 % of the muscles lose each contract. This decrease not only reduces strength, but also slows the metabolism, which makes weight gain more likely even if eating habits have not changed since puberty.
The key to balance and independence
For the elderly, one of the greatest concerns is not just a disease – it is a decrease. One fall can lead to a set of health challenges, from broken bones to the lost confidence in moving freely. Realistic statistics: The fall is the main cause of ER visits related to infection for people over 65 years old.
Power training helps to change this equation. “The fall often occurs when the road is clear,” says Littenberger. “Training on resistance, more specifically one leg exercises, and the construction of muscles and motivational signals that support the situation and movement, in the legs, hips and essential.”
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Tom Honoli, a personal coach at the Oak Park and Fitness Center in Illinois, explains that balance is more than just strong legs. “A good balance has two main elements. Training force, he says, helps in each of these,” says Connoli, who is 74.
This combination-reactions in the fungal body and the strongest muscles-can mean the difference between non-harmful stumbling and the fall of life.
Lifting life
Power training also provides protection against many of the most common chronic diseases in aging. Type 2, diabetes, heart disease, dementia, and even some types of cancer have been linked to non -activity.
“The training training increases the muscle mass, which in turn improves how the body uses insulin and helps in removing glucose from the blood and to energy cells,” says Lettenberger. “This can reduce blood sugar, improve insulin sensitivity, reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes or helps to manage the condition.”
Dr. Chirag Bangal, a Florida medical doctor, adds that the muscles help improve your use of glucose, which is one of the “prevention and treatment of diabetes.”
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research It also shows that training training helps to improve cardiovascular health and reduce risk factors for heart disease, such as high blood pressure and cholesterol. big studies Also linking the resistance training with a low risk of some cancer. Evidence also indicates that it may support the health of the brain by improving blood flow and reducing inflammation, which may reduce the risk of dementia. It can also Reducing the risk of death from any reason By about 15 %.
You do not need to raise the heaviest weights in the gym or push yourself to fatigue. What matters most is to appear regularly, build strength gradually, and make it usually you can maintain it for years. Even short and fixed sessions several times a week It can add up to For significant gains in muscles, metabolism and general health.
“Bone health is something that must be given priority before many people realize,” says Lettenberger. “The muscles can be the greatest gift you give to yourself with your age.”