Life is about adapting and being resilient. Successful species learn how to adjust and adapt to changing conditions in order to thrive. Humans are no different. If you want to thrive as you age you have to be open to change and to adapt to the changes that invariable will come into your life. The old saying getting old is not for the weak, applies. Be strong enough to accept that aging requires you to be able to adapt and to recognize that sitting on the couch watching TV and eating processed foods are habits that will ensure a miserable aging process. So be willing to move your body, lift some weights and eat real food.
As we age we can lose 3 to 5% of muscle mass per decade as we age after age 30. Muscles can become smaller and weaker with age and evidence suggests that a key part of the decline occurs in a component of muscle cells called the mitochondria, the primary engine of energy production. So if you do nothing to stop the muscle loss known as scarcopenia will make your life difficult in you 60s, 70s and beyond. Think about struggling to stand up from a sitting position. worrying about falling, all things that impede your feeling of freedom and self sufficiency. An anti-aging activity is strength training. A study showed that six months of progressive resistance training made the gene expression pattern of aging mitochondria appear significantly younger. From the study, which was done on men at an average age of 70 years old, researchers reported that the older individuals were able to improve strength by approximately 50%, to levels that were only 38% less than that of young individuals. This means that these 70 year olds engaged in weight training closed the strength gap between themselves and their counterparts who were nearly 40 years younger from 59% to 38%, which is an improvement of almost 36% in a mere six months of the study. Think about what just 6 months of strength training did for those seniors. They reversed nearly 40 years of aging in that one simple life adaptation.
So what are you waiting for? Don’t be soft, exercise.