subject: Sarcopenia - A New Term To Understand And Take Action To Avoid [print this page] Sarcopenia - A New Term To Understand And Take Action To Avoid
Strength training exercise is important for all adults for preventing muscle tissue loss that will occur unless we doing enough muscle strengthening activity on a regular basis. The erosion of this tissue is one of the most negative changes that accompany the aging process. As people grow older they believe that they do not need to bother with proper exercise but nothing could be further from the truth.Both our physical performance and our appearance can be improved by toned healthy muscle tissue or hampered by its loss. Most of us are doing little more than sitting for most of our day so it is easy to lose our precious strength and have our muscles shrink. There is a name to describe this process and it is 'sarcopenia'. It means the 'wasting' away of flesh. And we are all vulnerable to this happening in our increasingly inactive and sedentary modern world.As muscles slowly weaken the entire body starts a downward health spiral. Physical movement becomes more difficult as strength evaporates and people gradually become even more sedentary and eventually dependent. Our muscular system and its health determine the rate our metabolism processes and burns the food we eat and this becomes less efficient as muscle tissue is lost. Less energy is available for daily activities and more tends to end up stored as body fat which slows us down even further. You thereby enter into your senior years with an unfavorable body composition (muscle/fat ratio). This means you have too little muscle and too much fat. Most adults are painfully aware of the fat gain rather than the muscle loss so tend to go on and off diets but do little to recover the lost muscle tissue. So, you can see that strength training exercise can play a very important role in keeping us strong and healthy as we get older. Probably the most significant result of your exercise program is stronger muscles mean you will remain more self-sufficient and independent for longer than you would if you sit around and grow weak.Our muscles are the engine room or powerhouse of our body and they deserve to have a couple of sessions each week to keep them strong. You will get back so much for so little outlay, stronger muscles, bones and joints, a stronger immune system to better fight disease, more energy and 'get up and go', and better overall physical, mental and emotional health.All this contributes to improvements in our work, general daily activities and our favorite sports or hobbies. You will also notice that you appearance changes for the better as your muscles become toned and firm uplifting skin and pulling it tauter. This can directly boost self-esteem and your level of self-confidence when you look and feel better. All in all a pretty good deal wouldn't you agree?
