subject: Successful Aging For Women Means Keeping Strong [print this page] Successful Aging For Women Means Keeping Strong
A sedentary lifestyle does not take its toll quite so fast, but it does inflict the same damage. The first signs of loss of strength are subtle - tasks and activities that used to be easy now seem to take extra effort to accomplish. Even grocery bags seem heavier and you tire quicker when doing something you enjoy like gardening. After a few decades of this slow but steady decline you may not be able to run, or go out dancing for hours like you used too. Eventually even such simple acts as standing up from a couch may become difficult.For many women these changes - the loss of strength, the physical changes, the fatigue and the lack of 'get up and go' - are painfully evident. If you are experiencing them, you may have just chalked it up to an inevitable part of getting older. But this is not so.After we reach adulthood our bodies begin a long and gradual degenerative process which is hastened if we do not do enough muscle building and maintaining activity. We will lose 3-5 pounds of muscle tissue and add around 10-12 pounds of fat during our adult years. This means we enter our older years with too little muscle and too much fat. While these unfavorable body composition changes (muscle/fat ratio) should be obvious, most women are much more aware of the body fat gain than the muscle tissue loss. They typically go on harmful diets to try and lose this excess weight. The problem with this is that it further reduces their muscle tissue, as about one quarter of the weight lost when dieting is muscle tissue.The loss of muscle tissue leads to a lower metabolism (the body's engine). This results in a lower rate that our body burns fuel and less energy use. This means our bodies are less able to use the food we eat - thus more gets stored as excess fat. Your weight on the scales over the years might even remain the same but your waistline will continue to expand as muscle tissue loss hides a lot of the body fat increase. Most women do not understand the origin and the solution to the weight gain problem not realizing that the loss of muscle tissue leads to the addition of body fat. They are even less aware that the loss of muscle tissue is related to osteoporosis and a variety of degenerative diseases along with fatigue and accelerated aging. Luckily, it is possible to replace much of the muscle tissue that has been lost through not doing enough muscle building and maintaining activity. Both our physical performance and our physical appearance can be improved by muscle tissue gain or hampered by muscle loss so it is important to start the rebuilding process.Only regular strength training exercise can maintain or increase muscle tissue. 'Cardio' type activities like walking, jogging or cycling can never do this. Just 2-3 sessions each week are needed if your program is done properly with the correct intensity (degree of effort). The process of rebuilding muscle tissue is a slow one, taking place over months and not only will your muscles grow stronger your bones with become stronger as well.You will need to continue this program for the rest of your life as if you stop doing proper exercise again your body will soon turn back to flab. Add to that your energy levels declining, your muscle tissue shrinking away again along with your ability to burn fuel (calories) and your overall sense of wellbeing being siphoned away. But it will not happen to you as you know now exactly what you need to do to age successfully.
