With age, we not only gain life experience, but also lose muscle mass - and this can be a serious threat to health. But good news is that even in old age you can maintain strength, activity, memory and sleep - if you regularly perform strength exercises.
A popular British journalist Michael Mosley told about it in Podcast "Just One Thing. He urged not to neglect strength training after 30 years, because it is at this age that the muscles begin to weaken naturally if they do not give them a load. According to him, strength exercises support the youth of the body even at the cellular level.
Muscles are not only the power but also the brain
Mosley's studies have shown that within 12 weeks of forceful exercises, muscle mass can increase by 10%, and physical strength - up to 150%. But this is not all: exercises with resistance have a positive effect on memory, improve sleep quality and even promote the development of new neural bonds in the brain.
In particular, in one experiment, the year of regular training increased the duration of the participants' sleep by an average of 20 minutes.
Power exercises are best than cardio?
The results of the 12-year study of Harvard University, which covered more than 10,000 men, showed that even short strength training is more effectively fighting with abdominal fat than traditional cardio.
This is especially important, because abdominal fat produces chemicals that disrupt metabolism and increase the risk of diabetes. The muscles, on the contrary, absorb blood sugar, reducing glucose levels. According to one of the studies, every 10% of muscle gain reduces the risk of prediabet by the same 10%.
Exercises that continue life
According to Mosley, 30-60 minutes of force loads per week help reduce the risk of death from cardiovascular disease and cancer by about 20%.
And the professor of muscle physiology of Copenhagen University, Ebigail McKi warns: with age without physical activity, the muscle fibers die. This is due to the loss of nerve bonds between the muscles and the brain. But strength exercises can prevent this or at least slow down the process.
It's never too late to start
Even if you have never played sports, strength exercises can be (and you need to) perform - gradually, carefully and under the supervision of specialists. After all, adulthood activity is the best investment in quality of life: not only physical but also mental.
