Use it or lose it
Conventional wisdom has it that your metabolism slows in your thirties and you start losing muscle mass, marking the beginning of a long downhill slide to the inevitable frailty of age. Conventional wisdom, as usual, is wrong. And conventional wisdom is partly to blame for the downhill slide, since we also believe that getting to slow down and do less is a benefit of reaching the so-called golden years.
As it turns out, minimizing activity and avoiding effort are what cause the decline in physical functioning as we age. The less you do, the more your muscles atrophy, and the less you can do, until getting up out of a chair becomes laborious. You believe you gain weight more easily because your metabolism slows down as you age, but the real problem is that your inactivity leads to less muscle to burn energy. Your metabolism didn’t slow down. You did.
If you stopped using it and starting losing it as a result of your beliefs about aging, there is hope. No matter what your age, all you need to do is add strength training to your life. Studies show that aerobic exercise alone does not provide the benefits that come from strength training. From a mind-body perspective, this makes good sense, symbolically as well as literally. Aerobic exercise builds stamina. Strength training makes you strong all over. Throw in some yoga, and you develop flexibility and balance, too. All four aspects of your physical and mental being are needed to stay fit for life.
Strength training applies the mind-body approach from the body side of the equation. It’s an example of how you can change your attitude from the outside in, improving many areas of life at once. Studies show that as you get stronger physically, your immune system gets stronger, your mood improves, you get calmer, and your overall vigor is enhanced. Getting stronger makes you feel more confident, competent, and energetic. This is a big payoff for adding effort to your life.
In order to use strength training to best advantage, you need to get motivated. Here is some reading to boost your enthusiasm for making a habit of health-promoting effort:
- Biomarkers: The 10 Keys to Prolonging Vitality William Evans, Ph.D. and Irwin H. Rosenberg, M.D
- Growing Old Is Not for Sissies II: Portraits of Senior Athletes, by Etta Clark (Growing Old is Not for Sissies I is out of print, but you may be able to find it in your library or used on-line.)
[FYI: Strength does not have to be an expensive adventure. No special equipment is needed other than a set of dumbbells. Most strength work can be done using only your body.
Special nutritional supplements are unnecessary. The only supplement you need is an attitudinal one: persistence and the expectation of great results.]