Studies have linked this to better heart health and a lower risk of death from cancer.
Resistance training significantly improves your VO2max and your overall cardiorespiratory fitness.Resistance training increases blood flow to muscles throughout your body, which lowers your blood pressure. Over the years, a number of other studies have also shed light on why resistance training can be so beneficial. The researchers found that being physically active and having “good muscle strength” in middle age were among the strongest predictors of a longer lifespan. This relationship remained after the scientists accounted for traditional markers of disease, and it showed that muscle index was an even better predictor of premature mortality than obesity.Īnother study recruited over 2,200 middle-aged men and followed them for up to 44 years. Those who were in the group with the highest muscle index had the lowest mortality, while those who had the lowest muscle index had the highest mortality rates. The researchers did this by zeroing in on each person’s “muscle index” – your muscle mass divided by your height squared. They followed about 4,000 healthy adults over the age of 55 for more than a decade and noticed that their muscle mass was tightly linked to their lifespans. In 2014, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles medical school discovered something striking. “Resistance training is the closest thing to the fountain of youth that we have,” said Brad Schoenfeld, an assistant professor of exercise science and director of the Human Performance Laboratory at Lehman College in New York. Scientists at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging found that doing just two resistance-training sessions each week can reverse the age-related cellular damage that contributes to sarcopenia and functional impairment. But studies show you can slow and delay these processes by years or even decades with a muscle strengthening program that works your entire body. Most people accept the loss of muscle, bone and all the downsides that follow as a natural part of aging. “Whenever you lose muscle you automatically lose bone – they go hand in hand.”īecause your muscles and bones are inextricably linked, when you lose muscle you’re at greater risk of the following: “The bones, muscles, ligaments and tendons in your musculoskeletal system all work together, and they either become stronger together or weaker together,” he said.
Wayne Westcott, a professor of exercise science at Quincy College in Massachusetts. So as you lose muscle with age – a process called sarcopenia – your bones become brittle, a process known as osteopenia, said Dr.
The same factors that help you maintain muscle are the same factors that keep your bones strong and dense. Studies show that this loss of muscle hastens the onset of diseases, limits mobility, and is linked to premature death.Īnother detrimental consequence is the impact that this has on your bones. After age 40, we lose on average 8 percent of our muscle mass every decade, and this phenomenon continues to accelerate at an even faster rate after age 60. Muscle starts to deteriorate when we reach our 30s. But as we get older, they begin to melt away. They’re the reason we can walk, run, climb and carry things around.