Exercise for Older Adults : How Muscles Work, Enjoying Retirement

by National Institute on Aging

(Page 10 of 12)

Progressing

Gradually increasing the amount of weight you use is crucial for building strength. When you are able to lift a weight between 8 to 15 times, you can increase the amount of weight you use at your next session.

Here is an example of how to progress gradually: Start out with a weight that you can lift only 8 times. Keep using that weight until you become strong enough to lift it 12 to 15 times. Add more weight so that, again, you can lift it only 8 times. Use this weight until you can lift it 12 to 15 times, then add more weight. Keep repeating.

Sarcopenia: A Word You Are Likely to Hear More About

We know that muscle-building exercises can improve strength in most older adults, but many questions remain about muscle loss and aging. Researchers want to know, for example, if factors other than a sedentary lifestyle contribute to muscle loss. Does age itself cause changes in the muscles of older people? Is muscle loss related to changes in hormones or nutrition? The answers to these questions may lead to ways of helping us keep our strength as we age.

In this book, we use the word "frailty" to describe the loss of muscle and strength often seen in older people, because it's a word that most people are familiar with. However, a better word to use is "sarcopenia" (pronounced sar - ko - PEEN - ya). It means not only the loss of muscle and strength but also the decreased quality of muscle tissue often seen in older adults. You are likely to hear more about sarcopenia in the future since it's a very active area of research.

How Muscles Work

What makes your muscles look bigger when you flex them - when you "make a muscle" with your biceps, for example?

Muscle cells contain long strands of protein lying next to each other. When you want your muscles to move, your brain signals your nerves to stimulate them. A chemical reaction in your muscles follows, causing the long strands of protein to slide toward and over each other, shortening the length of your muscle cells. When you "make a muscle" and you see your muscle bunch up and bulge, you are actually watching it shorten as the protein strands slide over each other. When you do challenging muscle-building exercises on a regular basis, the bundles of protein strands inside your muscle cells grow bigger.

How Am I Doing?

Enjoying Retirement

Until he was 48 years old, Ron Ekovich, of Leesville, South Carolina, smoked a pack of cigarettes every day. Looking to the future made him decide to quit.

"I figured I had to make some changes in my life if I was going to enjoy my retirement," he told us.

Needless to say, Mr. Ekovich, who is now 61 years old, no longer smokes. He works out with strength-building equipment 3 days a week, and he carries his own bag of clubs on the 3 days a week that he plays golf.

And he stretches. "If I had to choose the most important thing you can do as you get older, it would be stretching. It helps keep you self sufficient," he said. Mr. Ekovich was only half joking when he gave an example: When his back itches, he said, he's able to just reach back and scratch it. This example might seem funny... unless you aren't able to scratch your own back.

"The more physical activity you get the better you feel. The achievement makes you feel great emotionally, and it makes you feel good physically," he said.

Mr. Ekovich also cites a person's outlook as an important component of physical activity and exercise. "The only thing that limits people's ability to achieve their goals is themselves," he said. He recently finished shoveling about 10 tons of earth - that's 20,000 pounds - to make a new garden for his wife.

There are ways to tell when it's time to move ahead in your activities, and we have mentioned some of them in the preceding chapter. For example, when you can lift a weight more than 15 times, you know it's time to add more weight in your strength exercises. And when endurance activities no longer feel somewhat hard to you, it's time to exercise a little longer, then to add a little more difficulty, like walking up steeper hills.

As you progress, you can do some simple tests, shown in this chapter, that will tell you just how far you have come. These tests also can help you assess how fit you are before you start exercising. After that, try them again every month. Record your scores each time, so you can see your improvement the next time you test yourself.

You might be interested in doing these tests for a couple of reasons. For one, most people make rapid progress soon after they start exercising, and you might find the improvement you see in your scores after just a month encouraging.

For another, these tests are a good way of letting you know if you really are progressing. Although it's normal for your improvement to slow down at times, your test scores should get better overall (unless you have reached your goal and are maintaining your current level).

About the Author

www.nia.nih.gov
NIA, one of the 27 Institutes and Centers of NIH, leads a broad scientific effort to understand the nature of aging and to extend the healthy, active years of life. In 1974, Congress granted authority to form NIA to provide leadership in aging research, training, health information dissemination, and other programs relevant to aging and older people.