Great question from yesterdays post:
The Q:
With specific regard to muscle and longevity, many older folks I see have problems with a) getting up out of chairs, and b) falling and breaking hips (from which they never seem to recover), so strength exercises targeted to these issues might actually be the most beneficial. What would you recommend for those issues, some form of squats?
My A:
I totally agree that muscle building should be done in a specific manner, so just like training shoulders to get bigger shoulders, it does make sense to train the lower body to keep the legs strong enough for daily activities (while this seems like a no-brainer, the specificity of muscle training seems to be a lost concept these days). However this being said, I think you have to assess each person on an individual basis. As much as I love them “squats” can’t be a blanket solution for everyone…So leg training makes perfect sense, but if in certain scenarios the squat is contraindicated, then we need to move to other forms of weight bearing exercise…steps ups would be a good example.
Yo Brad, any tips on getting my aging mom to do resistance? She does aerobic regularly for decades but I can tell my folks are losing muscle mass. Already got my Dad in the gym for half a year now and corrected that problem, now working on her.
I don’t know if I’ve ever left a comment here before, but I think the question is a bit simplistic. Yes, lots of older people have problems getting up from a chair, but for a myriad of reasons ranging from being too obese to get out of a chair, to having knee or hip osteoarthritis which makes them feel unstable, to having neurodegenerative changes that affect their balance and proprioception. As Brad already points out, you can’t throw a blanket solution on a complex, unanalyzed problem. In many cases, strength isn’t actually the problem, or is only a symptom of a problem that strengthening isn’t going to help.
I agree with your answer.
If everybody went to the gym on regular basis and trained properly, the number of people getting injured in life while doing usual activity would decreased.
Don’t you think?
If there is one movement that everybody could really benefit from, i think it would be the turkish getup, especially seniors.{Does the line i’ve fallen and can’t get up ring a bell} The fact is you’re starting lying on your back and have to complete a movement that get’s you standing on your feet. The movement can be broken down for different levels, and could be done with one adjustable dumbell. As far as exercise in general I think it comes down to use it or lose it. They’ve even done studies on 90 year old people that started a strength training program, and they got great results. In other words i think that blaming a “myriad of reasons” of why they can’t move well is like the obese blaming genetics for their problem, { almost non existent} when the reality is they ate to much at some point, and didn’t move enough.