Battle the Effects of Aging
Growing Older and Stronger
Beyond anti-wrinkle creams and boxes of hair dye, women today are reaching for something heavier to combat the effects of aging: weights.
Strength-training is becoming increasingly popular for women because they can see and feel the results. Weightlifting tones and builds muscles, burning more calories. It can boost metabolic rates by 15 percent, a crucial advantage if you’re trying to lose pounds or that annoying back-of-the-arm flab.
The benefits don’t end there.
It improves balance, flexibility and the ability to do basic everyday tasks such as carrying groceries or lifting grandchildren. According to the Centers for Disease Control, exercises with weights also can ease the symptoms of several diseases and chronic conditions such as:
- depression
- arthritis
- diabetes
- osteoporosis
- obesity
- back pain
Effective as Medication
Indeed, researchers at Tufts University found that strength-training was just as effective as medications for older women (and men) with moderate to severe knee osteoarthritis. The participants in the study completed a strength-training program for 16 weeks. Toward the end, patients reported their pain had decreased by 43 percent. Similar results were seen with patients who have rheumatoid arthritis.
Stronger Bones
It’s an unfortunate truth that after menopause, women can lose 1 to 2 percent of their bone mass annually, according to the CDC. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Strength-training can increase bone density and lower the risk for bone fractures among women between the ages of 50 and 70, according to a 1994 Tufts University study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
It can even make you stronger than you were in your younger years. Postmenopausal women who performed progressive strength training experienced 75 percent increases in strength and 13 percent increases in balance, according to another Tufts study.
Beauty Sleep
If those aren’t enough reasons to grab a pair of dumbbells, consider this: you will sleep better. And not because your body is tired. People who exercise fall asleep faster and enjoy a better quality of sleep.
And a good night’s rest makes everyone feel younger.