Strength Training is needed by older adults to keep their bone density and muscle mass. Exercise can also help reduce the symptoms and risk of many chronic diseases, such as diabetes, arthritis, obesity, coronary artery disease, osteoporosis and frailty. Improvements in increased flexibility, muscle strength, cardio-respiratory endurance, as well as a decrease in pain, has been seen in individuals who stick with a strength training and exercise program for as little as twelve weeks. The importance of a good diet and physical exercise to a person's health is strongly stress by the "American Dietary Guidelines of 2005". According to these guidelines, much greater importance is placed on exercise now than it was previously. Gardening, bicycling, or walking are actions considered to be moderate physical activity. For positive affects to maintaining a certain weight and for energy balance, sixty minutes of activity is needed. However, at least thirty minutes of moderate physical activity on every other day will, according to those dietary guidelines, reduce the risk of chronic disease. Sarcopenia is a condition that can develop as a person gets older when they get too little exercise and don't eat enough protein. The condition usually starts when muscle mass begins to decline in a person at a rate of about one percent per year at the age of about forty-five. The gradual loss of muscle mass has been attached to lack of exercise, increased frailty and protein deficiency among the elderly experts states. The safety and effectiveness of resistance (or strength) training in reversing frailty and sarcopenia have constantly been shown by researchers. The researchers are reassessing the adult dietary protein requirement in a search for new methods to reverse and prevent muscle loss. The process in which the body basically metabolizes itself is called catabolism. Catabolism in the human body reacts to protein deficiency by taking amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) away from muscle tissue and other areas of the body. Catabolism can lead to weakness and muscle loss. There are risks involved for those consuming inadequate protein. The low protein diet may help those with liver insufficiency and chronic kidney disease, but it is known also to lead to muscle loss. Protein restricted diets sometimes may actually be recommended because of certain health conditions in which extra nitrogen may not be sufficiently excreted through the urine. A group of volunteers with chronic kidney disease were part of a study at a university. Half of the volunteers served as a control group while the other volunteers engaged in resistance training. All the volunteers were placed on a low protein diet. The exercisers reduced their blood levels of two key inflammation factors when compared to the control group. Muscle strength increased by 30 percent and total muscle fiber increased by 32 percent among the strength-training volunteers. They exercised for forty-five minutes, three times a week for twelve weeks. This improved body strength, which is the opposite effect of regular aging, was having a positive effect on the volunteers' activities of daily living. The volunteers also regained their ability to clean house, shop for groceries and climb stairs as volunteers reclaimed their muscles. The result is connected to better functional capacity and better nutrition. |
