Judith C, a new client of ours at the DVCC has a question. And a very good one in fact. She wants to know why, at aged 60+, she needs to do resistance training.
Lost Muscle Tone
It’s sad but true. As we get older, we lose muscle tone.
From around the age of thirty, our muscles start to naturally become softer and less capable of holding tone. Even more so if you don’t work out regularly with carefully designed exercise plans that are right for your body type and goals.
Why does this matter? Well, beyond the fact that your upper arms and thighs might appear “saggy” and you’ll have less confidence wearing your favourite summer clothes, this is a problem for your health overall because muscle tone has been shown to be one of the biggest predictors of longevity of life.
Simply put, the more muscles you have, the longer you’ll live
Live Healthier and Longer
The above might be a bold claim (and there are obviously exceptions to this rule), but muscle tone is important for your health as you age. While you may not be able to recover lost muscle tone, you can actively reduce the amount you lose from now on and even improve on the muscle tone you already have, through a healthy and active lifestyle.
At the DVCC, we have clients into their eighties who say that they’ve never felt fitter in their lives. Investing in their health later in life has effectively made up for lost time. They’ve alleviated themselves from chronic pains, boosted energy levels and even put on pounds and pounds of muscle tone through resistance training.
Resistance Training
One of the key reasons for doing resistance training is to increase your muscle tone
You might be thinking, but what about light exercise, like swimming or walking? If you enjoy either of these activities, then that’s great. I encourage it. Not only are you helping to keep yourself fit and active, but you’re reducing stress levels and weight gain.
However, what you won’t be able to achieve by continuing with these activities only is gaining muscle tone.
Your body needs to be challenged to adapt. And only resistance training can do that.
Without doing resistance training, it’s very, very, very hard to put on muscle tone. If you don’t put your body under the resistance that it needs to change and adapt; if you just keep on with the same walk in the park or twenty laps at the pool, you won’t be challenging your body into creating muscle tone.
So in short, to live a healthier, longer and more active life, you need to incorporate resistance training at least twice a week.
