Strength and Power Training: A Guide for Adults of All Ages
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
AN EXCERPT FROM THIS REPORT
Just a century ago, life expectancy in America was nearly three decades shorter than it is today. The idea of blowing out 100 candles on a birthday cake fit better in the realm of fiction than fact. Currently, experts estimate the average 65-year-old has another 18 years to live. The ranks of people age 85 or older are swelling rapidly. In fact, 85-94 year olds are the fastest growing segment of the population, followed by people age 95 and older. Whether you eventually join that club depends upon how healthy, active, and alert you stay as the years go by.
Prepared by the editors of Harvard Health Publications in consultation with Walter Frontera, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Harvard Medical School , and Jonathan Bean, M.D., M.S., Assistant Professor, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Harvard Medical School. (44 pages)
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Table of Contents:
Strength training: A traditional approach
Power training: A new approach
Benefits at a glance
A look at muscle and movement
Muscles at work
Age and muscle loss
Muscles, metabolism and weight
Choosing strength training equipment
Buying basic equipment
Building smarter dumbbells
Investing wisely in large equipment
Gym versus home
Considerations when choosing a gym
Working with exercise professionals
Questions for your doctor
When you may need to suspend exercising
Quiz: Do you need supervision?
Tips for avoiding injury
Warning signs
Strength training questions and answers
How often should I do strength training?
What are "reps" and "sets"?
What is good form?
How much weight or resistance should I use?
How many sets should I do?
How long should I rest between sets?
Why should I warm up and cool down?
Why - and when - should I stretch?
Current exercise recommendations
Your workout calendar
Charting your progress
Tips for training
Workout I
Workout II
How to use a weighted vest
Forging ahead
Keeping it interesting
Maintaining gains
Stretching
Arthritis
Benefits at any age
Heart disease
Osteoporosis
Diabetes
Depression
Exercise: A potent Rx
Organizations
Books
Videos
Here's an Excerpt from this Strength Training Special Health Report
Strength training is a popular term for exercises that build muscle by harnessing resistance — that is, an opposing force that muscles must strain against. Sometimes, strength training is also called resistance training, progressive resistance training or weight training. Resistance can be supplied by your body weight, free weights such as dumbbells and weighted cuffs, elasticized bands or specialized machines. No matter what kind of resistance you use, putting more than the usual amount of strain, or load, on your muscles makes them stronger. Because the muscles being worked tug on underlying bone, these exercises actually strengthen your bones, too.
Strength training should not be reserved for young souls in search of buff bodies or bulked-up muscles. While it certainly can reshape your silhouette in a pleasing way, it's also a way to boost the strength you call upon as you go about everyday tasks. Just about any activity becomes easier with stronger muscles. So will any sport you enjoy.
Weak muscles can make even minor exertion—such as walking a few blocks, climbing stairs, carrying groceries, or getting into or out of bed — difficult. Equally important, weak muscles compromise balance. Often a debilitating cycle is set in motion when a fall or disabling condition such as arthritis curtails activity, says Dr. Walter Frontera, chairman of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School. It's natural to adapt to limitations, but many people find that the less they do, the less they are able to do as time goes on. But people can regain their abilities and reverse the cycle with exercises that rebuild lost muscle and recapture a reasonable range of motion.
Before you turn to the question of which exercises to do, it helps to learn a bit about how your muscles work. Strength training — or actually any voluntary movement in the body — is made possible by skeletal muscles, which are fused to bone. The body boasts more than 600 skeletal muscles. Strength training works muscle beyond its usual capacity. Some experts theorize that muscles grow in response to this stimulus because the exercises cause microscopic tears in muscle fibers. The body rushes protein to the tear sites to pave over the damage done. When this cycle occurs repeatedly, muscles become visibly larger. Another theory, tested mostly in animals and a few studies on bodybuilders, suggests that new muscle fibers actually generate in response to the microscopic injuries.