Strength training urged for older adults 65+

Last Updated: 2004-01-23 11:45:05 -0400 (Reuters Health)

By Merritt McKinney

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - More older adults should be participating in weight training and other strength-building exercises, experts say.

A nationwide survey shows that only about 11 percent of people aged 65 and older regularly perform any sort of strength training. That's far short of the 30 percent of older adults who public health officials would like to see performing strength-building exercises by 2010.

"We're less than half way to that goal," Dr. Judy Kruger of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta told Reuters Health in an interview.

Many older people may never consider lifting weights, but performing exercises to build strength can provide important health benefits, according to Kruger. Strength training can reduce the risk of falls and fractures and make it easier for older people to carry out their activities of daily living, she said.

Besides making muscles stronger, strength training has also been shown to increase endurance, boost bone density and improve the body's sensitivity to the sugar-processing hormone insulin.

But strength training does not necessarily mean pumping iron, Kruger said.

"People need to feel comfortable with what they are doing," according to Kruger. She encouraged people to "start slow and to build up" when beginning a strength training program.

Although some people may start with light weights, people do not have to go to a gym, Kruger said. A few simple exercises using an ordinary chair can help boost muscle strength she said.

A complete guidebook for starting an exercise program is available at the Web site of the National Institute on Aging (NIA)

Although weights are not necessary for strength training, if older people choose weight training, they should start with light weights - one to two pounds - and then gradually increase the weight, the NIA advises.

Most older adults in the U.S. are not doing enough to keep their muscles strong, Kruger and her colleagues note in the latest edition of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

By 2010, health experts would like for 30 percent of people aged 65 and older to be performing strength exercises at least two times a week. But in a national survey conducted in 2001, only 12 percent of people aged 65 to 74 met this goal. Just 10 percent of people aged 75 and older performed strength exercises at least twice a week.

Men were more likely than women to participate in strength training. The odds of meeting the strength training guidelines decreased with age but were higher in more educated people.

People who were obese or who reported being in fair to poor health were less likely to participate in strength training.

SOURCE: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, January 23, 2004.


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