It’s never too late to start.
Last week I was watching a programme on TV call ‘One life.’ It was about people who compete in body building competitions in their 60s, 70s and 80s. What an inspiration? It just goes to show that there’s no age limit when it comes to participating in exercise or having fun. The physiques on these people were amazing. But what I thought was most inspiring was there general attitude towards life and how seriously they took their training. One particular lady, in the US was 83 years old and she was doing wide-arm pull-ups in the gym! Now, those of you who know what a wide-arm pull-up is will realize just how difficult this exercise is even for someone who is very fit and has good upper body strength. This lady didn’t look a day over 50 and had no problem with posing in a bikini when it came to competition time. The other thing I noticed is that these people had perfect posture and moved around freely without any indication of having problems with their back or joints. This strongly suggests, that exercise help to improve the quality of life, as we get older.
As you get older, your body gradually depletes it’s muscle mass. It’s vital to maintain your lean body mass (LBM) for the following reasons;
- Muscle supports your skeletal frame and helps maintain good posture.
- Muscle requires energy. The more muscle you have, the more calories you will burn. Lose muscle and your metabolic rate will slow down
- Muscle helps you to do physical activities better. So will help keep you active and stronger for longer
Having strong and well developed muscles helps to support our skeleton. This supports the load bearing our body weight exerts on our joints. As we get older, due to a reduction in exercise and generally a natural slowing of our metabolism our bodies appear to trade muscle for body fat. So it’s possible to actually be the same weight giving the illusion that we are fit and healthy. What’s actually happening is our muscle mass is decreasing and our body fat is increasing. The reduction in muscle and increase in body fat actually places a greater load on our joints causing aching, swelling and stiff joints, which slows and restricts our movement. This is why it’s important to maintain as much muscle mass as possible as we get older. It doesn’t matter how old we are our muscles will respond to resistance exercise by growing and getting stronger. This will help to support joints and improve posture.
Some common postural problems related to being overweight, lack of exercise and association with ageing are;
Adaptive Shortening – This is when muscles and tendons adapt over time to certain lifestyle situations. For example, if you spend too much time sitting down, whilst driving or at a computer desk etc. your hamstrings and associated tendons will shorten, because these particular situations do not call for the hamstrings to operate too there full potential. Shortening of muscles will cause them to become tight and limit the range of movement. This in turn will make it seem more difficult to carryout everyday tasks associated with this particular muscle group.
Kyphosis – Also known as ‘round shoulders’ caused by curvature of the upper back and spine. This is a very common site today and can be easily identified by a ‘hunched back’ appearance. The main causes of this is again spending too much time in the same position, such as driving, sitting at a desk, workstation or in front of a computer. Nowadays many young people also spend excessive amounts of time in front of the TV or games console instead of doing normal everyday activities and exercise. Unfortunately the lifestyle today requires less manual activities than our parents or grand parents had to endure.
Lordosis – Is stress on the lower back often due to excess weight on the lower abdomen or stomach. The lower back can be pulled out of shape, which can result in back pain. The reason for the pain is because the muscles in the back are constantly working to try and counteract the extra stress caused by the excess weight around the abdomen. Constantly stressing the muscles will cause them to become tired which leads to pain & discomfort.
All of the above conditions can be overcome by introducing some simple but effective exercise into our daily lives. I’m not saying we should all take up professional body building, but we should begin to think seriously about maintaining our bodies if we want to remain active for longer.
To help combat lower back pain it is important to strengthen the abdominal muscles. Exercise that helps to stabilize and strengthen the core abdominal muscles is great for this. Increasing your core stability helps to support the lower back and restore good posture. It’s also advisable to reduce any excess weight from around the stomach area with a sensible nutrition plan.
If you are suffering from tight muscles due to spending long periods in the same position, then it is necessary to introduce some stretching and flexibility exercise to the affected muscles. Gentle exercise such as walking or running will help to utilize muscles to their full potential. If you find yourself sitting in the same position for long periods, then make an effort to get up regularly and go for a walk and do some gentle stretching.
Rounded shoulders are a result of being in the same position for long periods. It is possible to correct this condition with the appropriate resistance exercises and flexibility training. It is important to always work opposing muscle groups in the gym to ensure a good balance. The ‘hunch back’ appearance can often be seen in people who train with weights, because they concentrate on building up the chest muscles, but don’t spend enough time working the opposing upper back muscles. This means that the chest muscles become stronger than the upper back and begin to pull the shoulders around towards the chest, hence, the ‘hunched back’ or ‘round shoulder’ appearance.
So as I pointed out earlier, most of these conditions are often associated with ageing, but not necessarily caused by ageing. In most cases all of the above conditions are caused by our current lifestyle. They become more apparent as we get older because without proper exercise they get progressively worse over time. However, due to modern day life being less physical we will begin to see these conditions a lot earlier on.
The solution is really very simple, if you introduce a well, planned exercise and weight management program into your life then your muscles will be less likely to fall foul of these conditions and your posture, movement and flexibility will be good for many years to come. So if you want to achieve a better quality of life in your latter years then get started now.
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