Lifting Weights As You Age Cuts Your Risk Of Early Death By 46%

Great news, fellow lifters. Your training will not only improve your overall health and provide you with incredible strength and mass gains – it will give you a longer lifetime to enjoy those benefits as well!

In the modern society, most of the people tend to lack the skills of aging well – the unhappy mix of bad food choices, sedentary office jobs and piles of mismanaged emotional stress comes with an awful price that is usually felt a lot stronger in the later decades of life. A general life dissatisfaction and a number of painful chronic conditions are just the tip of the iceberg. What about the risk of developing life-threatening diseases that are known to lurk around unhealthy lifestyles, year by year, day by day? If you spend a lifetime treating your body poorly, don’t be surprised when it stabs you in the back at old age. Actually, you should thank it for not giving up on you a lot earlier.

A new longitudinal study from Penn State College of Medicine informs us that strength training can increase your longevity, especially if you keep continually practicing it as you age. The researchers examined people in their 60’s about their exercise habits and preferences and then tracked them for the next 15 years – thus losing nearly a third of the original number of participants, who died in that period of time. That being said, the almost 10 percent of subjects who did strength training were 46% less likely to die during the study. Additionally, this study has shown that strength training can reduce the risk of death by 19% even among a population of subjects with common health risk factors like drinking and smoking, and suffering from chronic conditions such as hypertension.

According to the author of the study, Jennifer Kraschnewski, M.D, strength training enables you to live a longer, healthier life by keeping you physically active, improving your balance, strengthening your muscles and increasing your bone density. The last one is crucial for preventing bone fractures, which are infamously detrimental to the health of older people. And finally, training helps you maintain a healthy weight, which in turn will lower the risk for developing many diseases associated with obesity.

If you’re already into strength training, good for you. If you want to try it out for the first time, it’s never too late. But if you’re middle-aged or beyond and have led a relatively inactive lifestyle up to now, you might benefit from consulting your doctor first, and then finding a suitable personal trainer.

By age 50, about ten percent of your muscle mass is lost – after that, the rate of loss significantly speeds up and by age 70 you could experience a great loss of strength, stamina and the ability to function independently.

Yet, it doesn’t have to be that way. According to the American College of Sports Medicine, older adults can make significant gains in strength and a decent increase in muscle size in only a few months of regular training. Start slowly and progress in a gradual manner – any type of exercise can be adjusted to your needs and abilities. With a bit of caution and persistence, anyone can significantly improve their health, well-being and longevity.

Start now and give yourself the chance to become the best version of yourself!

reprinted from fitnessandpower.com

I Took Plank Breaks At Work Every Day For A Month—This Is What Happened

Boy, was I over-confident.

by Leah Wynalek

Confession: I usually eat lunch at my desk. I know it's bad for my health (and my keyboard), but sometimes I just want to close my office door and listen to Spotify while scarfing my green curry and veggies. Outside of work I'm constantly on the move—I run every morning—but between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., I'm a bit of a shut-in. Aside from coffee and bathroom breaks, I'm notoriously desk-bound.

At my last job, a coworker suggested our entire row of cubicles schedule twice daily "plank breaks" in the morning and afternoon to re-energize. For two days, we all diligently heeded our reminder notifications, got out of our desk chairs, and dropped into plank position for one minute. But by day three we were all clicking "ignore" and working through them.

Fast forward to a couple of months ago as I paired yet another packed lunch with Twitter. Feeling guilty, I wondered if I should revive the plank break to offset my sedentary lunchtime. So I pitched this story, set daily reminders for 10:45 a.m. and 3:45 p.m., and vowed to hold plank position for one minute and 30 seconds each time that pesky alarm sounded. Here's how it went.

I felt super self-conscious at first.

Even though I had the luxury of closing an office door rather than planking in public, I was paranoid that a co-worker would walk past, see my feet sticking out from behind my desk, and rush in to see what the heck was going on. I imagine it'd be a little awkward to explain, "Oh don't mind me, just planking!" Especially since I'm new here. Luckily nobody seemed to notice—or they just accepted that I was somewhat eccentric.

I learned the value of a minute.

As a regular yoga-doer (bring on the chaturangas!) I thought a minute and a half holding plank was going to be easy-peasy. Boy, was I over-confident. When I did them right, my core quaked, and I'd look desperately at the timer on my iPhone as it counted down to zero—a.k.a. plank freedom. I considered cutting my breaks to one even minute, but I'm not one to back away from a challenge, so I stuck with my original goal 'til the bitter end.

I finally focused on form—and learned how to mix things up.

I'm still far from perfect plank position, but trying to take photos for this experiment pointed out the flaws in my form: an arched back, dropped hips, a craned neck, rounded shoulders, all the usual suspects. With each workday, I strived to improve. Of course, the basic plank or forearm planks got boring day after day, so I spiced things up with side or raised leg planks. Jillian Michaels would be so proud.

I hit snooze…a lot.

It's in my nature—I'm a three-snoozes-a-morning kind of girl—and I found myself doing the same thing when notifications popped up on my computer screen during work. Sometimes I'd delay the plank break to finish a task, but oftentimes I was just dragging my feet because that's what I do. But whenever I finally got out of my seat and down on two hands, I always felt better afterward.

I found a plank buddy.

Remember that whole dragging my feet thing? It was so much easier to stay motivated when a coworker dropped by to join me. I got into the habit of inviting a friend for one of my sessions each day, and it was fun using that time to dissect character development in Stranger Things or catch up on what we each did over the weekend. Plus, it was nice to know that I wasn't struggling through this alone.

I craved cardio.

I'm a running, hiking, biking sort, which is why you'll rarely see me in the gym working out. Holding a stationary pose often bored me, and I found myself wishing I'd signed up for jumping jack breaks instead. Sometimes I'd do mountain climbers from plank pose when I was feeling antsy.

I felt re-energized and stronger.

As I ended each plank break with a good stretch in downward-facing dog, I could literally feel all that tension from sitting in my desk chair release. I was surprised by the jolt of energy I felt from such a short spurt of physical exertion, and it inspired me to move around more in other small ways, like taking trips to a bathroom on another floor or doubling my coffee breaks (oops). Not only that, but my abs strengthened. I didn't quite realize it until the final week, when my plank hold felt considerably easier than during week one. Though I didn't see a difference, I could feel it.

I might not continue daily plank breaks, but this exercise in willpower has inspired me to do something, anything, more often throughout the workday. Yesterday I did 10 jumping jacks when I was feeling restless, and sometimes I'll shut my office door now to cycle through a sun salutation or two. When I'm done feeling so over-planked, I might even just drop down and give another minute-thirty.

Reprinted from womenshealth.com