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Strength training is
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Strength Training is Good for Seniors
Study Shows Progressive Resistance
Training Improves Daily Activities
By Caroline Wilbert
WebMD Health News
Senior citizens, you may want to consider hitting
the weight room.
A
new review, which compiles data from more than 100
clinical trials, concludes that progressive
resistance training can help older people in daily
activities, such as climbing stairs and fixing
dinner.
The
study, published in the Cochrane Library, examined
121 trials with a total of 6,700 older participants.
In most of the studies, progressive resistance
training, or PRT, was performed two to three times a
week at a high intensity.
PRT
can be done with free weights, exercise machines, or
elastic bands. The key is that the resistance, or
level of difficulty, increase as the person gets
stronger.
This
kind of exercise can be particularly useful for
seniors because people generally lose muscle
strength as they age.
The
review concluded that PRT produced a large
improvement in muscle strength, a moderate to large
improvement in doing simple activities such as
getting up from a chair or climbing stairs, and a
small but statistically significant improvement in
doing complex daily activities, such as bathing or
preparing a meal. After PRT, people had less pain
from osteoarthritis.
"Older adults seem to benefit from this type of
exercise even at the age of 80, and even with some
type of health condition," researcher Chiung-ju Liu
of the department of occupational therapy at Indiana
University in Indianapolis says in a news release.
"The
data support the idea that muscle strength is
largely improved after the training, and the impact
on older adults' daily activities can be
significant. Simply having enough strength to do
things such as carrying groceries would make a
difference for seniors."
©
WebMD. All rights reserved.
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"The data support the idea that
muscle strength is largely improved after the
training, and the impact on older adults' daily
activities can be significant." |
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