Part 1. Challenges in strength training
Remember the good old childhood days when hanging from trees and jumping from wall and enjoying swings was so much fun. Kids are natural learners and staying physically active helps them to grow and become stronger. What happens as we grow into adults? Where does the energy vanish and we become airless balloons. Does aging reduces our enthusiasm to play and explore? Strength training and resistance training holds the key.
Compared to adults, children who are physically active have a matchless ability to endure and bounce back from high intensity games or workouts. So, what does a playful child gain at the end of the hectic day-
- Tiredness …so nice dreamy sleep at the day end
- Slim & trim body…no weight gain issues
- Better focus …mind is where the game is
- Flexible supple body…tying shoe laces while sitting is easy
- Social skills…more friends merrier the group
- Coping mechanisms…fight it out
From where does the little naughty munchkins generate so much energy that adults lack?
Children have fatigue resistance muscles and good recovery rate from high intensity exercise— even challenging endurance of trained athletes. This is the finding of new research published in open-access journal Frontiers in Physiology, which compared the energy output and post-exercise recovery rates of young boys, untrained adults and endurance athletes. Muscle endurance is often the game changer in children, so despite of limited cardiovascular output, short stature and attributes, less efficient movements, they outsmart adults in muscle performance.
In high intensity exercises, children often use aerobic pathway (using oxygen from blood) energy produce to recover fast as compared to adults using anaerobic pathway (breakdown of glucose to produce energy without using oxygen) which often ends in – muscular acidosis and lactate formation. Remember that pricking sensation and fatigue cramps in muscles. This happens when your body primarily uses glucose as fuel, this energy systems boosts muscles in short 10-30 seconds time for intense efforts but leaves byproducts.
In short, muscle power is crucial in children and adults and for that strength training is helpful. “Use it or Lose it” best describes muscle strength. Sarcopenia, a decline in skeletal muscle in older people, is a serious growing-up issue that invites lot of diseases in aging adults. Sarcopenia is also associated with several chronic diseases, increasingly worse insulin resistance, fatigue, falls and fractures. You will be astonished to know that basal metabolic rate declines as muscle mass decreases and in turn insulin resistance increases leading to diabetes and various metabolic diseases.
As we land up in senior age category three CHALLENGES are encountered in our body
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Age related changes in Muscles– With less use muscle fibres may shrink in size or dystrophy. Muscle fibres may be replaced with thick fibrous tissue. With nerve impact the tone and contractions may decline.
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Age related changes in Bones– Sedentary lifestyle and nutritional deficiencies may lead to bone loss and osteoporosis. Bone loses calcium and other minerals.
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Age related changes in Joints– As aging progresses, lack of exercise and joint movement can lead to joint dysfunctions. The synovial fluid present between the joint helps it to move and the stress of movement helps keep the fluid moving. Being inactive causes the cartilage to shrink and stiffen, reducing joint mobility.
STRENGTH TRAINING- The health buzz word
Strength training is basically a physical exercise that employs resistance in the form of your body weight or external weights to help improve total health of skeletal muscle strength. When it comes to strength training, it can be challenging to know how to begin. There are safety problems to be mindful of and a vast range of potentially perplexing equipment to learn about. But it is not as complicated as it appears, especially when you know the fundamentals of strength training.The biggest risk for seniors to suddenly start strength training without supervision can be injury. Apart from this, senior people with underlying heart conditions should consult their physicians for better adaptations to newer regimes. Pregnant women should take advice before leaping into new exercise regime.
How to start –
- Your own body weight – push-ups, stomach crunches, pull-ups, and other exercises to help tone and strengthen muscles. Abdominal obesity is your biggest enemy.
- Free weights – Dumbbells. Lifting that 5 kg wheat bag is not a bag idea. Start slowly!
- Resistance Bands or tubing.
- Gym set-up
Engage yourself in healthy strength training exercises till we meet next with some other interesting facts and regimes.