Benefits of weight lifting for older adults over 50 years term paper

Suggestions have been forward that intensive resistance training exercises can be an effective means of negating these consequences and exhibits benefits for the elderly. The view that during the advanced stage, the intensity of the muscles to hold loads are reduced to avoid injuries and severe overuse is pervasive. However, these claims are not supported by the existing evidence and several studies have in fact pointed out the need to have higher intensities in the elderly similar to the young population. Steib et al showed the dependence of improvement of the body strength on the intensity of training (Steib, S. , Schoene, D. Osteoporotic fractures make up one of the major health problems globally. These are fractures that are associated with low Bone Mass Density (BMD) and are known to increase as one age past 50 years.

Age is attributed to be one of the factors that significantly and independently predict fractures. Studies have suggested that risking these fractures with low BMD tend to increase with the increase in age. Several studies in the US have insistently observed the rate of bone breakage and loss increases with increase in age. Several studies have also reported that those aged over 50 years who took part in weight lifting have remarkably improved their BMDs. In an age group of between 50-70-year-old women, a study by Beiver et al found out that rapid strength training and especially weight lifting positively enhanced and maintained BMD (Beiver et al, 1989). Pruitt et al in his study also concluded that strength training ongoing for 9 months helped in increasing BMD at the lumbar spine but same was not realized at the other bone structures such as the femoral neck and the distal wrist (Pruitt et al, 1992).

This study had been conducted on the 54-year-old women control group. A similar study by Shimegi et al (1994) in which he investigated the effects of physical exercises on post-menopausal women, findings reported that physical activities such as weight lifting aided in preventing involutional loss of bone in post-menopausal women. It includes a select amount of exercises that are performed repetitively and are found to be appealing to the elderly. A considerable amount of evidence has been put forward on the efficacy of these programs in the elderly in the past two decades (Karlsdottir et al, 2002). Weight training programs result in an increase in muscle strength. Consequentially, enhanced and strong musculature can substantially reduce the daily activities’ stressing. In the aging population, weight training helps the musculoskeletal system maintain its responsiveness to continued resistance and this is accompanied by increased functional mobility and general ability to conduct everyday activities.

The leg pressing training involving both legs resulted in 17 and 23% increase in isokinetic torque and dynamic lifting capacity, respectively. The average maximal cross-sectional area of the elbow flexors showed an increment of 17. 8% in the trained arm of the elderly (Brown, A. B. , McCartney, N. Additionally, it has been presented that physical exercises play a crucial role in averting osteoporosis through development as well as retention of bone mass density. A common understanding of the impact of physical exercises on the osteogenic stimulus of the bones has been synonymous amongst all researchers. Weight lifting benefits for post-menopausal women Physical activities exhibit both negative and positive outcomes when it comes to the reduction or increment of bone density especially in the elderly women who are past their menopause stage.

Sufficient stimulation of osteogenesis coupled with bone density increment can be realized especially by the form of rapid weight lifting. In a study by Burke et al found out that a moderate 8-week program encompassing strength training program exercises in post-menopausal women resulted in improved isometric muscle force in the ankle joint and knee muscle as well as enhancement of balancing skills (Burke et al, 2010). The study showed there was an increase of 1. 1 % and 0. 9 % in the total and intertrochanteric hip site. Moreover, a 9-month strength training showed an increase in BMD in weight-trained elderly women however there were no substantial increases in weight-training exercises detected at the femoral neck or distal wrist. This was complemented by studies of Nelson et al (2007) where results showed high-intensity training led to a 1% increase in BMD in the femoral neck and lumbar spine in post-menopausal women.

Their results indicated that strength training increased muscle strength and power after a year of training. The study also concluded that long-term training intervention could be able to compensate for strength losses that are attributed to age. The 1-year training program showed to have positive impacts on the participants. They included increasing the basic body strength including both the dynamic and static strength. Furthermore, after 7-year follow up, the study’s results showed a loss of strengths in the intervention group when compared to the control group. Physical exercises have been put forward as both therapeutic and preventive strategy of mitigating aging-induced bone weaknesses and conditions such as osteoporosis. However, bone weaknesses have also been attributed to osteogenic responsiveness to inadequate mechanical action on the bones.

This is because as one age, the mechanical actions reduce and thus reduce osteogenic responsiveness. The current American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) have taken a position and a stand that physical exercises are beneficial to older adults. It summarizes some of the published research works that have investigated the benefits of physical exercises to the older adults’ especially post-menopausal women (average age normally set between 55 and 65) years. Strength training exercises such as weight lifting result in an increasingly integrated electromyogram (IEMG), subsequently increasing the number of active motor units or an increase in their firing frequency with most of this change occurring in the first 3-4 weeks of training. The increase of active motor units then results in an increase in the muscle mass, additionally, weight lifting training among the elderly can lead to isokinetic power production which aids the elderly in carrying out their daily activities (ADL) and prevent falls.

In a study conducted by de Sousa et al (2013), findings were sought in the preliminary investigation of what consists postural responses to stance mental uneasiness or anxiety that are benefited by the resistance strength training programs in the elderly. The results from the last phases of responses indicated that there were benefits derived from the usual physical activities for the elderly as it helps in body balance stabilization after the occurrence of unexpected mental uneasiness which subsequently prevents falls in the elderly (de Sousa et al, 2013). The results, however, suggested that despite the resistance strength training programs improving postural responses in both the stabilization and compensation processes, there is a threat of recovery of stance-stability when lifting an unexpected load. In strength training, a prolonged period and high-intensity exercises are the required parameters to ensure maximum benefits.

Programs that have had successful outcomes share some common characteristics (McNeely, 2010). The training intensity above 70% 1RM for a period of at least 12 months, and a training frequency greater than two times per week were known to be the optimal parameters for strength training exercises. Additionally imperative that there is an increase in resistance and intensity progressively. This is necessitated by the fact that bone formation requires minimum strain. A 30-minute strength training component includes 1 set of each of the following exercises; chair stands, bent-over row, arm-curls, knee extension, overhead dumbbell press, and side hip raises. The importance of the intensity is to ensure that whether one is doing weight lifting for the limb alone or general weight lifting, the aim is to ensure that fatigue is placed on the muscle.

The strength training programs are only effective when specifications of the mode of intensity, duration, and frequency of training are given. This is imperative for the elderly as the variation of intensities and periodization reduces the likelihood of injuries. Summary and Conclusion This review has shown that advancing age can lead to physical and functional impairments as well as injuries. A lot of attention should, however, be paid to the strategies of improving the muscular strength on the older population and the choice of the strength training protocols especially at the initial stages of the exercises. However, having higher-loads in high-intensity training are preferred for the older population and that is why weight lifting is one of the exercises that can be applied.

Weight-lifting induces strength gains to the muscles. Study results have shown achievement of muscle hypertrophy in older adults who participated in high-intensity strength training. Although it takes a lot of variabilities for the bones to respond to strength training, it has been found that strength training exercises have positive impacts on bone health in older men and women. Finally, Physical exercise such as the lifting of weights can lead to an increase in, or reduction in the loss of, bone density, particularly in elderly postmenopausal women. In low bone density, such effects on the spine, as well as hips, have been shown. Adequate stimulation of osteogenesis and an increase in bone density can be achieved especially by means of very intense loading.

The purpose of this study was to validate the point that weight lifting among older adults (over 50 years) presented beneficial outcomes and to dispel the notion that weight lifting among people in this group could suffer from injuries and bone fractures. The elderly need strength training more and more as they grow older to stay mobile for their everyday activities. Muscle function in 75-year-old men and women. A longitudinal study.  Scandinavian journal of rehabilitation medicine. Supplement, 9, 92-102. Bocalini, D. N. , França, F. J. R. , de Meneses, S. Y. Strontium ranelate: the first dual acting treatment for postmenopausal osteoporosis.  Clinical Orthopedics and Related Research (1976-2007), 443, 55-60. Brown, A. B. , Kozak, K. C. , Newhall, K. M. , & Marcus, R. Increased energy requirements and changes in body composition with resistance training in older adults.