On average, everyone loses one to two percent of muscle mass per year after their 50th birthday, and with it, muscle strength also decreases. This can be counteracted with strength training. However, you can only maintain strength if you train with weights, as the first results of a long-term study currently underway at the University of Copenhagen show.
Climbing stairs, carrying shopping home, getting up from an armchair or out of bed – all of these activities require muscle strength, which decreases more and more with advancing age.
Losing leg strength and a weakening handshake have long been considered indicators of degenerative diseases and the amount of time left to live. The Danish study, which began four years ago, provides evidence that strength training with heavy weights has long-term effects on people around 70 years of age.
Recommendation to politicians
Although the study will take another three years, the researchers at the University of Copenhagen are already certain: “Older people should be encouraged to do strength training with heavy weights for the sake of their physical and cognitive health.”
This recommendation should also be understood as an appeal to politicians to include strength training in government health care programs.
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Source: Nachrichten
