Strength Training: Who needs it?

When it comes to strength training, you do not build new muscle cells.  The true fact is that with age comes degradation of muscle cells regardless of your activity or lifestyle.  What happens with strength training is that new muscle mass is developed within each cell that remains.  The potential growth of those proteins, essentially, your red meat, is amazing enough to keep you fit and healthy for life.  You can lose half your muscle cells and half your peak fitness, and still end up healthier at 80 than you were at 20 if you remember that you are a strength and endurance predator...well at least you were created to be one. 

Peak performance declines with age.  A person who can bench press 700 lbs. at 20 will be down to 400 lbs. by age 60.  Those number sound discouraging, but they are not.  I mean, how strong do you really need to be?  Even at age 60 the loss of half your muscle cells in this scenario shows enormous results for what has been done with the remaining cells.  By the way, the world bench press record for a man at 85 is 175 lbs.  That's more than most of us can do now, so remember your body has an amazing ability to stay strong and fit.

I have talked a lot about cardiovascular fitness in my previous blog posts, however, strength training is also a necessary and important part of remaining fit and healthy.  How do you begin a strength training program?  Well that is a little more complex than beginning a cardio routine, however, my first suggestion is to have the right equipment and plan.  We will be discussing this in my next post, however, until then, keep working on the healthy, happy life you deserve.

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