The Need for Resistance Training

Research Cited: (all are available for free download via the links)

• Effects of aging and resistance exercise on determinants of muscle strength
• The underappreciated role of muscle in health and disease
• Influence of muscle strength, physical activity and weight on bone mass in a population-based sample of 1004 elderly women
• Effect of combined exercise training on bone, body balance, and gait ability: a randomized controlled study in community-dwelling elderly women

If at all, I encourage you to download these papers and read their conclusions, which does not involve much (if any) scientific discussion. Even if you are short on time, I will strongly recommend that you give a thorough read of “The underappreciated role of muscle in health and disease”.

Definition of Resistance training (wikipedia): Resistance training is a form of strength training in which each effort is performed against a specific opposing force generated by resistance.

I’ll admit it, this is one of my pet peeves.

How many times have I walked into a commercial gym, and see people on the cardio machines sweating it out.

It’s a fact, that for many, cardiovascular activities like jogging, rowing, cycling and even using the eliptical machine takes precedence over a good resistance training program.

When most people in the general public do get to lifting weights, its with baby weights with hopeless effort and without a structured program.

Those points will be addressed in the future, but this post is simply to convince everybody that resistance training is absolutely essential for good health.

As per the definition given above, the resistance need not be from weights. In fact it can very well be from anything, including your body weight. The point I will try to make is that by resistance training we can achieve 1 very important side effect:

1. Build and Maintain muscle mass even into old age

Aging and Muscular Deterioration

What I want to state firstly is that from the table above (right most column), muscular strength increased in every study. The lowest was a 15% increase and as you can see most of the studies have seen anywhere from 20-130% increases in muscular strength.

I want to quote some excerpts from the paper “The underappreciated role of muscle in health and disease”.
“Both cardiac failure and cancer are often associated with rapid and extensive loss of muscle mass, strength, and metabolic function (cachexia). With cardiac and cancer cachexia, the loss of muscle mass is an important determinant of survival”

“Men with the least skeletal muscle mass also had increased risks of falls due to impaired static and dynamic balance, presumably at least in part because of a decrease in muscle strength.”

The quotes show a probably more ’serious’ problem, that about heart disease, and even something as trivial as not being to balance properly.

Couple that with the fact that less muscle means more joint pressure, and you can see why the stumbling old man is sufferring from a much more serious problem than is perceived.

The paper goes on to state the correlations of muscle mass to responses to chronic disease, insulin resistance and obesity. All of the above show a positive correlation with more muscle mass.

The paper also suggests some counter-measures, in which hormonal therapy, nutrition and exercise are metioned heavily.

Now, I want to bring in the research from the last two studies. The first of the 2 is focused on 1004 caucasian women, all of age 75, living in the same area. They were split into 8 groups based on activity levels as shown below:

“Activity levels: 1) bed rest only, cannot walk, 2) walking possible with human support only, 3)walking with walking aid, only indoors, 4) walking with walking aid, in and outdoors, 5) no walking aid, walks independently without limitation, 6) take frequent or regular walks, 7) participates in physical activity more strenuous than walking only, 8) still working, no limitation of mobility”

Important note: No resistance training program was specifically prescribed to this group.

At the end of the experiment, Bone Mineral Density (BMD) levels were taken for Total Body, Femoral Neck, Trochanter and Spine. These were correlated to the various variables ranging from Knee flexion strength to Physical Activity (as defined above), to fat mass and others.

I will spare the rest of the details, but here is the important point that I quote from the conclusion:

“We conclude that current physical activity, both objectively and subjectively measured, accounts for a minor proportion of the variability in BMD. This leaves limited room for the effect of physical activity as a potential bone mass modifier in elderly women.”

So normal levels of physical activity do not really improve BMD from this research.

Now, I would like to share the results of the second research: Effect of combined exercise training on bone, body balance, and gait ability: a randomized controlled study in community-dwelling elderly women

This research was done on two groups of Korean Women. The women were all aged 65 and were randomly assigned into two groups of 25, one group which continued their regular habits, and another group which were put on an exercise program as follows:

“The exercise program included stretching for 9 min, strength training for 10 min followed by 23 min of weight-bearing
exercise at an intensity ranging from 65% to 70% of the maximal heart rate, and 18 min of balance and posture correction training. The program was conducted three times per week for 48 weeks.”

The resistance training was not particularly strenuous or heavy. A strict criteria was imposed upon the selection of the women. As quoted:

“We excluded women who were less than 5 years after their menopause, had a history of chronic disease that might influence BMD, physical activity and balance ability, have a history of ovariectomy or diseases known to affect bone metabolism (e.g., cancer, renal disease, rheumatoid arthritis), and have current medication with bisphosphonate, estrogens, or other hormonal preparations, weighed more than 130% of ideal body weight, had other contraindications to participating in a regular exercise program, and were already doing moderate or hard exercise for more than 7 h per week for the fall. We eliminated any accidental falls.”

For the full explanation of the methodology and results, I recommend reading the whole paper. But I will summarise some important points.

This table shows the initial status of the subjects. Their physical characteristics are very similiar at the beginning.

This next table then shows the comparison of results after. The key is that in the control (no exercise) group, Bone Mineral Density dropped. Whereas in the exercise group, it either remained roughly constant or improved slightly. The paper also describes other tests in which the exercise group fared much better.

The Main Point

There is only 1 point i need to make after all this lengthy discussion. Weights training is absolutely necessary.

The overview study of resistance training in the elderly has showed marked increases in strength. The increased muscle mass can potentially be a marker of improved resistance to disease and chronic illness. Increased muscle mass will definitely yield more joint tolerance, as well as increase Basal Metabolic Rate (by preventing or slowing muscle mass loss), and thereby may be a counter against obesity.

Finally, studies of 1004 elderly caucasian women showed that regular activity does not markedly improve bone mineral density. However, studies done on 50 Korean elderly women showed that marked improvements in Bone Mineral Density and other markers (physical and hormonal) resulted due to some form of resistance training. This has potential benefits including improved posture, improved balance and improved muscular capacity. All of which would lend protection to disease like osteoporosis, as well as the often neglected area of preventing falls due to lack of muscular balance.

To sum it up, resistance training has too many health markers to pass off. What should be done, ideally, is for everyone to have a basic resistance training program regardless of age once adulthood is reached.

I shall provide some basic routines for anyone to do regardless of age of training status and with minimal equipment in my next post, with the sole interest of maintaining such positive factors and not specifically designed for muscular hypertrophy.

Regardless, hopefully I have provided enough evidence to have you sold onto resistance training. Stay tuned for more.

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Tagged as: exercise, General, health, training