The secret to older people living longer, healthier lives

We still think that the aging This makes people sicker, slower and barely able to leave the house. And even though this is an age where a whole series of pathologies can appear, there is a formula that can prepare older people to better face this period.

These are strength and muscle mass development exercises. In conversation with The avant-garde Rafael, a 66-year-old adult, shared that he gets up in the morning to go work out at a public gym. There he does strength training exercises and on the days he doesn’t come, he rides his bike or goes for a walk. He remains distracted.

“My 40-year-old son keeps joking with me that I’m much stronger than him.”

There is already a lot of research that shows that the best to cope with advanced age and have a good health is to develop good muscle composition, because it improves brain connections, neuroplasticity and protects against different diseases.

AND a recent study of the University of La Frontera (UFRO) and the Maastricht University (Netherlands) showed that even people over 85 could benefit from this type of exercise. That’s what he says.

Researchers have found that even people over 85 can increase muscle mass: “These results challenge the common belief that they are less likely to gain muscle and strength compared to other age groups,” he told La Vanguardia. Gabriel Marzuca academic, Chilean kinesiologist at UFRO and lead author of the study.

Even if this training must be “individual” and “progressive”, Marzuca assured that “All seniors benefited from this type of strength training equally, regardless of age.”

With this in mind, researcher Julián Alcázar, from Biomedical Research Center Network on Frailty and Healthy Aging assured that “We must not resign ourselves and accept the negative consequences of aging, they can be avoided. »

“We tend to think that from a certain age everything that happens to our body and mind is normal and is simply due to age. However, what we don’t usually think about is that As we age, we also significantly change our habits: we become more sedentary, we eliminate high-intensity exercise, and we eat less well. he added.

In this way, Dr. Marzuca recommended that adults, regardless of age, start doing physical exercise to “achieve greater independence,” such as getting up from a chair, going up or down stairs or even carrying bags groceries.

This is even good news for those who are already affected by a lack of muscle mass and feel fragility when walking, weakness, fatigue, lack of energy, balance problems, etc. . all of these conditions could be reversed through strength training.