Which is more important for healthy aging: exercises that work the heart and lungs, or muscle- pumping strength training? Both are valuable, of course, but many experts now say strength training may be the key to preventing disability as you age. Declining muscle mass not only undermines your physical strength but also contributes to heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and other chronic illnesses by slowing the body's metabolic rate, encouraging the accumulation of fat.
This decline in muscle mass begins surprisingly early, usually by age 40. And between ages 50 and 70, muscle strength can drop by 15 percent per decade, even faster in later years. Although this loss was previously considered an inevitable part of aging, strength training can halt much of that decline and restore muscle power to the levels you had decades earlier.
No matter how old you are, your muscles will respond quickly to resistance training, a form of strength training. In clinical trials, women and men in their 80s and older who started resistance training gained strength as rapidly as when younger adults did the same exercises. Plus, the latest research suggests that regularly challenging your muscles may spur changes at the cellular level that may slow some causes of aging.
A recent study of about 9,000 men ages 20 to 82, for example, found that those with the greatest leg and arm strength were nearly 25 percent less likely to die prematurely than those with the least strength. The benefits of muscle strength stood out even after accounting for differences in aerobic fitness, suggesting that muscle training provides benefits beyond helping with heart and lung endurance.
Consumer Reports outlines why strength training is important. It:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/19/AR2009101902901.html