Middle Age Health: After 50 your exercise program must "Weight"

54-year-old author and professor Dr. Karl Knopf was recently interviewed [link may require fee or registration] by the WSJ's Kristi Essick about the specific exercise needs of adults in middle age. Knopf doesn't mince words, "Regular strength training can mean the difference between spending your last years in a nursing home and spending them traveling, enjoying your family and doing recreational pursuits."

Key takeaways from Dr. Knopf:

"I get really upset when people want to reverse the aging process via a bottle or an injection. If you do moderate exercise, you can add about 1½ years to your life. If you do vigorous exercise, you can add three years to your life."

"After the age of 30, we lose on average 0.5% of muscle mass each year up to age 50, after which it declines more rapidly. An average 50-year-old can expect to lose an additional 30% more of their muscle mass by the time they are 70. It escalates from there. It means if you don't do an intervention of strength training, older adults begin to say, "My house is too big, my chair is too low and my steps are too high."

"And if you trip -- and we all do -- and you don't have the leg strength to catch yourself for that nanosecond, down you go. And because you're frail and your bones are fragile, you break a hip, and it turns into $30,000 hip surgery."

Where do you start? There are several good books on the subject (including Dr. Knopf's linked below) and any reputable fitness gym will have personal trainers available to work with you. Finally, almost everyone has a friend who's a "fitness nut"--talk to them for suggestions. Whatever works for you just don't "weight".

Here is the Amazon description of the book:

Weight training is one of the fastest, most effective ways to lose fat, improve muscle tone, and strengthen bones. It also helps guard against osteoporosis, diabetes, and heart disease. Weights for 50+ shows how easy it is for anyone — at any age — to get started with weights. It teaches exercises that are suited to varying ages and degrees of strength, including super-easy, easy, intermediate, and advanced.

The program in Weights for 50+ focuses on the use of small free weights (starting at just 3 lbs.), and includes stretches and release moves — everything readers need to design a personalized weekly exercise plan. Weights for 50+ also describes proper training methods and explains how to achieve specific goals by varying the workout and carefully monitoring the number of repetitions. Last but not least, the author shows how to have fun and enjoy a workout for staying young.