There is a fountain of youth; Strength training is healthy aging

"Exercise reverses aging in human skeletal muscle" reports new study.

The Buck Institute which ran the study reported that resistance training can actually rejuvenate muscle tissue in healthy senior citizens. Human aging is "associated with muscle atrophy ("sarcopenia"), weakness and functional impairment, which commence in the fourth decade of life with a rate of strength loss of about 1.0% per year, accelerating with each passing decade."

As we age we lose muscle mass and with it we lose strength and built-in calorie burners, so we gain weight. We're larger but weaker and more prone to injury and disability. Because of this, doctors have been suggesting that adults add resistance training to their exercise regimen to prevent the loss of muscle mass. The Buck report now shows that strength training can actually reverse some of this loss. In short, reverse some of the aging process.

"It's particularly rewarding to be able to scientifically validate something practical that people can do now to improve their health and the quality of their lives, as well as knowing that they are doing something which is actually reversing aspects of the aging process."

At the highest level, every adult should join or otherwise have access to a gym that is equipped with weights and use it twice a week. If you are pressed for time, get family members, work friends, or just friend friends to join with you and have the time spent in the gym double as social or work time. Sadly there is no apparent alternative to strength training and all of the diets, supplements, and cardio exercise will not reproduce the benefits unique to resistance training.

Stated another (more scientific) way:

Long-term physical activity is associated with a reduction in morbidity and mortality in humans. Resistance exercise can increase muscle strength, function and mass in older adults even into the 9th decade of life. An increase in muscle strength and hypertrophy are the main phenotypic outcomes of resistance exercise programs in younger adults; however, resistance training in older adults can also increase mitochondrial capacity, and studies have shown that skeletal muscle atrophy and mitochondrial dysfunction often co-exist and may be causally related. Furthermore, resistance exercise training can reduce markers of oxidative stress, and increase anti-oxidant enzyme activity in older adults.

The message can't be more clear, even when said by scientists, you must do weights.

sarcopenia