Seniors

The medical community for many years assumed that the elderly and the frail could not participate in weight resistance exercises. Generally, it was thought that seniors were to just sit and rest until they no longer existed. This has been proven through studies to be incorrect.

The frail and elderly can increase strength through lifting weights, which enables them to perform simple activities more independently.

Most of the fear centered on the harm that might come to the elderly. Many feared pushing them too hard would result in injury, heart attack, or shortness of breath.

The truth is:

• Seniors enjoy getting stronger and rarely have adverse outcomes.
• Seniors find weight lifting helps to improve their quality of life.

In The Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, researchers discovered participants (average age 75) in weight-lifting programs gradually performed better in 13 simple activities. This included walking, bathing, dressing, getting around outdoors, and getting in and out of bed.