Myths and Realities

Nourishing input flourishing output

 

Despite most older adult agreeing that “exercise is good for you” and an increasing focus on the importance of strength, only about 10% of persons over the age of 60 report performing strengthening activities of any kind. There are a number of reasons for this, some of which are based on inaccurate information and/or the ‘conventional wisdom’ that tells us strength training is not safe for older adults. So ….. here’s the next in our “myth-busting’ series

MYTH

REALITY

Strength training is only for young people.

A huge amount of evidence has shown that adults even in their nineties can benefit from strength training. Increased strength leads to increased independence – the greatest desire of every older adult – and a whole range of functional, health/medical and clinical benefits that I have written about in previous posts including the most recent “Strengthen your Health”. These benefits are significant and meaningful for the individual and can be obtained with less than 20 minutes of strength training. Check out our video testimonials from a recent STRIVE project we ran for the City of Scottsdale http://www.strivealive.com/index.php?c=stories

Related to this ‘myth’ I had an interesting experience a few years ago while running a community based STRIVE program at an Intergenerational Center in Tempe, AZ. One of our participants was a gentleman aged 92. He was a regular member of the class and had shown continous improvment in his stength and physical function. Most notably he had stopped using his walker to get from the lunch room to the STRIVE class. One day he came in and told me that his son (aged 55+) was really annoyed about his participation in the class since he (the son that is) thought it was dangerous. The upshot of this was that the son came in with his dad, spoke to me and shortly after, became a regular  member of the class himself. How cool is that!

Age is not a barrier to strength training and age is not a barrier to STRIVE!

Resolving Myths and Realities

nourishing input flourishing output

Happy New Year!

Our resolution for this year is the same as last year – we want to bring you valuable – and sometimes entertaining or amusing – information that will elicit greater and more effective ‘engaging with aging’. See “e.n.g. aging” http://strivealive.wordpress.com/2008/06/28/hello-world/.

To lead us off into the new year we are launching a series of posts which address some of the ‘conventional wisdom’ about aging. In other words very strongly held beliefs that people and/or society in general have about ‘aging’,  ‘getting older’ and ‘being old’. Here’s the thing though – many of these beliefs are simply ‘myths’  that are based on false information, lack of information – or no information at all! Being aware of the myths and realities of aging can nourish our thinking about wellness and provide a flourish to achieving our goal of an active healthy lifestyle.

For example, despite almost every older adult agreeing that “exercise is good for you” more than two-thirds are reluctant to ‘get fit’ or even to increase their physical activity levels. Why is that? Read on for some “myth busting” that could lead to a resolution.

MYTH

REALITY

It’s too dangerous at my age

The Surgeon General’s Report on Physical Activity and Health (1996) has shown that any activity performed at roughly the intensity of a brisk walk can provide significant health benefits. This is something that almost everyone can do safely. You could even use your everyday chores to get these benefits. Check out this link from “telosity” my other blog for more details   http://telosity.wordpress.com/2008/01/16/a-little-more-higher-energy-usage/ The information on this link makes it very clear that becoming active enough to safely gain significant health and wellness benefits is well within the reach of anyone at any age. Strength  training too can be safely performed by men and women well into their ‘second fifty years’. Here at STRIVE for example, we have members in their late eighties and nineties who are living and active proof of this!

The year is just begining – let’s start to ‘activate our aging’!