Lifestyle Choices

Some postural problems arise from weakness in the muscles. For instance, the common habit of curving the lower spine forward can partly be caused by weak abdominal muscles, which can’t hold the torso in vertical alignment. This type of spinal curvature pushes the abdomen forward, accentuating an overweight — and older — appearance. Other people develop a tendency to swing their torso and hips to gain momentum when their leg, back and abdominal muscles are weak, creating a ‘hitch in the get-along’,as they say out west.

Without exercise, muscles atrophy and shrink to minimal size and capacity. As you age, you can lose up to five or six pounds of muscle per decade. By living the easy life for too long, everything becomes more difficult, even tasks that were once carried out effortlessly. Yet your strength can be not only maintained as you grow older but also improved, even in extreme old age. One expert in this field, Dawn Skelton of the Imperial College School of Medicine at St Mary’s Hospital, London, has said, based on her own work, ‘The older the person exercising, the more noticeable the improvement physically.’

The value of exercise in reducing weight, and keeping it off, goes far beyond the burning of calories. After strenuous exercise, the body’s metabolic rate is elevated for hours — according to some research, for as long as fifteen hours. Vigorous activity also releases small amounts of human growth hormone, which has the effect of laying down and retaining more lean muscle in place of fat. Moreover, aerobic activity actually suppresses the appetite, mildly and temporarily; a person who doesn’t exercise needs more food just to feel mildly full.

Increasing strength throughout life is like taking out an insurance policy for fitness, in that it also reduces cardiovascular stress while carrying out tasks that might be too much for an out of-shape person. Weight resistance training can build strength and vitality at any time of life. Moreover, what’s good for the muscles is good for the bones: as few as two weight work-outs per week can prevent unnecessary bone loss in women past the menopause.

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