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Keeping Muscle Tone
July 17, 2008 |
While it may be a bit easier for men to keep their muscles and bones healthy as
they age, local physicians say they see several men who are feeling the effects
of aging well before they should.
“I hear a lot that as men get older they have a hard time tolerating activity. A
lot of that just relates to how they don’t take care of themselves as time goes
on. You know you stop watching your nutrition, you don’t exercise as much, you
become that typical couch potato and then as time goes on you just generally
don’t feel well,” says Dr. Salvatore Lacagnina, the Medical Director of Lee
Physician Group.
And the process of maintaining healthy muscles and bones can be even more
challenging for women. “Women have less muscle mass than guys do so usually they
just have a harder time than guys do because they just have so much more fat on
their body naturally for having babies and things like that,” says Heather
Brown, an exercise specialist at the Cape Coral Wellness Center.
But there are things ladies can do to prevent their muscles and bones from
becoming weak. “The older you get the more muscle mass you can lose. You can
gain muscle mass as you get older if you work out and do resistance training.
Doing weight baring exercise such as walking or running as opposed to something
in the pool; do something on land where your body is using muscle to keep
yourself upright,” says Heather.
She says along with weight baring cardiovascular exercise you should do weight
resistance training or weight lifting at least three days a week. This will help
women in particular stay toned and strong as they age. |
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