barbells; chalk; Chiming of iron plates. Strength training is having a moment. Planet Fitness, one of America’s largest gym chains, is cutting back on treadmills in favor of power cages and trap bars. Even Peloton, the company that supplies expensive exercise bikes to aspirational classes, is picking up dumbbells – it now has an app targeted at strength training rather than the cardio workouts on which it has built its brand.
Gym enthusiasts come and go. But the rise of pumping iron will be welcomed by doctors and public-health types, who have been trying to convince the public for years that being fit is good, but being fit and strong is even better. In 2010 the World Health Organization added a recommendation of two sessions of muscle-strengthening exercise per week to its exercise guidelines; Many governments have followed suit (for example, Japan has updated its advice to 2024).
However, some people have heeded the advice. A study published in 2020 estimated that although about half of Western adults reported meeting weekly guidelines for cardiovascular exercise such as jogging or cycling, only between 10% and 30%, depending on the country, for strength The work is claimed to meet the minimum.
There’s no doubt that cardio is good for you — it lowers blood pressure, reduces the risk of heart disease, stroke and some types of cancer, and may even help treat depression. Fit people live seven years longer than couch potatoes. Getting stronger brings similar benefits. In the same way that bones are more than just scaffolding for the body (for example, they also produce blood cells), muscles do more than just move limbs. It also helps regulate metabolism, insulin sensitivity and cholesterol levels. The evidence is less strong than for cardio, but a review published in 2022 concluded that regular strength training reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer.
However, most of the clinical interest in strength exercise comes from its ability to prevent, or treat, sarcopenia. This is a decline in strength and muscle size as we age, and doctors believe it should be classified as a disorder in its own right. The body’s muscles begin to naturally shrink in the 30s and this loss comes from the disproportionately powerful, short-acting “Type 2” fibers that are responsible for explosive strength.
This process speeds up in a person’s 60s and 70s. This can result in weak and unsteady people struggling with what doctors call “activities of daily living,” such as getting up from a chair or going out independently. Lack of muscle mass increases the risk of falls, which is a big killer for the elderly; This makes it harder to recover from injuries and illness and may lead to a poor prognosis due to cachexia, the rapid muscle wasting that often accompanies diseases such as cancer or heart failure.
As much of the world is aging rapidly, sarcopenia is becoming a major problem. This may increase further with the popularity of GLP-1 drugs like Wegovi. People taking these medications appear to lose some of the weight from muscle rather than fat, which is not so healthy.
Although some degree of weakness is inevitable with age, evidence suggests that, even for people over 80, a little pumping iron can work wonders. As is often the case in medicine, it is better to prevent the spread of a disease in the first place than to try to cure it later. Squat rack cues.
