My Black is NOT Cracking.

So, I started this new position with the TV production company I have been employed by for almost nine years now.  I was given an opportunity to move into the production side from the business affairs office.  There really wasn’t an option as my position was being eliminated, but it was also a new opportunity to learn new things.  Either way I was grateful! As a writer who aspires to one day sell one of the multiple scripts I’ve written over the past decade, I thought it would only benefit me to get the production experience. 

When you work at a small company, you sometimes wear multiple hats.  It turns out that coordinating and learning production management also involved lifting 1200 lbs. of production gear on and off of vans, scales and airport belts! I think I shocked my colleague, knowing my age, when I lifted the first 50+lb case onto the van.  The cases ranged from 20-80lbs each and there were on average 22 of them. 

When I arrived at the airport before the crew arrived, it wasn’t uncommon for me to have completely unloaded the van and had the gear sitting curbside to check in.  With the crazy schedule, I actually was glad I had the opportunity to get some exercise!  Some days, it’s difficult.  Especially when your day starts at 5am and ends at 8pm! (The downside of production!) You might think I would be sore after doing all that heavy lifting!  Not at all.  Why?  Because I’ve been lifting weights for thirty years!

I started in my 20’s because I felt I was too thin.  I wanted to gain weight, but it was difficult. (Wish I had that issue now!) So, I turned to weight lifting.  (Not body building!  Weight lifting!)  As a result at almost 60, I’m still pretty damn strong and that’s a good thing!  In fact, it is absolutely necessary in order to age well.  Let me explain why. Like pretty much everything in life, muscle and bone are no different.  “USE IT OR LOSE IT!”

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So why do we women need to engage in some sort of strength and resistance bearing exercises you ask?  Well, you didn’t ask, but I’m fixing to tell ya!”

Starting at around age 30, muscle strength and bone mineral density naturally begin to diminish at approximately 10 percent per decade until about 50, when that loss accelerates to 15 percent per decade, according to research. This occurs at the same time that overall body fat increases.  Partly because lean muscle mass is one of the most metabolically active tissues in our body.  We burn calories maintaining it.  Loss of muscle mass can also mean a slowing of metabolism.  You might have noticed you were eating the same but gaining weight. The muscle mass loss is all bad! The good news is that these issues diminish in those who regularly train with weights.  But hold that thought for now.  Back to bones for sec.

That reduced bone density that happens with aging increases the risk of fractures and osteoporosis.  (Weak and porous bones.) Osteoporosis can result in some pretty debilitating effects.

As aging females, our risk for osteoporosis increases when we enter menopause.  Those gold ole’ hormones, or lack thereof play a role in the loss of muscle mass as we age.  A decrease in estrogen reduces the level of bone protection.  Testosterone and growth hormones are what helped us build and maintain muscle mass.  So, as hormone production decreases, so do our muscles. 

The good news is that we now know that the issues of bone and muscle loss can both be reversed by implementing a weight bearing and resistance training program.

So, what’s a girl to do?  I just told you! Weight-bearing exercises!  That’s what a girl needs to do.  Are you old enough to remember the commercials with the folks that said, “I’m falling, and I can’t get up?  The commercial was selling some sort of contraption around their neck so they wouldn’t just lay there and die! 

Well, my friends, there is a better way.  Those old folks couldn’t get up because they were too damn weak to get up.  Or, because they had broken one of their brittle ass bones!  It doesn’t have to be that way.

Look we need muscle mass so we can move and to perform any physical activity. (Including getting up!)  Lack of muscle can lead to a loss of mobility and independence. 

Increasing your muscle mass by weightlifting and utilizing resistance training not only increases your strength, it also supports the health of your bones which makes them less prone to injury.

Studies have shown that not only will these forms of exercise help to slow bone loss, some of the studies have demonstrated that they can even help to build bone.  These activities put stress on your bones (the good kind of stress!) waking up those bone cells.  The results can include more dense and strong bones. Weight-bearing activities are essential for maintaining muscle mass and healthy bones.  I mean who the hell wants to be weak and frail?  Not I!

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A well-rounded strength-training program should include weight-bearing and resistance training.  Resistance training causes muscles to contract against external weight/force.  As a result, it strengthens the muscles and helps protect the skeletal system.

Another issue that might occur as we age is a loss of balance, so combining different types of physical activities such as muscle strengthening, aerobic, along with balance training (yoga, Tai Chi, Pilates) is the best recipe for aging well and staying strong. 

Having good balance is also extremely important. “Mortality rates within a year of a hip fracture in people over 60 range between 14 and 58 percent.”

Resistance exercises can be performed using resistance bands, but you can also use dumbbells and barbells.  It’s a progressive form of exercise meaning over time, you might increase the weight or number of reps or even the speed.

Weight bearing exercises can be performed just using your own body weight.  I have actually found that as a result of gyms closing, that I have seen some serious results from body weight exercises alone.  I no longer had access to the gym equipment, so I got my ass down on the floor.  Body-weight exercises like pushups, lunges and squats use resistance to make your muscles work harder which makes them stronger!

Jogging and stair climbing are actually considered weight bearing exercises too.  Dancing can be a great form of weight bearing exercise.  So, go ahead and blast that music and practice your best moves. I just watched the Bee Gees documentary.  Wow! Great doc if you’re a fan.  If you are old enough to remember disco, you know, DISCO DANCING was some serious exercise. 

Here is a. bonus for you! These activities pack some serious anti-aging benefits.  Dr. Daniel Vigil, a sports medicine doctor, health science associate clinical professor of family medicine at University of California, Los Angeles, “Strength Changes Everything.”  He states that strength training can slow and even reverse the aging process at not only a cellular level, but on the genetic level as well.  You may see an increase in energy, improved insulin resistance, as well as improved insulin resistance.

While aerobic activities such as swimming or biking do work large muscle, help get that heart rate up, and are great exercises, you need to add a weight-bearing component to benefit those bones.  The higher the impact, the better it is for your bones. Walking is weight bearing.  Jumping rope, jumping jacks, or jogging would be considered higher impact.

Many people if they do nothing else, they walk, but let’s talk about how to turn your walk into a muscle building exercise and not just aerobic exercise.

Walk faster.  Walking is good.  A brisk walk or jog, even better. 

As someone who avoided aerobic exercise for years for fear of losing weight, as I aged, I would easily become winded.  So what did I do?  I started out walking fast. I worked my way up to a jog for a few minutes and then walk for a few minutes.  Over time, I challenged myself to run a little further, walk a little faster.  If I ran the same route, I would say to myself, “Okay, today, run to the green house!” The next time I ran, I picked a house a little further away as a goal.  After a few weeks, I really saw improvement on how far I could jog without feeling like my chest was caving in!

Another way to kick the walk up a notch is to add some ankle wrist weights.  If you’re walk takes you past some hills or stairs, incorporate them into your program.

The overall results are increased power, strength and endurance. Building strength will increase your ability to live an active and independent life as you age and the truth is that people are living longer. 

As always, be sure to get a physical checkup with a focus on heart health to ensure it can handle the demands of strength training and any exercise program.

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At the end of the day, drug companies want you on drugs and sadly many doctors are only really trained to treat symptoms and not in prevention. They write prescriptions.   That’s what they do!  And big pharma continues to be super profitable.  As Chris Rock said in his stand up special years ago, there’s no motivation to cure anything because the money is in the medicine.  There is far less money made selling dumbbells and telling you to strap on some ankle and wrist weights and just take a damn walk! 

And lastly, it’s never too late.  Did you hear the story in the news earlier this year about the 82-year-old woman in NY that shocked the hell out of an intruder?  Whupped’ his ass with a broom and he took off.  The woman, Willie Murphy, was a 5ft powerlifter that began lifting weights in her 70’s because she wanted to stay fit and independent.  I’m guessing my audience ranges from 30’s to 60’s.  If she can do it in her 70’s, you can do it now!

Newsflash! Aging doesn’t have to result in disease!  Most, if not all disease is preventable or reversable.  Some folks might need meds, but with some lifestyle changes, it is possible to reduce and eliminate some of these drugs, if not all from your life. 

One step at a time.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/walking-for-muscle-and-bone-health/art-20457588

https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/slowing-bone-loss-with-weight-bearing-exercise

To learn more about the benefits of strength training, buy Strength and Power Training for All Ages, a Special Health Report from Harvard Medical School.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/04/190412085247.htm

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/endurance-not-resistance-training-helps-with-aging#How-endurance-training-impacts-your-cells

https://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article%20folder/ageresistUNM.html