daily fit tip ~ Strong at Any Age
Many elderly people shuffle their feet and walk unsteadily, and some are even too weak to stand up from a chair. This is because they’re literally wasting away. After years of inactivity, their muscles have disintegrated. If you don’t want to spend your golden years with a useless mass of atrophied muscles, it only takes a little effort to keep your body strong well into your eighties.
Every muscle is made up of two main fibers, fast-twitch and slow-twitch. Slow-twitch muscle fibers are responsible for less powerful, longer-duration activities like walking or swimming at a leisurely pace. Fast-twitch muscle fibers are responsible for powerful, high-intensity moves like intervals or plyometrics – they’re also the muscle fibers that help you stand up from a chair or get up from the floor. And it is the fast-twitch muscle fibers that typically waste away as an inactive person ages.
To preserve your body, work out your fast-twitch muscle fibers every week. Include one entire session of high-intensity training or add a few minutes of intense activity to each standard cardio workout. Sprinting, jumping, lifting heavy weights, and any other sudden burst of energetic movement are just what you need to get your heart pounding and your muscles working.
Whether gray hair is decades away or just around the corner, it’s never too late to start strengthening your muscles. So use it or lose it!
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