Thursday, March 01, 2007

Watch out for this!

NOT PART OF MY LONG TERM PLANS

I was helping out at a senior citizens activity center. Helping in running simple games. Its true you know. The elderly folk there that are the healthiest and have the highest quality of life are those who are the strongest with the best mobility. Duh... you may say.

But think about it, is that what most people are thinking about when they exercise for old age? No...everybody is thinking of cardiovascular health. But guess what, poor function in old age is not a problem of pushing the heart till it fails. Its a problem of simply not being strong and mobile enough.

The studies show this as well... here is one which reaches this conclusion:
"Among healthy 45- to 68-year-old men, hand grip strength was highly predictive of functional limitations and disability 25 years later. Good muscle strength in midlife may protect people from old age disability by providing a greater safety margin above the threshold of disability."

Once again its a call to work on the muscular system not the cardiovascular system. Do i neglect heart health? certainly not. But remember that the cardiovascular system just supports the muscular one. So if you train the muscular system, heart health comes right along with it for FREE! If all you train is the "heart" the rest of you is still likely to cause you so many problems in the future that the heathy heart will do your wheelchair bound body little good.

posted by Coach Jonathan Wong @ 3/01/2007 07:05:00 PM Comments: 0