Muscle – The Foundation Of Healthy Ageing
It’s hard to overemphasise the importance of strong, toned muscles as we grow older. Muscle has a dramatic effect on not only how well our bodies function, but how youthful our bodies look, and it is arguably the most important commodity that we possess as we get older.
Muscles naturally weaken as we grow older, and muscle mass decreases (known as sarcopenia) by approximately 3–8% per decade after the age of 30, and this rate of decline is even higher after the age of 60. Because sarcopenia can lead to frailty, falls and dependency, any effective healthy ageing regime has to address the loss of our muscle mass that occurs as we grow older.
This decline also leads to other changes that we describe as part of the ageing process; loss of muscle leads to:
Weakness and frailty - a sign of ageing.
A lower metabolism - associated with ageing.
Lower metabolism can lead to weight gain - associated with ageing.
A lower metabolism plus weight gain leads to decreased energy and fatigue - associated with ageing.
Loss of muscle and tone also leads to sagging, wrinkled skin - a sign of ageing.
What’s gravity got to do with it?
Gravity constantly pulls on our faces and bodies and the changes related to gravity become more pronounced as we age. The pull of gravity on facial tissues causes the eyelids to fall, the skin on the face and neck to loosen, the jaw line softens into jowls and excess tissue forms at the front of the neck. When we resist gravity, by moving around and exerting force on the body, we become stronger. We need to use gravity to work for us rather than against us in combating the detrimental effects of ageing, and to do that we need to incorporate the form of exercise that harnesses the power of gravity to maximum benefit – strength training and rebounding on a mini trampoline.
The reason why rebound exercise is so effective is because it exercises every cell in the body from skin cells to cells in our organs to muscle fibres. Cells wither or thrive according to the way in which we use gravity. If we stress a muscle cell using the increased force of gravity, that cell will respond by growing back stronger. This is the basic concept of strength or resistance training, only with rebound exercise, it is not only your muscles but your entire body that becomes stronger.
Effective anti-ageing exercise will help you to:
Build more muscle.
Develop more muscle mass.
Increase your metabolism.
Become physically stronger.
Lose excess body fat.
Increase and strengthen collagen and connective tissue leading to firmer, less wrinkled skin.
Have more energy.
Reduce stress.
Improve your immune system.
Enhance sleep.
Improve bone strength.
So the sooner you start rebounding and strength training, the bigger your investment for a strong, healthy, and youthful future.