Weight Lifting (cont.)
What about proper weight-lifting techniques?
I wrote a response to this question in the Ask the Experts
section that you can find here: www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=77873.
I mentioned in my response that there is no research to show the proper form for
any resistance exercise. People are built and move differently, and so you need
to listen to your body when you perform resistance exercises and make sure that
you feel it in the muscles that you want to work. The basics rules I propose in
my response are (1) take your time and lift mindfully, (2) feel it in the belly
of the muscle you're trying to work, and not in the joints, and (3) select
weights that your body can handle without having to cheat or force the weight up
(leaning way back, using momentum, etc.).
What are the benefits of weight lifting? Is it ever too late to start?
New benefits of resistance exercise seem to be
discovered all the time. Research to date shows that resistance exercise is
associated with improvements in all of the following:
Is it ever too late?
It's never too late to start a resistance-exercise program. In a classic study in a Boston
nursing home, 100 residents ranging from 72 to 98 years of age performed
resistance exercise three times a week for 10 weeks. Muscle strength increased
113%, walking speed increased by almost 12%, and thigh-muscle area increased
2.7%!
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