The body is dynamic and is always changing to meet the needs imposed upon it. In the current climate of emerging from the COVID 19 pandemic where most people stayed at home, abandoned their normal routines and in many cases are still uncomfortable returning to a big gym environment.
Today’s lifestyles, pandemic aside, are not conducive to the promotion of physical fitness, let alone maintaining it. In the not so distant past, humans walked, ran, had gardens, did dishes, climbed hills and trees. They used their bodies and muscles in a variety of ways all day long.
Now people sit at desks all day, take the escalator over the stairs, use dishwashers & washing machines and drive everywhere.
And this is problematic because
muscle mass is lost far more easily and quicker than it is built.
Studies have shown that even healthy subjects in their 20’s can lose over 3 pounds of muscle mass in a single week of bedrest. You can lose over 2% of your total muscle mass in the first two weeks of bedrest. And by day 23, you can have lost up to 10% of your quadriceps’ muscle mass. Having extra muscle mass, especially as you age, is not only paramount to how well you move and function, it is crucial to improving your chances of survival anytime you are sick or hospitalized for any condition.
If you do or you don’t move your body, the body adapts. Your body is always in training. Is it training for bedrest or to be functional depends on a persons day-to day life. Here’s some good news; improving health is not a big time investment. Short bursts of intense exercise can deliver many of the health and fitness benefits you get from doing hours of conventional cardiovascular training. This is also true for strength training or weight lifting.
Your body may gain more strength and muscle mass by doing high intensity or super slow weight training than you would receive from conventional weight lifting. Since high intensity strength training using equipment like the ARX machine (used at Next Age Fitness) works more of your muscle than conventional training; you spend less time getting greater benefits.
With just 20 minutes a week, you can perform a high intensity weight training session, helping you get fit in a fraction of the time it used to take. How active have you been in the last year? Are you more or less active? Are you ready to get back into strength training. Give Next Age Fitness a try. We provide a safe, one-on-one environment to help improve strength in just 20 minutes a week. The Demo is free.
Remember, the body is always adapting to your day-to-day lifestyle. To prepare your body for unexpected physical situations, train it with movement, activities and some sort of strength training (push-ups and squats can be done anywhere).
Resources:
- National Library of Medicine – article ..494
- National Library of Medicine – article ..281
