It is the general conception that as humans age their level of activities decline. Most older adults move less than younger individuals. This has been observed in humans as well as animals. As we learn more about the role of exercise in keeping muscle mass and heart health, humans are now staying active into older age. The more active the older adult is the less physically and emotionally disabled they become.
There are physical changes which occur to the human bodies with aging. These include reduction in height and increase in weight. Many factors contribute to the reduction in height, the main one is osteopenia (the reduction in bone density) leading to osteoporosis (loss of bone mass). As for weight, changes in eating habits, reduction in activity, hormonal changes with menopause in women, all these factors contribute to increase in weight as humans age. In addition, body fat composition increase with age and muscle mass decrease. In addition, as humans age, muscle strength decreases. It seems that regular exercise helps maintain muscle strength.
The function of the cardiovascular system is impaired with age. The ability of the heart to pump blood to distal organs is reduced. Blood vessels become stiffer leading to higher blood pressure which leads to more stress on the heart which with time leads to heart failure. The flow of blood to the arms and legs is reduced causing the older individual to get tired faster than younger individuals. It seems that regular exercise helps reduce the vascular stiffness with age and reduces the detrimental effects of these cardiovascular changes on physical activity. It is sometimes difficult to tell if the reduction in cardiovascular function is due to aging itself or due to deconditioning because of inactivity.
127 our experts are availableright now
Most people become more sedentary and inactive as they age. This reduction in the level of activity leads to deconditioning, loss of muscle mass, loss of endurance and loss of strength. It seems that older athletes are able to overcome a lot of these physical losses by steady regular activity and exercise. It seems that older adults get the same benefit of exercise as younger adults. It seems that regular moderate exercise allows adults of all age to maintain their muscle mass and strength. At all ages, the improvement in strength is more marked when the starting baseline is worse.
As humans age, both endurance and strength are reduced. This explains why most athletes perform at their best in their 20s and early 30s. With the advent of modern medicine and better understanding of human physiology, more and more older athletes are able to keep performing at competitive levels way into their 40s and 50s.
There are there factors which affect endurance in individuals of all ages which are exaggerated in older adults. For example, the effect of heat on performance. Heat impairs top performance. The human’s ability to increased blood flow to skin thus increasing the ability to sweat helps cools down the body and increased endurance. Regular exercise helps keep this blood flow going to the skin and helps improve endurance in individuals of all ages. This ability to cool the body, helps individuals to perform better in heat.
On the other hand, older people are usually unable to tolerate cold weather. They tend to need to wear more layers of clothing to helps them stay warm. Another factor that affect endurance is altitude. Performance at higher altitude is always a challenge at any age. Oxygen concentration in the air is lower at higher altitudes which makes it harder to oxygenate the cells in the body. This lower oxygen concentration leads to altitude sickness. Individuals need to allow their bodies time to adjust to going into high altitudes by going up slowly, at times they need to have supplemental oxygen for a short period of time. The ability to adapt to altitudes seem to not be affected by age.
There is always a risk of injury with exercise. This risk seems to increase with age due to joints and muscle stiffness. Regular wear and tear on joints and ligaments lead to more injuries in older adults. In addition, injuries take a longer time to heal in older adults. The return of full function of joints and ligaments takes longer time and more physical therapy in older adults.
In general, lifestyle seems to improve with regular exercise and activity which starts in young age and persist through older years. Older adults who maintain an active life style with regular exercise enjoy a better quality of life and live longer.
In the article “ Exercise Attenuated the Major Hallmarks of Aging”, Garataceha et al, suggest that regular exercise affects all aspects of the body. They suggest that more research should be done to better understand these benefits at the the molecular and cellular levels. They suggest that such understanding will help guide more effective exercise programs for older adults.
They note a lot of similar loss of function in the body with aging as the book chapter. They note that muscle mass starts to decline around 25 years of age, leading to reduction in muscle strength. Sarcopenia refers to the loss of muscle mass leading to the loss of muscle strength. Similar to osteopenia leading to osteoporosis, where loss of bone mass leads to loss in height. Sarcopenia and osteopenia lead to frequent falls, balance instability, inability to walk long distances, and inability to go upstairs.
All these lead to impaired quality of life for older adults. In addition, the authors describe similar changes in the cardiovascular function to the chapter. The impairment in heart and vascular function leads to further inactivity leading to deconditioning and frailty. Frailty is a growing problem in the aging population. It is one of the risk factors for morbidity and early mortality in the elderly. Frailty leads to disability and thus reduces quality of life of the older adult. Frailty also caused the older adult to lose their independence and increase their reliability on others for activities of daily living.
The article discusses how moderate exercise is extremely beneficial for the older adults. Aerobic activities such as fast paced walks, biking, hiking, swimming, all improve cardiovascular function and improve endurance. Studies have shown that these activities repair the endothelial damage to the vessels thus improving cardiovascular function. The article discusses the effect of exercise on repairing the outflow to the peripheral vessels. This seems to be mediated by the effect of exercise on the sympathetic nervous system. Exercise seems to also positively impact the heart rate variability through affecting the autonomic nervous system.
Resistance exercises which include strength training, weight lifting, resistance bands, are all movements against an external force. These exercises improve muscle mass and strength. These weight baring exercises have also shown to reduce osteopenia and osteoporosis. They help maintain posture and prevent falls and fractures in the elderly. Moderate daily exercise have shown to improve frailty and quality of life of these older adults. The article discusses the molecular level changes in the muscle and bone cells which is responsible for these changes in the bones and muscles.
The article also discusses molecular and cellular changes in the brain and nervous system which may be responsible for improvement movement and gait in the elderly. There are some studies which also suggest that exercise helps improve cognitive abilities in the brain and reduces incidences of dementia such as Alzheimer’s disease.
The article concludes that regular exercise is associated with longer and better quality life. The authors suggest that it is dose dependent, meaning that the more strenuous exercise for longer periods of time, provide better results in preventing age related functional decline.
