Editor’s Note: You know you need to exercise, but has your well of motivation run dry over the years? How can you replenish it? Lack of motivation can be caused by mental barriers to change, fear of injury, or dealing with ongoing physical issues such as pain or illness. In “Strength Training for Seniors,” Paige…

Research shows that maintaining healthy levels of muscle mass has a beneficial effect on your brain and may slow your rate of cognitive aging. Here’s the strategy you should strive for. STORY AT-A-GLANCE Increasing research shows that maintaining healthy levels of body fat and greater muscle mass has an effect on your brain health and…

Australian researchers are advising people to start early with a personalised regimen of exercises—rather than medication—to prevent muscle loss in old age. Geriatrician Jesse Zanker from the University of Melbourne says the age-related loss of strength and mobility in which muscles begin losing their youthful bulk starting from about the age of 30, is largely…

Excerpts from our conversation with Dr. Roger Fielding, an NIH-funded exercise and aging specialist at Tufts University. NIHNiH: Are the benefits of strength training different for different age groups? Fielding: The benefits of strength training across the lifespan are relatively similar. But as people get older, there’s a progressive decline in the amount of muscle mass and muscle…

Varied strength training has a positive effect on developing strength, but not on muscle growth, a new study finds. For years, the word around gyms has been that to put on muscle, you need to vary your training with regards to weight, repetitions, and exercises. But the new findings show that so-called “periodized strength-training”—where training…

Contrary to popular belief, a new Australian study of men and women over 50 has found that strength training—also known as resistance or weight training—benefits older women just as much as older men. “Historically, people tended to believe that men adapted to a greater degree from resistance training compared to women,” exercise science lecturer at UNSW Medicine…