Seniors Who Exercise Help Their Health

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"It would certainly be wrong to say that aerobic exercise alone doesn't provide a substantial benefit," noted Ross. "It certainly does. And if an older individual can't get access to resistance training, aerobics alone is much better than doing nothing. It's just that optimal results are obtained from doing both aerobics and resistance."

Dr. Roger H. Unger, a professor of internal medicine and emeritus director of the Touchstone Center for Diabetes Research at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, indicated that the findings are strongly in line with what he would expect.

"The reason you have muscle is to move around," he said. "Not to sit still all your life. And you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure this out. For two and a half million years of evolution, our species always had to use its muscles, until about a hundred years ago. Now we have inactivity 16 hours a day, because we no longer move our muscles to get to work, and no longer move our muscles when we're at work, and when we get home, we watch television."

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"So, when we overeat and under-exert, when we don't use our muscles over long periods of time, we obviously will ultimately suffer the consequences and go on to develop all sorts of irregularities, including insulin resistance," added Unger. "So, anything that gets people to move is going to be beneficial."

More information

For more on exercise and aging, visit the U.S. National Institute on Aging.

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