Maybe it's a myth on lifting weights...

Try to beat this guy who was 82 last year when this was written. Looks like he is failing to me. HUH!!

www.thestar.com/life/health_wellness/2013/08/27/how_to_stick_to_a_workout_routine_do_it_for_40_years

every time I'm lifting weights I'm thinking about those comments and if I really will be able to do this later in life.

Seriously? Stop letting them get in your head. They can pack sand up their bottoms. Lift and enjoy the benefits until you're 100 years old.

It sounds like you're listening to idiots. Lifting weights increases bone mass as well as muscle mass, two things that you will be grateful to have as you age. And, there's no reason to stop as you get older.

I'm 46 and I lift as much as my 20 year old daughter. I was diagnosed with very advanced arthritis in my hip. I'm one of the youngest patients my doctor is treating and he's just waiting for me to give the go ahead to replace my hip. I decided that I was going to try every means possible to delay the hip replacement. I did a lot of research and discovered that weight lifting helps. Since I started weight lifting I rarely if ever take my pain medication (there are still some days I have to take it but they are a lot less than they used to be). I can usually control the pain through exercise.

So I turn my nose up to all those nay-sayers. I'm proof that weight lifting is beneficial to your body even as you get older.

It's nonsense.

But even if it wasn't nonsense, I'd rather have it to lose than never have it at all.

Well you might also be incontinent when you're old so I guess we all might as well start crapping our pants now, right?

Ha--that made me snort-laugh.

It is just not true that someday, when you get older, you won't be able to lift weights or maintain your fitness. If you care enough about your health, you will keep working on it. Some older people get weak because of chronic disease. So in that case it is understandable that they are using canes and walkers. Alot of them are trying to do the best within their limitations. Then some older people think it is inevitable to gradually become weaker and soon they have to struggle to get up out of a chair or into a car. They believe that it is part of normal aging.

Then there are some of us that love to defy our age. I'm 68, female and working on my fitness and controlling my weight. And I enjoy it. I currently am walking 3 days a week about 2 to 3 miles, lifting free weights at home (2 - 10lb dumbels curles and then over my head, and I hope to graduate to 2 - 15lbs next week) and doing 3 Julian Michaels 30 minute workouts each week. I love how I feel so much stronger and can still get into my size 12s. I am 5'9 and weigh 168. My goal is 160.

I love seeing the changes in my body. So please don't think that it is inevitable that you will get weak when you get older. Its not.

You should never ride a bicycle since there will come a time where you won't be able to ride one anymore.

You should never paddle a canoe since there will come a time where you won't be able to anymore.

You should never ______ since there will come a time where you won't be able to anymore.

See how ridiculous that is?

It's not ridiculous at all.

Oops I crapped my pants again... brb.

Straight from the CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/growingstronger/why/
That's why you should keep lifting weights.

Thanks for this link. I've started to panic slightly, as I'm a product of the fat-free 80's and am worried osteoporosis and arthritis is pretty much an inevitability. Glad to see that strength training can have an effect at any point.

Yeah - you can't really do any intensive or challenging exercise once you get older. I mean, look at Harriet Anderson. She's a friend of ours' mom, lives here in our small town, and works out at the community center gym we belong to.

http://www.ironman.com/triathlon/news/articles/2013/12/performance-of-the-year-harriet-anderson.aspx#axzz2xUOlm3f0

She's finished the Kona Ironman 21 times, and holds the record for the oldest woman to every complete it -- at 78 years old last October. She didn't start doing triathlons until she was in her early fifties and retired.

Lifting not only helps with bone density, it also keeps joints and all the infrastructure that supports good joint health (tendons, ligaments, etc.) in good shape. Start now. Stop only if you want to. Age won't stop you.

There are a number of late 70s and a few early 80s folks at our community center gym (it skews older than your average gym!) lifting weights and hitting the spin room or pool after!