Stay able as you age, or at any age, with this important exercise

I talk about staying "able" a lot. Staying "able" means being able to do what I want, when I want, well into my old age. Someday, I want to be that 70 something year old woman who can still climb Mt. Washington or swing my grand kids around without ending up in the hospital.

I know that if I want to be able throughout my life, including later in my life, I need to be working on it now. I wrote in a previous post about how our bodies lose muscle mass as we age. The elderly are far more prone to back, hip,and knee problems that prevent them from taking part in normal activities and eventually take away their independence.
The way to combat that is to weight train now.

No place is more important to train if you want to stay able than your core and legs. You can prevent a lot of future injuries by keeping your legs and core strong, so you will avoid debilitating falls or injuries. Strong legs and core muscles also keep the strain off your back.

Let me introduce the "squat".... If you haven't heard of it already. Squatting is a functional exercise that can be performed at any age and garner results. Performing squats correctly can help you avoid injury as you strengthen hip, thigh, and core muscles. If you perform squats regularly you will increase your balance and joint mobility and strengthen connective tissues.

So, how many squats should you do to keep yourself able? My physical therapist told me that those 40 years old and younger should do 2 squats per year of age daily (so a 40 year old should do a minimum of 80 squats a day). Those over the age of 40 should do a minimum of 1 squat per year of age daily. It may sound like a lot but it can be broken down into chunks. I started off by doing mine over the course of the day...10 squats while waiting for the blender to finish making my shake...10 squats while heating up my tea, etc. Now that I am good at them, I get them all out of the way at once.

It's important to do squats correctly so I attached a video of a physical therapist performing the exercise for you. Good luck and Happy Squatting!

Squat video:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6ZE3O6svwc&feature=youtube_gdata_player


Sources:

www.ptsportswellness.wordpress.com/2010/10/01/squats-good-or-bad

www.livestrong.com/article/224286-hip-knee-problems-in-the-elderly