You’re never too old to pump iron. Even if you are in your 90’s you can become stronger—a good “resistance” training program will increase your strength by 25 to 100 percent or more within one year! For comparison, a good aerobic exercise program will increase your aerobic fitness by only 15 to 25 percent.
Resistance training increases muscle strength by pitting the muscles against a force, usually a dumbbell or barbell. Body weight itself can provide the resistance: pull-ups, sit-ups, and push-ups are a form of resistance training. Isometric exercises, where you push your hands against a doorway or against the opposing limb of an exercise partner, are another example. The use of free weights or resistance machines is by the far the better method.
As anyone who belongs to a gym or walked by a gym window knows, there is a vast variety of resistance machines. The most common use weight plates to vary the resistance but others use hydraulic or air cylinder engineering. The biggest advantage these machines have over free weights is they are safer—you are much less likely to drop a weight on your foot or pull a muscle. Free weights, however, will increase your sense of balance and coordination.
The “Bowflex” machine you see advertised on late night TV uses yet another system based on “resistance rods.” We’re not opposed to home solutions like this, but most people are more likely to get into a habit of regular exercise if they go to a gym. There are too many distractions at home. And why should you have to bother with maintaining sports equipment when someone else can do it for you?
How does resistance training work? Basically, the cells in your muscles adapt to the extra workload by enlarging (thus the term, “pumped up,”) and by subsequently recruiting nerve cells to contract themselves. After a muscle has been subjected to intense stress through maximal force contractions over a moderate repetition range, hormones begin the growth process and muscle remodeling.
Both testosterone and growth hormone levels can be increased through resistance training. When this happens, a cascade of highly beneficial events occurs, including an increase in glucose utilization, improved amino acid transport across cell membranes, improved protein synthesis and utilization of fatty acids, faster rate of fat breakdown, and enhanced immune function.
When using free weights or resistance machines, use a weight that allows 8-12 repetitions before “maximum voluntary contraction” (MVC) sets in. This means your muscle has contracted to its peak. If fact, you should feel a burning sensation in your arm as you do the final rep—this is good. If you do three sets of 8-12 reps using the maximum amount of weight and you only rest for 60 seconds or less between sets, your muscles will release the maximum amount of hormones. They will grow in size and capacity (strength). This is so amazingly simply—I wonder why so many people at the gym where I work out don’t do this. They often sit around for five minutes or more between sets and fiddle with their iPods.
If you don’t want to increase the production of hormones in your body because you are afraid you might start looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger, just do more reps with a lighter weight. High repetitions (15 to 30 or even more) won’t give you bulging muscles and are best for building up endurance.
The most important message about resistance training is, “You’ve got to get it right!” This means a program of exercises that work your upper body, lower body and your core. And it is vitally important to do them correctly. If you’re not already pumping iron, we strongly advise a body building class or hire the trainer at your gym. If these options aren’t available, find a friend to help you or buy a book. Don’t “just do it.”
The two most common mistakes I observe in the gym: trying to lift too much weight, and using your body’s “momentum” to lift. These often go hand-in-hand. For example, if someone tries to perform a bicep curl with too much weight, they find they can’t lift the weight without rocking their shoulders and elbows and jerking the weight up. You don’t really exercise you bicep and you leave yourself open to injury.
Young men who think they are impressing people are most prone to this—us older folks stick to the basics.
A previous study, published in 1997, tracked the overall health with sexual frequency and the mortality of roughly 1,000 middle-aged men over the course of a decade. Interestingly, men who reported the highest frequency of orgasm experienced half the death rate.
Other studies have also correlated frequency of sex with:
This latest study, which examined the relation between health and several dimensions of sexuality, concluded:
As common-sense as this CNN report might seem, I think lead researcher, Dr. Tessler Lindau, could be onto something when she says,
Hopefully, most of you will realize that taking medication for diabetes and high blood pressure is not in your best long term interest, and is more likely to take years off your life than add to it, but overall, isn’t it great to know that optimizing your health could have a major impact on your sex life, well into old age?
Here, the researchers found that men who were in very good or excellent health at the age of 55 gained an average of five to seven years of sexually active life compared with men who had poorer health.
And, although a man’s health appears to have a greater impact on the quality and quantity of his sex life than women, women too were found to gain 3-6 years of quality sex life by staying healthy.
Part of the discrepancy between men and women in this respect may be the availability of libido enhancing drugs, such as Viagra, which are now sold and perused by men of all ages without much stigma attached to them.
Female sexual dysfunction, on the other hand, is still a largely ignored problem.
The Problem with Potency Pills and Impotence Drugs
As with so many other drugs, many people turn to sexual enhancement drugs looking for a magic pill. But here too we find that the lure of a quick fix is little more than a mirage. There are instances where the erectile dysfunction (ED) has a mechanical or chemical component where a drug or surgical procedure might be helpful, but in most cases, other much simpler factors are at play.
For example, you need to remember that the erection really begins in the man’s brain. (Ditto for women, by the way.)
Your brain stem emits nerve impulses that control erectile function. These nerve impulses navigate through the erection center of your spinal column to the erectile tissue of your penis, where they trigger a chain reaction in the membranes of your vascular muscle cells. This sophisticated chain reaction is dependent on a messenger molecule called cyclic guanosine monophosphate, or cGMP.
However, this works in reverse as well; an erection softens as soon as another enzyme called phosphodiesterase starts to degrade the cGMP molecules.
Drugs like Viagra, Levitra and Cialis, work by inhibiting phosphodiesterase and increasing nitric oxide production, which may help maintain erections. But, these pills will not create an erection in and of themselves.
Initial erection still has to be triggered psychologically. Without that initial impetus, potency pills will have no effect whatsoever.
However, these drugs, like most others, come with a slew of potentially dangerous side effects, such as:
Some of these side effects clearly do not contribute to a long, healthy life! Nor would they entice you into romantic play.
If you’ve done your homework, you’ll find that it’s becoming more and more evident that erectile dysfunction are merely a symptom of an unhealthy lifestyle, and no amount of drugs can cure that.
Fortunately, there are a number of lifestyle choices that can contribute to restoring healthy sexual function, and as for potency pills, there are alternatives that are far safer than Viagra.
Natural Alternatives
Herbs like Panax ginseng and Maca root have been used for centuries as libido-boosting tonics. And the amino acid L-arginine has a beneficial influence on blood vessel health, which indirectly can benefit erectile dysfunction by improving cardiovascular function.
Researchers have actually determined that heart disease underlies some forms of erectile dysfunction. Among men with heart disease, 75 percent also have problems with erections. In fact, impotence can be an early warning sign of coronary artery disease, since the penis is more sensitive to slow-downs in blood flow than the heart is.
In addition, men with high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, diabetes and smoking are substantially more likely to have trouble getting erections.
If this fits your description, you’ll want to continue reading, as the lifestyle changes I will discuss at the end of this article will help you address these health problems as well.
But first, let’s get back to safer, more natural drug alternatives, such as L-arginine.
It appears to help with erectile dysfunction by enhancing the action of nitric oxide, which in turn helps relax your blood vessels, including those supplying blood to your penis. As blood vessels in your penis dilate, it increases blood flow, which helps maintain an erection. (This is also how drugs like Viagra work.)
However, it’s important to realize that L-arginine is not a magic potion in and of itself either.
Some studies have found its effectiveness alone is on par with a placebo. But several studies have concluded that L-arginine in combination with other herbs is a remarkably effective treatment for mild to moderate ED.
In combination with yohimbine, it’s also been found to increase sexual arousal in postmenopausal women with sexual arousal disorder.
In men, L-arginine combined with pycnogenol (a plant extract from the bark of a French maritime pine tree) provided “significant improvement in sexual function in men with ED without any side effects,” according to the researchers of one study.
And the combination of 6 grams of L-arginine with 6 mg yohimbine was found to be “a promising addition to first-line therapy for ED,” according to a pilot study published in the journal European Urology.
Other supplements that could be worthwhile are choline and vitamin B5.
The neurotransmitter that triggers that sexual messages in your brain, whether you’re male or female, is acetylcholine (ACH). With too little ACH, sexual activity goes down. One way to safely and effectively enhance your ACH levels is to take choline supplements (1,000-3,000 mg) and vitamin B5 (500-1,500 mg).
Lifestyle Choices that Can Make or Break Your Sex Life
Listen, Viagra is really unnecessary in a vast majority of men if they:
Common sense will tell you that exercise may ward off impotence for the same reasons it can prevent heart attacks -- by keeping blood vessels clear. In one large, long-term study, researchers found that men who burned at least 200 calories a day through exercise were less likely than inactive men to become impotent.
Remember, just like most things in medicine the best “cure” for erectile dysfunction is prevention. Don’t just accept the notion that erectile dysfunction is a “normal part of aging,” and that you need a drug to keep going.
Instead, take a look at your habits, and incorporate the following healthy lifestyle changes to enjoy a healthy sex life for as long as possible: