New York Times, Mat 13th, 2008

DR. PAUL D. THOMPSON, a 60-year-old marathon runner and chief of
cardiology at Hartford Hospital, stood in front of a medical audience
recently and began his talk with a story about himself.

“I’ve been lifting weights since I was 12 years old and look at me,”
he said. Dr. Thompson is small and wiry with not a bulging muscle on
him. He speculated that he must have a genetic inability to build
muscles, no matter how hard he works at it.

But are his muscles healthy?

It is not the kind of question most people ask themselves. But
muscle researchers say it is important because muscle health is
emerging as an important part of overall health. And, they say, when it
comes to muscles, bulk does not matter. How big they can become depends
on your sex as well as genetics. What matters for health is whether, like Dr. Thompson, you use them.

Healthy muscles, researchers say, are those that have been worked,
stressed and pushed to their limit so that they have enough power and
strength to get you through life, especially as you grow older. And
keeping muscles fit takes effort, which means regular training with
weight lifting and cardiovascular exercise even if the results are not
a sculptured look, these experts add.

If you don’t work your muscles, they will atrophy, especially as you
grow older. Older people often fall because they are too weak to brace
themselves, and they have trouble with steps and opening jars because
their muscles have lost so much strength. Much of that loss can be
avoided, muscle researchers say. Even elderly people can gain muscle
strength if they work at it, studies have shown.

There are two aspects to healthy muscles: endurance and strength, said Robert H. Fitts, an exercise physiologist at Marquette University
and chairman of the biology department there. To maintain endurance,
you should engage in activities that pump blood to the muscles, like
walking. For strength, you need to lift weights, concentrating on what
Professor Fitts calls the antigravity muscles, those of the back and
legs. And, he adds, you should also maintain arm strength.

But while many people walk, fewer lift weights, and those who do
often use incorrect techniques, said William J. Kraemer, a professor of
kinesiology at the University of Connecticut.

Some try to do it on their own but tend to buy weights that are too
light and may not know the well-researched methods that get results.

Others go to gyms, where they may be intimidated when they venture
into weight rooms filled with people grunting and straining and
machines that can seem daunting. Those who do try to lift at the gym
can end up using weights that are not heavy enough to fully stimulate
their muscles.

That is especially true of women, Dr. Kraemer said, even those who
work with personal trainers. While women often say they are afraid they
will bulk up, this fear is unfounded, Dr. Kraemer and others say.
Acquiring muscle mass requires testosterone levels that women don’t have. Instead, the toning that many women say they want comes from lifting heavy weights.

The most effective way to stimulate muscles is with a system known
as progressive resistance. This approach can take about three hours a
week and includes days, once a week or so, when you lift weights so
heavy that you can do only three to five repetitions before your
muscles are too tired to lift again.

Other days are devoted to moderate resistance, with weights you can
lift 8 to 10 times. And then you should have some light days, with
weights you can lift 12 to 15 times before your muscles tire.

It may sound like a lot of effort, but even people like Dr. Thompson, who does not acquire bulk, benefit.

“I still lift,” he said, “because it makes doing other stuff —
yardwork, carrying groceries, carrying grandkids — easier. “I think
some folks outlive their muscles, meaning that they are fine mentally
and cardiacwise but have so little muscle strength that they can’t
catch themselves with their other leg when they start to fall,” Dr.
Thompson added. “And if they fall they cannot get up.”

He does not want to be one of those people.

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