Greg's key message was that as we get older, especially after 50, our bones and muscles deteriorate and that this doesn't need to happen. If we work out regularly with weights we can stop the deterioration in our bones, rebuild our muscles and reduce the pain from arthritis. We can also improve our general fitness with cardiovascular exercise, decreasing the chances of heart attacks and cancer. After hearing Greg's lecture, I signed up for Carleton's Weight Lifting for Older Adults program. These fast twitch muscle fibres are the ones we lose with aging.
Weight training can make up for that.
But Roger stressed weight training is not designed for weight loss. Doing weights helps build muscle with only a slight fat loss, increasing not decreasing weight. That means diet and exercise are also important. In fact, Roger gave us a list of the 10 worst foods you can eat. I had been eating all 10.