Exercise In Midlife Protects Against Muscle Atrophy Later On, Study Shows

Need Another Incentive To Start Exercising? Well, Here's A Great One

Here's another incentive to get you up and moving. If you want to do yourself a favor later in life, Japanese researchers say you ought to start exercising in middle age.

Investigators at Tokyo University studied 1,000 Japanese men and women ages 65 and over to find what factors contribute to sarcopenia, or age-related muscle mass loss. They measured and evaluated the participants' grip strength, walking speed, muscle mass, and exercise habits in middle age.

Of the 349 men and 651 women studied, the likelihood of sarcopenia increased with age. However, those who had exercise habits in middle age had a lower occurrence of muscle loss later in life. Sarcopenia can not only cause physical disabilities, it also lower the quality of life and can lead to premature death.

Exercise in middle age not only helps protect against muscle mass loss, it also helps maintain muscle strength and your overall physical condition, researchers say.

Numerous studies point to exercise as essential to aging healthily, and that doesn't mean just physically. Exercise has also been shown to ward off age-related health issues of the mind, including dementia. One study revealed that fit and active middle-aged people reduced their risk of Alzheimer's or other dementias by 40 percent, The Huffington Post reported.

And if you're worried about shrinking as you get older, studies have also pointed to exercise in helping prevent height loss with age.

So there you have it. No more excuses. Scroll through the slideshow below for some of the best exercises for post 50s.

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