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olindaspider wrote:Excellent article here A Golf Great Works to Stay Fit, Well Over 50 on Gary Player (the golfer) and his routine for staying fit at 75.
" After forty years of age, muscle loss proceeds at a rate of 0.5 - 2% per year or about 8% per decade on average. This rate accelerates noticeably after age 60 and is highest in physically inactive persons along with a parallel decline in dynamic, static, and isokinetic muscle strength. The result of such age-related LBM loss is a decline in function such that up to 65% of older men and women report that they are unable to lift ten pounds with their arms. From age 60 and for each decade thereafter, the rate of muscle loss doubles."
http://www.dovepress.com/dove-press-blog-2-blog-post
nayasmom wrote:I'm with Kate. I do patient transfer (from any position to any position), lift my dog into and out of the car, move furniture, and so on. The mark of my strength and agility isn't in the ability to do push-ups. There is no activity that utilizes the body mechanics of a push-up, so to me the measure of health and physical fitness has nothing to do with whether or not I can perform a push-up.
Why go there?
Again, it's essentially a beat-up tool, and as such invalid.
Robyn
waingapu wrote:Look I'm far from saying that doing push ups is the only exercise needed. Far from it, I spend far more time cycling and hiking as well as doing other exercises for strength.
But having said that I find many of the comments amazing.. a few samples
"The pushup is primarily a pec and tri exercise. I don't believe most people as they age need much in the way of strength in those two area"
"I agree. We didn't evolve to do push ups. We did evolve to walk."
"Push-ups are only chest and arms (and they leave out the biceps)"
"I can't even do one push-up, and I'm aging healthily. I'm not obsessing over what I can or can't do, "
"The mark of my strength and agility isn't in the ability to do push-ups. There is no activity that utilizes the body mechanics of a push-up, so to me the measure of health and physical fitness has nothing to do with whether or not I can perform a push-up. "
"It has been my experience that many women simply can not do a pushup. I have never been able to do one.'
'I am active. I am not going to worry about not being able to do a pushup."
Wow... perhaps I was wrong and there isn't much need for push-ups, which really only exercises a tiny area of the body and are of little use for aging Americans, especially women. After all, most women never really could do push ups anyway. (yes, I'm being a little sarcastic)
Reminds me a little of all those articles about the Mediterranean Diet being more than adequate for the prevention of heart disease and strokes as we age. Why go beyond that?
Anyway, if you want to see how you compare to others your age, check out a few calculators
http://www.health-calc.com/exercise/push-up-test
http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/PushUps.html
NYTimes article http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/11/healt ... 1well.html
(takes issue with push-ups being defined as a narrowly focused exercise)
Ellen and Michelle Obama (both middle aged women) doing push ups http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBdCXUc6kU0
Times have changed... Title 9.... women in almost all sports, in almost all jobs including firefighters and police officers.
And finally, women outliving men, ending up living on their own most of the time, needing to do the basics, including getting themselves up off the floor often when alone.
I think having zero push ups as a standard is being delusional, every bit as much as having 30% of calories as fat is living in false sense of dietary safety.
But that's what a forum is for, airing different opinions and perspectives, from which we all learn.
EvanG wrote:I'd rather be able to do 100 body-weight squats or walk 10 or 20 miles without issue than do 10 push-ups. Your 'call to arms' for exercise makes sense, but I don't really get the focus on push-ups. Do you also at least do exercises to balance out the push-ups? A lot of people just do bench presses or push-ups and ignore their backs.
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