Many of us may not initially notice the resulting severe decline in our functional ability due to the lack of proper exercise. Properly performed, strength training is the only form of exercise that your body requires. Therefore, this article defines proper exercise as “properly prescribed strength training”. It is easy to overlook the necessity of strength training, because it may take a long time for a decrease in muscle tissue to show up as a decline in our ability to function. For example, it is immediately obvious that oxygen is essential for life. Within hours, it is obvious that water is also a requirement for life. It may take several days or weeks, but there is no question that food is also essential for life. However, it may take years before one begins to experience the loss in quality of life that follows a loss in muscle tissue.

Unknown to most people, one of the most debilitating health problems that plagues each and every adult is the loss of skeletal muscle tissue. According to Ellington Darden, Ph.D., former Director of Research for Nautilus Sports/Medical Industries, the loss of muscle tissue is our number-one fitness problem. After your body’s growing processes have halted (approximately age 25), we lose one half to one pound of skeletal muscle tissue each year. Surprisingly, being physically active does little to slow muscle loss and absolutely nothing to halt or reverse it. Believe it or not, in extremely active people such as marathon runners and triatheletes, muscle loss is expedited. Wayne Westcott Ph.D., one of the foremost exercise physiologists in the country, sites a 10 year study in the Nautilus Forerunner newsletter showing that America’s best masters distance runners (age –mid 40’s to mid 50’s) lost the same amount of muscle tissue as sedentary individuals! Furthermore, because they are so active, they experience many more physical ailments and injuries.

When skeletal muscle tissue is lost, it is physically impossible for most of the other fitness components to be improved. For example, if one loses muscle tissue, he/she will experience reduced cardiovascular efficiency, fat gains, loss of bone density, flexibility and mobility. Let’s explain these variables in more detail:

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