There’s no need to bench-press hundreds of pounds to save the muscles from shrinking and becoming lax in strength. There are abundances of physical strength training exercises to do without the aid of a weight. For example, resistance bands, and everyday activities provide similar values of strength building muscle mass.

Here are a few examples of activities you may engage in to help tone, strengthen and preserve muscle:

• Climbing stairs
• Cleaning the house,
• Lifting toddler
• Yard work (mowing the lawn and raking leaves)
• Washing the car

Apparently, as the body ages, muscle mass declines. Nonetheless, twenty-something’s even may lose small amounts of muscle. During the thirties, forties and fifties, the natural aging process accelerating. Although, strength and weight training will not restore the atypical 60-year-old to the vitality level of a 30-year-old, innumerous studies reveal that it is possible to rebuild and save muscle at any age.

Various groups such as the National Institute on Aging, the American College of Sports Medicine the U.S. Dietary Guidelines, and the American Council on Exercise emphasize the relevance of weight and strength training for people of all ages, including those in a nursing home.

There is a popular misnomer regarding the relationship between muscle mass and metabolism. According to David Nieman, director of the Human Performance Laboratory at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, "Add two pounds of muscle, and you burn about 24 calories of extra metabolism per day.”

In other words, a pound of muscle is equivalent to 12.5 pounds of caloric burn, per day. After of week of exercise, the calories add up to only 350 calories per week.