Include weight training in your fitness goals.

While my weekly goal of 150 minutes is ongoing, I have already reached it with a day and a half to go. Included this week, were minutes dedicated to strength training using body exercises, exercise bands, dumbbell exercises, and TRX training. None of these programs are new to me, but they count in a senior fitness program.
In an article, May 9, 2018, from AARP Why it gets harder to drop pounds after certain age, list two reasons to lose weight; loss of muscle and decreased activity. Caroline Aprovian MD sites we lose 5 to 10% of your muscle mass each decade after the age of 50. She recommends a diet in which 30% is protein and at least two days a week a weight lifting. One study, reported 3 pounds of muscle gain after 10 weeks.
Another article dated May 16, 2018 Get Moving! A Fitness Plan for Dropping Pounds gives practical advise on getting started and recovery.
There are many types of exercises of light resistance that add muscle to our body. Swimming and
water resistance, light exercise bands, all can help. Taking weight training to another level when we are increasing the weights and reps as you improve. Overall I think this is a good idea, but each of us have our own goals to consider. Being in touch with yourself and your doctor is always the first step in starting an exercise program. Being 50 years old or 80 years old are two different realities.
As we get older we do not process food as well as we did when we are younger. When we exercise we do not get the same rate of return that we didn't we were younger. For example the benefits of exercise may only increase 5% to 10% when we are older, but the important thing is there can still be a positive return as we age. There have been 90-year-olds who through the effort of weight training have been able to put on 2 or 3 pounds of muscle. Not only did they stop the decline of muscle loss but they actually added it to it.
If you are on the younger side of 50 it is a great time in your life to add on muscle. I like to think of it as saving for a rainy day. Having muscle to lose is a good thing.
There is flexibility in 150 minutes a week. There are days where not much is done. I have been at this awhile and I know there are set backs. I hope at least to be encouraging as that point. As long as we draw breathe we can get up again and bugger on. The week allows one to get back on tract. Having many ways to exercise has a way of adding up. Am I improving? I think so, but the return is not as fast as when I was younger. Being at it 4 weeks is cool. Keep walking
Ps.
Harvard Medicine reported on a study in April 2018 Jama Internal Medicine, extra protein does not add muscle in older men average Age 73. Looking the exercises done in the study may be a reason why. Training may have to be more vigorous. Protein drinks may not be as able as real protein from natural food?  Aging a muscle loss is the norm. Most believe life style changes can slow the process down. Finding strategies that actually add muscle is a new thing. It does take some doing.