I took this from several of my strength training courses from Louie Simmons on the Westside Barbell system. This has a lot to do with your spine and muscles and how it handles stress, daily activities and a lot of the repetitive injuries that a lot of people deal with on a regular basis.

I also hear that I don't need to work out with weights. All I need to do is walk, swim a little bit, work in the yard and clean the house. Well, I truly don't think that is good enough for your body. We as humans are designed to lift, carry, pull, push and squat, and if we don't do these in a resistance or progressive weight environment, there is a deconditioning that occurs in the pine and muscular structures. It can also lead to compensations, and, of course, weak links in our spine. Any part of your spine that you don’t exercise or work out consistently will leave you suspectable or vulnerable to injuries or flare-ups. While, swimming, walking, running and general activities of living are all important to our daily lives. Our bodies need resistance exercises not only to become stronger, absorb forces, handle daily stressors and become more stable, but also reduce muscle atrophy and keep our spines, strong and stable for years to come.

There has been significant research that shows direct and positive relationship in that lifting weights through our adult into our older golden years reduces bone density loss. These studies show that bone density increases when we force the bone/or bones to create more calcium in them, which makes bones stronger overtime. This can only happen when we are lifting something that is requiring additional stresses or adaptors on the musculature and bone structures. Wolff's Law is the idea that natural healthy bones will adapt and change to adapt to the stress that it is subjected to. For example, if the bones are subjected to heavier and heavier loads, they will naturally reconstruct themselves to accommodate that weigh. Bottomline is your body will form stronger bone structures and improve stability with resistance exercises. Weak things break as I started this conversation. This also has also a lot to do with the weakest link of the spinal chain, so if you don't have the vertebrae or muscles above and below in the weak link itself trained, you will eventually falter. Your back will go out by you just lifting even the smallest item. Training that system or spinal area to prevent this injury and or flareup to occur is essential.

So, try to do resistance exercises with light weights, if possible, either through a personal trainer or some simple basic exercises that will keep your body strong,  allow to handle stresses of life and basic daily activities. This will prevent your body for weakening overtime.  So, get out and give some light resistance exercises to keep your bod, strong and stable from now and in the future. Thanks for reading, Dr. Joe