The aging bodybuilder faces a number of challenges, but giving up is not the answer. The aging bodybuilder must contend with lower hormone levels and a body that is more likely to be injured and less likely to respond favorably to training. Age will take a toll on everyone, no matter how fit or genetically blessed you may be. For some, aging will limit some in their 20s, some in their 30s, some in their 40s and may be some in their 50s.
This does not mean that the aging individual should give up on training. The aging individual will benefit from training and will help resist the detrimental effects of aging. Strength training will benefit individual from a skeletal standpoint and energy standpoint. In addition, cardiovascular fitness is advantageous for maintaining energy levels, brain health, and the health of other organ systems.
Dr. Kenneth Hughes has been in sports and fitness since the age of 4. Although the athletic pursuits change and evolve, the benefits to cardiovascular health and overall well being are impossible to ignore. For some people, ego is very closely tied to physical fitness and the way they look. This often occurs in those individuals who want plastic surgery as well. Plastic surgery to improve the face and body and to offset the effects of aging are also popular as well.
As a plastic surgeon who understands the importance of bodybuilding, fitness, and nutrition, Dr. Kenneth Hughes is ideally equipped to make recommendations from a position of knowledge about the human body and what is and is not possible with diet and exercise alone. Aging can be attacked by a multi-pronged approach emphasizing improvement in musculoskeletal composition through diet and exercise and then making improvements in skin and fat conditions with noninvasive, minimally invasive methods such as Bodytite, and surgical methods such as liposuction.
Dr. Kenneth Hughes MD, Harvard-trained, board-certified plastic surgeon in Los Angeles