Preventing Muscle Loss as We Age

Sarcopenia, a decline in skeletal muscle in older people, contributes to loss of independence.

For many older adults, growing older seems to involve an inevitable loss of strength, energy and vigor. But it need not be so. The frailty and decreased energy we associate with aging, such as difficulty walking for distances, climbing stairs, or carrying groceries, are largely due to muscle loss. This muscle loss, called sarcopenia, results mainly from inactivity. The old saying is true when it comes to muscle “use it or lose it!” Losing strength will affect your life and may land you in a nursing home, but muscle loss takes a toll on your life in other ways.

Decreased metabolism: Once you hit 40 you start to lose muscle. And that won’t just make it harder to lift your grandchildren or carry your groceries in the years ahead. Muscle loss slows down our metabolic rate, makes it harder for us to control our weight, weakens our bones and leaves us more susceptible to diabetes. It also makes our years show. What makes us look older, more than anything else is losing muscle and gaining fat as we age. Your muscles burn most of the calories your body uses, and muscle burns calories at a higher rate than fat does. A pound of muscle uses 16 calories a day to do its work; a pound of fat only needs 0 calories a day – it does little to help your body. So it doesn’t need much energy to survive. So if you have lots of muscle, you not only stay strong, but also burn more calories. The less muscle you have, the fewer calories you burn, and the more calories your body stores as fat. An increase in body fat puts you at greater risk for chronic conditions like cancer and heart disease.

Muscle Marbling: Less muscle means that more fat is deposited in muscle cells. When your fat increases you become insulin resistant, your body can no longer use the insulin from your pancreas to transport sugar (glucose) to your cells. If you become resistant to insulin you are at higher risk for diabetes.

Weaker Bones: Muscle puts stress & strain on bones that make them stronger. That’s why weight-bearing exercises help prevent bone loss. But less muscle means less stress on the bones and that translates into weaker bones.

Poorer balance: Muscles are crucial for maintaining balance. In a study that tracked 800 European men aged 50 to 85 for seven years, those who has lost the most muscle with age, were also the most likely to suffer falls.

How can you avoid the damage done by sarcopenia (muscle loss)? Strength training is what people should do before they think of anything else. Women in their 40s and men in their 60s lose muscle strength at a rate of about 12% per decade, but with two months of strength training, they can increase their strength 40%. When it comes to shrinking muscles, you can get a second chance. Just two months of strength-building exercises can reverse two decades of a typical person’s muscle loss. Each year, more than 1.6 million older Americans go to the emergency room because of fall-related injuries. A simple fall can cause serious fracture of the arm, hand, ankle or hip. Balance and strength training exercises can help you prevent falls and avoid the disability that may result from falling.

If you want to reduce your body fat, increase your metabolism, build muscle mass and bone density, how often should you do strength training?  Two to three times a week. How much weight should you lift?  Muscles and bones get stronger and when they are challenged by having to lift or pull something, so the weight you start with matters. Lifting weights that are too light doesn’t send the right kind of signal for the muscle to get bigger and stronger. You may improve your endurance, maybe even your aerobic fitness, but you’re not going to build strong muscles or bones. The weight should be heavy enough that you can lift it only about 8 to 12 times before you need to rest. The ideal weight will change over time. As you gradually get stronger, you need to increase the weight you are lifting or pulling so that once again you can lift it only 8-12 times before you need to rest.

The human body is the only machine that the harder you work it, the better it gets. We are made to move; anything that is made to move rots if it is not used; a car rusts if it does not move. If your muscles atrophy, they have no purpose for the bones; bones need resistance to be strong; bone needs muscle to pull on the bone to build the bone- an atrophied muscle cannot pull and then the bone gets weak. Exercise, particularly strength training, becomes more important as you get older, to prevent injury and preserve the strength to do normal things like climbing stairs, hauling groceries, chasing grandchildren, and continuing to be a productive worker.

If you are uncomfortable going to the gym or have never lifted weights before consider joining a Bone Builders class at the Community Center. Classes are free and are offered four times a week.

The bottom line if you want to live a long and healthy life you need to include strength training in your daily routine.

Yvonne La-Garde, Personal Trainer
For Pelham NH COA

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