Use It or Lose It!

Unfortunately aging has a negative effect on muscle mass.  After about the age of 25 we tend to lose 3-5% of our muscle mass each decade.  This is partly due to lifestyle changes.  Young adults are starting careers and families and find they are not moving and exercising as they had in the past.  A reduction of muscle slows down metabolism which causes body fat to increase.  

But, there is good news!  It is possible to slow down the loss of muscle. Strength training can actually increase muscle at any age!  Many strength training studies have shown an increase of 3 pounds of muscle and a loss of 4 pounds of fat in adults (and older adults – over age 65) after about 12 weeks of training (Green & Bryant, 2010).

I recently gave my 73 year old dad a challenging new workout because his old workout had become routine.  Your workout should be challenging!  It is important to overload (work muscles harder than they are normally accustomed to working) your muscles no matter what your age.  If you’ve been performing the same routine day after day for months or years it’s time to mix it up.  One simple change could be doing all of the exercises in reverse order.  Also, if you’re used to performing the repetitions fast try making each repetition last 4-6 seconds while maintaining constant speed throughout each repetition. 

 BUILD MUSCLE!

 ONE pound of FAT burns approximately 2 calories per day while

ONE pound of TRAINED MUSCLE burns about 7.2 calories per day.