Avoid Losing Muscle with Age!

I remember walking to the library after school with my best friend before we had cars.  We walked fast because we thought it would help us maintain our walking speed when we got older (which would be our thirties)!  Well, in a sense we were right because as we age we lose muscle.  Muscle loss begins to occur around 25 years of age, but is more noticeable around the sixth decade of life if one has not exercised to maintain lean muscle. 

Many older adults find activities of daily living more difficult due to loss of muscle; including climbing stairs, putting items away in a cupboard, getting down on the floor to clean, etc.  Muscle doesn’t turn to fat as some people think, but it shrinks.  If you look at a steak, the muscle and fat are two different types of tissue – the fat cannot convert to muscle and the muscle cannot convert to fat.  The only way to remove the fat is to cut it away – we can cut it away (abdominoplasty) or suck it out (liposuction).   Think of your muscle and fat cells as balloons. 

Strength training will increase the size of muscle cells and fat cells will shrink.  However, if you stop strength training or have never strength trained fat cells have the ability to expand.  Remember muscle is more compact than fat and takes up less space.   Fat is fluffy and takes up 18% more space than muscle.  You may know people who mention they’re the same weight they were ten years ago but they look fluffier.  This is because they have lost lean muscle and increased the size of their fat cells.   

You can slow down the aging process by increasing or maintaining lean muscle through strength training two to three times per week!  It is important to work all of the major muscle groups to limit muscle imbalances.  It is NEVER too late to begin strength training – START TODAY!

 

     The one unchangeable certainty is that nothing is certain or unchangeable.
~John F. Kennedy~