This post is an update from a post written by Dr. Bob Murray, co-author of Food & Fitness After 50.
Maintaining muscle strength is a critical factor in ensuring a long healthspan—being as healthy as possible for as long as possible—and in ensuring that we can do so independently. Fending for oneself is an important psychological component of optimal aging. That’s not to say that we don’t all need to be looked after periodically throughout our lives—illness, injuries, and surgeries being obvious examples of when it is both nice and often essential to temporarily relinquish our independence and allow others to care for us. But to be dependent on others to help us accomplish the daily demands of living—opening jars, carrying groceries, rising from a chair, climbing stairs—is a scenario most people would like to avoid.
Muscle weakness with age is often, but not always, accompanied by sarcopenia—a severe loss of muscle mass and muscle function—often referred to in older adults as frailty. The perils of sarcopenia are not surprising: higher risk of falls, faster functional decline, more bone fractures of all types, greater chance of hospitalization, longer hospital stays, and higher death rate. It is estimated that about one-quarter to one-third of those over age 70 are sarcopenic and it is likely that even more are dynapenic—muscular weakness with or without sarcopenia.
We will all gradually lose muscle mass and strength as we age, but we can control the rate at which we lose it. In simple terms, inactivity and a poor diet accelerate the aging of muscle while regular exercise and a good diet remain the best ways to keep our muscles young. To that end, any kind of physical activity is better than no physical activity, but the best results come from a combination of aerobic exercise and strength training. The current recommendations are to engage in at least 150 minutes of aerobic activity (walking, biking, swimming, etc.) each week, along with two sessions of strength-training exercise.
Regular physical activity preserves strength and function by stimulating not only the muscles involved in exercise, but also the nerves responsible for muscle contractions. In addition, active muscles release compounds called myokines that travel in the bloodstream and positively affect cells throughout the body. Also, fit muscle cells recover more quickly from injury and surgery, additional benefits to staying active.
A recent review (click here) adds to our knowledge that muscle strengthening is associated with a decreased risk of all-cause mortality (i.e., dying from any cause) although the amount of exercise needed to see a significant decrease in risk is unknown. In the new review, 16 studies looked at the association between muscle-strengthening activities and health outcomes in adults, without severe health conditions.
Muscle-strengthening activities were associated with a 10–17% lower risk of all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease (heart disease), total cancer, diabetes, and lung cancer. The maximum risk reduction (of about 10-20%) was found at about 30-60 minutes per week of muscle-strengthening activities.
The good news is that we do not have to devote hours each week to strength training. Preserving and even increasing muscle strength can be accomplished with short bouts of exercises that are continued to fatigue. For muscles, fatigue means that your muscles say, “I can’t do one more repetition of this exercise!” For example, doing a combination of push-ups, tricep extensions with weights or bands, and chair dips will quickly exhaust the shoulder, chest, and arm muscles involved in elbow extension, adding strength, and protecting muscle mass. Doing similar combinations of movements with other muscle groups will reap the same results. As with all exercise, the best results come from getting our muscles out of their comfort zone on a regular basis.
When it comes to diet, studies show that older adults who increase their daily protein intake can better support improvements in strength and muscle mass. The simplest way to accomplish increased protein intake is to consume more protein at breakfast, the meal that often has the least amount of protein. Consuming about 30 grams of protein at each meal will give most of us the recommended amount of protein. (For more on protein intake for older adults, check out this blog post showing examples of 30-gram protein meals.)
Use it or lose it is the operative explanation for age-related changes in muscle strength and mass, as well as for almost every other body function that we’d like to preserve as we grow older. For older adults just getting started with strength exercises, the National Institute on Aging has examples of activities that can easily be accomplished at home. YMCAs, fitness centers, and YouTube videos have activities for adults interested in doing something to help reverse the effects of aging.
Chapter 6 of Food & Fitness After 50 is devoted to gaining and maintaining muscle and strength, and chapter 2 has all sorts of tips for how to eat for optimal aging. Aging is inevitable, but we can exercise control over the rate at which we age. We just have to do it.
Dr. Chris Rosenbloom is a registered dietitian and nutrition professor emerita at Georgia State University. She is co-author of Food & Fitness After 50 and she writes Fit to Eat, a blog on healthy aging. Click here to read more and sign up for the blog.
