Hardest Part

Hardest part of growing old is maintaining one’s strength. You need weight training/resistance training to maintain your muscles. And you need to do that with discipline.

Many older people either don’t know that or they don’t have the discipline, so they end up feeble in old age.

95% Do This

Sarcopenia

Trying to do something about muscle loss in old age. But I’m very late to the game. Now I learn that muscle loss in old age begins in earnest at age 50, and from that point on, one loses 3% of muscle if you do nothing about it. That was 26 years ago without any weight training/resistance training at all — just aerobics, which doesn’t really do much for muscle loss. You have to really stress the muscle to preserve it.

So I’ve joined a gym and am now doing weight training/resistance training every other day — 30 minutes a session, and 10 minutes in their sauna. Discovered early on that you don’t want to do 2 days in a row because you have to give the muscles at least 48 hours to recovery. Will be sore the next day, but that goes down a bit to a tolerable level.

No way I can make up for those lost 26 years of muscle loss, but I don’t want to lose any more and turn into jelly — a feeble and accident-prone old man.

They tell me that weight training/resistance training is also very important for maintaining bone health — plus taking a calcium supplement with Vitamin D before bedtime.

Old age is turning out to be a challenge. You are either up to it or not — your choice.

Weight Control