People should really think about muscle loss as early as age 30 when serious muscle loss begins. You prevent it then by doing resistance training with weights, and eating adequate amounts of both protein and collagen. But most people are unaware that aerobic exercise isn’t enough to prevent muscle loss, so they don’t start the resistance training, if at all, until they are older and have already sustained serious sarcopenia. Don’t be that person.
Tag: sarcopenia
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.
Sarcopenia
Muscle loss in your 60s and 70s can really accelerate. The appropriate response to that appears to be upping one’s protein intake somewhat (because your digestion of protein in old age is not as efficient), and increasing strength training so that you keep restoring muscle as a counterbalance.
But doing nothing about it leads inevitably to frailty in old age.
Henry's Views 