This post will discuss Sarcopenia, a condition which results in muscle loss with age.
You will learn the following:
- Why you should be aware of sarcopenia
- What actions you must consider taking now to ensure you maintain a functional lifestyle long into your later years.
Sarcopenia
Sarcopenia refers to the gradual loss of muscle mass and strength as we age. Some sources suggest that this decline starts from the age of 30 years old. By the time we reach 50 it is predicted that you will lose muscle mass is 0.5-1% per year.
Why should you worry about sarcopenia?
You rely on muscle strength to do everyday tasks such as getting out of a chair, tackling stairs, carrying shopping etc.
As you gradually lose muscle each of these task will become increasingly more difficult.
Depending on what functional ability you have at the time of reading this will determine how easy it is to imagine yourself becoming weaker in your older years.
Imagine the following
If you are unable to get out of a chair without pushing through your arms then the effects of sarcopenia are already affecting your life whether you realised it or not.
Imagine what happens when your arms no longer have the strength to help you up. We already know that, without intervention, your strength will gradually decline, so this likely to happen at some point.
Then you might do what a lot of people do and start using an electric riser/recliner chair to help. The problem is this further accelerates the muscle decline as you’re now not even trying to recruit those muscles.
Now it’s not just getting out of a chair that has become difficult. Walking and stairs are the more obvious activities that will be difficult. More personal tasks such as washing and dressing will also be effected. If you can’t get out of a chair then you will struggle to get on and off the toilet.
Once you lose independence in these areas the next step is relying on carers. These might be professional carers or help from loved ones.
Is this how you imagined your retirement would be?
Increased risk of falls
Muscle loss is also shown to result in an increased risk of falls. There is a chance that one of these falls could result in injury, such as a fracture.
During recovery from a fracture, muscle loss is accelerated due to the further reduction in activity and physical function.
Unfortunately there are many people who never recover their previous level of function after a fall and require ongoing care.
Frailty isn't inevitable!
This loss of of physical and functional activity is often considered an inevitable outcome of getting older. But it doesn’t need to be! Research has shown that the effects of sarcopenia are reversible.
Modern medicine is continuing to advance which means that you are likely to live a lot longer than previous generations.
Wouldn’t you rather be able to keep doing all the things that you love in these additional years?
How to prevent sarcopenia
The above example may seem extreme but unfortunately this downward spiral is all too common.
You may feel a long way from the point of needing to worry about any of this.
I can assure you that starting to take action now, whilst you have an adequate level of function, is significantly easier than waiting till you can barely get out of a chair.
Keep active
One of the most important thing to do is to stay active.
It has been widely reported that increased activity at any age has numerous health benefits. This is no different when it come to slowing down the effects of sarcopenia.
Unfortunately this is all that most activities, such as walking, cycling,golf, etc are doing; slowing down muscle loss with age rather than reversing it.
Strength Training
Just like at any other age, you have to specifically train for increasing strength. This comes in the form of strength training.
Strength training requires you to challenge you muscles to the point that they achieve failure. Failure refers to the inability to perform another repetition of a desired exercise.
To ensure building strength is the desired outcome of an exercise, the point at which you reach failure should be before you are able to manage 6 repetitions. If you manage 6 repetitions of an exercise and felt you could do more, then you weren’t challenging yourself enough. You should be aiming for you last repetition that you can achieve to be between 3-5 repetitions.
For some of you reading this, you can achieve this with nothing more than your body weight. The rest of you will need some form of external resistance such as weights or resistance bands.
If you are just getting started then doing more repetitions with less resistance is fine to build confidence so long as you plan to increase the resistance within a couple of months.
For more information on why you needing to be aiming for a specific number of repetitions, read my post on Reps and Sets.
Pain isn't a reason to avoid starting strength training
Many of you may be concerned about starting due to pain and that lifting weights will make it worse.
Whilst there are some causes of pain where strength training may have an adverse effect, these are rare and for the vast majority of conditions strength training is likely to reduce your pain.
If you are experiencing pain that reduces your confidence in being active then I recommend you seek medical advice from your GP or a physiotherapist. However if you are given the advice to just rest and take pain relief without being given any other strategy in how to progress, then I suggest you seek a second opinion.
22 Responses
I had never heard of this before so thanks so much for all of the information.
That’s OK, thank you for taking the time to leave a comment.
Strength training is SOOO important! It’s crazy the number of people who stay active, but fail to work on increasing their strength.
Yes it is really important. A lot of people are scared that weights will cause injury so they avoid them. What they don’t realise is that not doing them could leave them more prone to injury with the other activities they do.
I am definitely big on strength training and hope to fight aging every step of the way!
Great work! Thanks for commenting
Great information and advice! My stepdad is notorious for avoiding strength training (and activity) due to discomfort from gout and arthritis, and it’s just so important for him to keep moving to minimize the negative effects. He would be so much improved if he could just realize that.
You should see if you can find a good physiotherapist/physical therapist in his area that can help him work around his pain. It can be really demotivating when starting if pain is made worse. One of the key areas to start with is helping him identify a reason why he should start and what will keep him motivated. If he has any questions about starting then tell him to send me an email. chris@nevertoooldtolift.com
Eek – I’m in my 30’s now and didn’t realize the muscle loss has begun! Thanks for sharing this information – I hope to stay active for as long as I can and keep up my strength!
Yes I was shocked to find that out too (also in my 30’s). It’s a bit like saving money, the more strength that we can put in ‘the bank’ now with help us to maintain it when as we move into our 60’s and above.
This is such an informative post! I had not heard that term before. I am really trying to keep up with my strength training as I age though!!
Great work, keep it up!
Strength training is so vital! I always encourage my Body Pump classes to stay with it no matter what age they are! I am always so happy to have a wide wide of age ranges in my classes!
Yes it is really vital. Is always good to see lots of ages within class settings, especially body pump.
This is a fascinating area, Readers might also cross reference ‘Sarcopenia’ with Leucine, Branched Chain Amino Acids, and BCAA’s.
Like!! I blog quite often and I genuinely thank you for your information. The article has truly peaked my interest.
Thank you, I’m glad you found it interesting.