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Strength in old age starts younger. Picture: iStock
Getting older is not for sissies, but just like potholes, it’s a reality. However, your body does not have to become damaged infrastructure, and getting weaker does not have to stare anyone down into old age.
Muscle loss can begin as early as our 30s and 40s, well before most people start worrying about whether they will still be able to climb stairs, carry shopping or get off the floor without assistance later in life. Healthy ageing may have less to do with the veneer and much more to do with sustaining muscle and strength, said wellness entrepreneur and Youthology founder Deborah Good.
Good said the process starts much earlier than the old-age frailty most people associate with muscle loss. “Muscle mass and strength generally peak in early adulthood and begin to decline from around our 30s and 40s, with the decline becoming more significant as we get older.”
It’s thankfully not an inevitable slide into frailty. “Inactivity accelerates muscle loss considerably, while resistance exercise can preserve, and even rebuild, muscle well into later life.”
Inactivity accelerates muscle loss
The first signs that your muscles are not quite what they used to be might have nothing to do with what you see looking back at you from the mirror. It’s everyday stuff that can start giving the game away. “The first signs are often functional rather than visual,” Good said. “You may notice that getting up from a low chair requires more effort, carrying groceries feels heavier, climbing stairs is harder, your walking pace has slowed, your balance is less reliable, or activities you previously did without thinking now require more effort.”
Good said loss of strength should not be shrugged off as another birthday candle on the cake. “Muscle is one of our greatest assets for maintaining mobility, metabolic health, resilience and independence as we age.”
It’s not all doom, gloom, and saggy whatevers, though, even when the most strenuous exercise anyone in middle age has recently done was lift the remote with one hand and hold the beer in the other. “It is absolutely not too late to start, and you do not have to suddenly become an athlete,” Good said.
For someone who has been largely sedentary, she recommends two full-body strength sessions a week using weights, resistance bands or body weight. The resistance can then be progressively increased as strength improves, with the legs, hips, back, chest, shoulders and arms all getting some attention.
Walk it stronger
Walking counts too, but strength work remains important. International guidelines recommend between 150 and 300 minutes of moderate aerobic activity every week, but that can sound like Everest when you’re at zero. “Start where you are and build progressively. Walking briskly for 20-30 minutes most days is an excellent beginning,” Good said.
Balance and mobility exercises should also become part of the mix, particularly from your 50s onwards. And all that sweating needs something to work with. “Exercise needs nutritional support. Adequate total energy and protein intake matter. You cannot build or maintain muscle without providing the body with the raw materials it needs.” But there’s probably little value in declaring war on middle-aged spread on Monday, going hell for leather until Friday and being back on intimate terms with the couch a month later.
“Consistency matters far more than perfection,” she said. “Two strength sessions every week for the next ten years will do considerably more for healthy ageing than an intense six-week programme that you abandon.”
