Past research has shown that older people build muscle from food less efficiently than younger people. If you have read my articles on senior athletes, you should know that there is a big difference between what is classified as “older” and what is classified as “younger” people. However, without maintaining our exercise programs changes do occur.

Researchers at the University of Nottingham in England have also found that a mechanism that prevents muscle breakdown works less effectively in people over the age of 65, resulting in a double whammy effect.

For the “older” person, with muscle maintenance, less muscle mass means not only a loss of strength, but also increases the likelihood of injuries from falling. However, the new research suggest weight training may help older people retain muscle.

The study detailed in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, compared the effects of insulin (a hormone released to slow muscle breakdown after eating) on a group of people in their late 60’s to a group of 25-year old people.

The subjects were examined before breakfast and then re-examined after they were given a small amount of insulin to raise the hormone to a level similar to having eaten a bowl of cornflakes or a croissant.

To calculate how much “wasting” was happening in the leg muscle of both groups, the researchers tagged an amino acid (a building block of muscle protein) and performed blood analysis to determine how much of the amino acid was delivered to the leg and how much was leaving it.

“The results were clear,” explained Michael Rennie, a professor of clinical physiology at the University of Nottingham. “The younger people’s muscles were able to use insulin we gave to stop the muscle break down, which had increased during the night. The muscles in the older people could not.”

The researchers also noticed during the course of the study that the blood flow in the legs was greater in the younger people than the older people. This suggests that the supply rate of nutrients and hormones is lower in the older people and may explain why muscle wasting occurs” says Rennie.

In a follow-up study, the research team found that three exercises sessions a week over 20 weeks was enough to reverse muscle wasting by increasing blood flow to the legs of older people to a level identical to the younger group.

“I am extremely pleased with progress,” Rennie said. “It looks like we have good clues about how to lessen it with weight training and possibly other ways to increase blood flow.”

According to Dr. David Heber, director of UCLA’s Center for Human Nutrition, an average male who weighs 180 pounds might  (after age 60) lose as much as 10 pounds of muscle mass over a decade. Heber said this can absolutely be turned around.

New research published in the journal Medicine & Science In Sports & Exercise finds older adults who begin lifting weights after 50 may win the battle against age-related muscle loss.

“You have to do what we call resistance exercise,” Heber says. This can take a different forms. “It could be lifting weights, it could be stretchy bands, but the key is you have to stretch the muscle.” In this way, muscle builds fiber and actually increase in size.

Sandy Palais of Tempe, Arizona does resistance training six days a week for about an hour each day. Palais started lifting weights about 10 years ago, shortly after she was diagnosed with osteoporosis. Weight training builds both muscle and bone mass. Within a year of going to a gym three days a week, she was able to compete in the local senior Olympics.

“My top score was 380 pounds: I squatted 135 I benched 80; and I dead lifted 165,” she says, laughing. She has a drawer full of silver and gold medals. As many senior athletes have. earned.

Exercise physiologist and researchers Mark Peterson first met Palais when he was a student trainer at Arizona State University. Now, Peterson works at the University of  Michigan where he authored the new research published in Medicine & Science In Sports and Exercise looked at whether older people can reverse the process of muscle loss. “The time in which we say that older adults can’t do more exercise is long gone,” he says.

In Peterson’s analysis of 39 studies, he found that among more than 1,300 adults over the age of 50, muscle could be increased by an average of nearly 2.5 pounds in just five months.

Researchers found that the greater the intensity of strength training programs, the more dramatic the results. Adults who lifted the most weight boosted their upper and lower body strength by nearly a third.

Muscle strength and balance help prevent falls, one of the most common reasons senior end up in the hospital. For sedentary adults who resolve to take up weight lifting, Peterson suggest starting slowly. You could actually begin by simply getting in and out of a chair. He says the ability to stand up and out of a chair is much compromised after the age of 65 if people don’t take part in resistance training. “So using one’s own body mass as a dead weight is a “reasonable way to start.” Peterson said. “Lifting bags of groceries without too much sweat” is another benefit.

Repeat that at least 10 times. Then, add repetitions and weights like small barbells as you become comfortable with the exercise. Increase of 5 pounds per weight are reasonable after mastering the lift, says Peterson.

Other great benefits of exercising are:

Improve Insulin sensitivity

Better Brain Health

Reduced risk for chronic disease

Enhanced detoxification

Slowing the aging processes

increased Libido.

And many, many more!

Increasing physical frailty as you age is commonly accepted as “a fact of life.” It doesn’t have to be. Just eight weeks of balance and strength training contributes to less falls and improved the likelihood of recovery from slips among those who didn’t do this practice.

Being able to balance on one leg is also an important predictor of injury-causing falls, so if you know that you’d be shaky if you tried to stand on one foot, you’re at an increased risk of being hurt in a fall and should start appropriate exercises immediately.

Aerobic exercises don’t  build as muscle as resistance exercise.

When you age without maintaining muscle you will gain fat, especially the deep visceral fat that is linked to diabetes. Less muscle may raise the risk of diabetes because muscle is where the body sends most of its blood sugar (glucose) to be burned or stored. Less muscle also means a lower metabolic rate, you burn fewer calories even while you are resting.

It isn’t clear why insulin resistance increases with age. “There’s some problem with insulin signaling inside the cell,” Brenda Davy, associate professor of nutrition at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg said. For example “there are fewer glucose transporters to bring glucose into the cell. Both aerobic and resistance exercise can rev up the transporters. Even if you are insulin resistant you can still reduce blood glucose levels.” Davy said.

And don’t forget your food plan. A diet providing insufficient calories and protein results in weight loss and diminished muscle mass.

Unfortunately, low calorie and low protein diets become more common with aging, due to changes in sense of taste, problems with the teeth, gums and swallowing, or increased difficulty shopping and cooking.

To help muscle loss scientists recommend consuming 25-30 grams of protein in each meal.