The Health Risks of Muscle Loss in Older Adults
The average adult between the ages of 30 and 50 loses about half a pound of muscle each year. But once you reach your 50s, that can double to a loss of 1 pound per year.1
This is a real concern for older adults who aren’t doing some form of resistance (strength) exercise.
This can contribute to many of the diseases we see today including:
- Diabetes
- Heart disease
- Osteoporosis
But it also leads to 2 serious problems that older adults need to consider.
1. Less Function = Less Movement
Older adults who lose function over time become less active. Routine tasks become difficult. Fatigue and pain prevent them from doing the activities they enjoy.
This creates a snowball effect: A person loses muscle due to a lack of exercise...causing them to become even less active...leading to even more muscle loss.
This speeds up the deconditioning effect and pushes a person away from health and towards a state of “dis-ease”.
2. Less Muscle = Fewer Calories Burned
Strength training has long been touted as an effective way to increase your metabolic rate when compared to aerobic activities—and for good reason.
The less muscle a person has, the fewer calories they burn at rest. They’re more likely to gain body fat when unused calories must be stored by the body.
So strength exercise isn’t just about building and maintaining muscle. It’s also essential to keeping body fat at a healthy level.
Starting a Strength Training Program in Your Later Years
Older adults need to consider the benefits of strength exercises. Yes...the cardiovascular health benefits achieved through aerobic activities are important as we grow older.
But you can get the same cardiovascular training effects through a safely applied strength training program.
For example, circuit routines—where resistance exercises are done back-to-back in a series with little or no rest between each—can achieve the same response.
But older adults have unique health considerations they need to make when approaching any type of exercise.
We need to view strength training as a tool for preventing disease, enhancing quality of life, and helping us continue to do the things we love throughout our later years.
Reference:
(1) Baechle, Thomas R., et al. Fitness Professional's Guide to Strength Training Older Adults. Human Kinetics, 2010.
Image Credit:
- Photo by Matthew Bennett on Unsplash