02/02/2022
๐๐ฉ๐ง๐๐ฃ๐๐ฉ๐ ๐๐ง๐๐๐ฃ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐ผ๐๐โ๐พ๐ค๐ข๐๐๐ฉ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐๐๐ง๐๐ค๐ฅ๐๐ฃ๐๐ โณ
Sarcopeniaโthe loss of muscle mass and strength during the latter stages of biological agingโis strongly correlated with physical disability, poor quality of life, and mortality [1] with an estimated loss of 5-10% of muscle mass per decade past the age of 50 being observed [2].
Muscle mass accounts for at least 60% of total body mass in healthy population subsetsโthis makes that loss of 5-10% per decade profoundly impactful on the physiology and lived experience of the elderlyโit is literally pathological.
Unfortunately, far too many people think that lifting weights and being meaningfully active is something that you can only begin when you're younger and are best to discontinue as you really start getting older. This could be regarded as a reasonably intuitive belief to hold as it can be quite compelling to draw a straight line between aging and frailty based on what we observe in others as we go about our day, thereby concluding that this is an inevitability for all.
The problem is that this interpretation almost certainly has the causal relationship the wrong way aroundโwe don't lose absolutely all of our muscle, strength and resilience simply because we ageโwe lose it because we stop using it, or perhaps we never even had it to begin with.
You just probably aren't seeing many older people that continue to resistance train when you take in those around you day-to-day, you probably aren't even seeing that many middle-aged people that do so either.
If we don't keep giving our bodies a reason to retain and repair muscles and jointsโif we allow our bodies to waneโit's eventually going to mean that simple tasks like picking things up from the floor, rising from chairs, and climbing stairs become increasingly difficult [3].
It's going to mean falls and broken bones, loss of mobility and independence, and ultimatelyโincreased likelihood of an earlier passing.
Non-pharmacological interventions have been shown to be the only way to prevent these adverse outcomes in sarcopenic patients [4]โthere is simply no drug that can replicate what meaningful activity and loading will do for us and our bodies.
This a subject on which we can speak quite confidently as the literature is, at this point in time, unanimousโthis inactivity and disuse of contractile tissue is a determinant cause of muscle and muscle strength loss, both in general [5] and in the elderly specifically [6].
I truly believe that not only should people not stop lifting weights as they get older, but that older people are in fact those that absolutely need to lift weights the mostโit becomes imperative for our ongoing well-being.
What we do and how we live now is a steady investment from which our future selves will benefitโeven if we're already feeling further along than we'd like to be, with a few pains and problems accompanying our movementโthere is an entry point to improvement somewhere for everyone.
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[1] https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afy169
[2] https://doi.org/10.1152/japplphysiol.00347.2003
[3] https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0118535
[4] https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jocd.2015.04.011
[5] https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=hhosAwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=info:_v2hs3vykNkJ:scholar.google.com/&ots=lkE46KYZOA&sig=pBp9ZUc0bAla5M8rDZZ-tV9HVyA&redir_esc=y =onepage&q&f=false
[6] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23575207/
