As we get older, our fitness and life priorities shift, and it might seem less relevant to do active strength training or movement in general. We’re going to ask you to acknowledge that thought, and then be open to learning some things that might change your mind. Read on, as today we’re going to take a dive specifically into strength training as we age and provide some evidence that might shift our collective perspective.

We peak with respect to strength and muscle mass at roughly age 25. Looking at the literature, from 25-50 y/o, we lose about 3-8% of our muscle mass per decade, which accelerates with age, and the rate of strength loss is typically far greater than the loss of muscle mass. As we age, we lose about 1% of our muscle mass per year. If you are anything like us in reading these stats, this is both entirely tragic but also not totally surprising.

In case you are wondering, this is kind of a connective tissue issue – but then from that perspective, what goes wrong? The normal aging process includes a decrease in muscle fiber size (this is no matter what you do; losing muscle mass and strength as we age is called sarcopenia). Along with a loss in muscle fiber size, we have an increase in collagen content, which ultimately becomes hardened like gristle. Gristle just sounds like being stiff, and that’s exactly how it feels.

But let’s back up a moment and get into some of the science. Our muscles have these things called fibroblasts. Fibroblasts like to create structure and they are responsive to what we do (or don’t do). Notably, in the presence of inflammation, the fibroblast changes into a different cell type called a myofibroblast. When we are less fluid in our movement, don’t vary our movements, or don’t move enough, collagen content rises, and we develop inflammation; this drives a change of the fibroblast to a myofibroblast. When inflammatory cells change the cells to myofibroblasts, that leads to stiffness and now we’re not moving the way we want to move, which creates tremendous disorganization in the tissues.

It’s really difficult to transfer force through gristly fibrotic tissue, and any force is typically ineffectively transferred. This is why, even if you are training or working out hard, your workout regimen might make you start to feel like you are plateauing. In essence, if a load can’t be transferred through a muscle, the muscle can’t develop adaptations or contract properly – so naturally, the end result is muscle loss.

Do you see the cycle?! With a somewhat natural decrease in muscle fiber size, an increase in collagen content, inflammation changing the cell type, leading to stiffness, which leads to improper movement, and now the entire system is very disorganized and scar-like. We wind up with disorganized connective tissue that is basically replacing the muscle that we once had.

Okay, but is this reversible?! Good question, we’re glad you asked. The rate of decline is staggering in untrained individuals; without training, you will lose about 50% of your muscle mass from your peak by the time you are 70. Losing muscle leads to losing bone mineral density and as we wrote in a recent blog post, falls are the 5^th leading cause of death after the age of 75 second to Alzheimer’s, heart disease, stroke, and cancer. Muscle fibrosis leads to weak muscles, weak muscles lead to muscle atrophy, muscle atrophy and the ability to transfer load can eventually lead to weak bones, which can lead to a catastrophic fall later in life. We need to have healthy bones and muscles, a healthy connective tissue network, so that none of this is really affecting us in our golden years. In addition, skeletal muscle is a reservoir for glucose, and research shows that states when your skeletal muscle atrophies, you actually don’t absorb glucose. When glucose gets high in the blood stream it leads to insulin resistance, which can lead to metabolic issues and diabetes. We want a large volume of muscle tissue, not just for movement and mobility, you want it for metabolism as well.

Keep moving, keep doing your strength training, and if you aren’t doing anything at all – start now!  It’s never too late to start strength training. Here at Beacon PT, we are ready and able to advise you on how to develop an appropriate strength training regime that is tailored to you, your knowledge, motivation, and fitness level.  Come in today. We love keeping you on your feet and thriving!