And how building and maintaining muscle is the secret to a healthier, longer life.
Did you know that after the age of 30, you start to lose as much as 5% of your muscle mass each decade? In fact, studies suggest that most men will lose up to 30% of their muscle mass during their lifetime.
For women, as well as age-related muscle loss, the menopause can cause a 30-60% loss of muscle stem cells (making it harder to maintain muscle mass).
When thinking about staying fit for a longer life, many people focus on their cardiovascular fitness and heart health. However, they neglect maintaining and building the crucial muscles that keep movement, strength, flexibility and longevity on top form for even longer.
Four Reasons Why Muscle Matters
1) Reduce the risk of injury, falls and fractures
Losing muscle mass and function (known as sarcopenia) can increase your risk of fractures and falls. Sarcopenia is not just associated with ageing; it can occur for those that:
- Have a largely sedentary lifestyle
- Suffer high stress and inflammation
- Eat an unbalanced diet
However, by maintaining and building muscle, you can retain and improve your level of movement, strength, balance and everyday abilities – helping to increase your quality of life both now and into old age too.
2) Boost your metabolism
By increasing your muscle mass, you also increase your metabolic rate, helping you to maintain a healthy weight. This is because muscle cells require more energy than fat cells, so your metabolism works harder to get energy into your muscles. This helps you to burn more calories at your basal metabolic rate, not just when you’re working out. All of which can help with fat loss and weight management.
3) Improve posture and relieve pain
Your muscles offer scaffolding to your structure. They help to keep you upright and in alignment. This can help to prevent aches and pains associated with poor posture and alignment. Strong, healthy muscles allow all parts of your body to work correctly and in harmony. Using your muscles properly and increasing muscle mass can help relieve stress and tension on your joints. This can be crucial if you suffer from back, neck and shoulder pain.
4) Make you live longer
Muscle is your centre house for most of your hormones response including insulin. Having high quality muscle that function at its best simply means that it will allow you to go through more physical and mental stress. Muscles contains amino acid which you need to produce immune cells which are essential to fight diseases and illnesses.
How To Protect And Build Muscle
One of the best ways to maintain and build muscle mass is to focus on strength training and high intensity workouts.
- Resistance training – such as with resistance bands
- Bodyweight exercises – such as planks, press-ups and squats
- Weight machines – These are resistance machines that you can find in the gym
- Free weights – using dumbbells and barbells to increase strength.
- Sprinting, skipping, boxing, burpees, squat jumps (Any high intense bouts of exercises for a short period of time.)
Some people shy away from strength training. This could be that the area of the gym is overwhelming; they don’t know where to start or worry that building muscles will make them too muscular or bulky. The truth is you can use strength training to maintain or enhance your physique in the way you want to. It’s just about knowing the right workouts for your goals, and this is where I can help.
If you want to increase overall fitness, ability and long-lasting quality of life, strength training should be a crucial part of your exercise plan.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t feel able to lift weights or prefer to work out at home without equipment; there are lots of ways to incorporate strength training in a way that works for you. If you want to get started by protecting and increasing your muscle mass, then I’m here to help.
If you want to increase overall fitness, ability and long-lasting quality of life, strength training should be a crucial part of your exercise plan.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t feel able to lift weights or prefer to work out at home without equipment; there are lots of ways to incorporate strength training in a way that works for you. If you want to get started by protecting and increasing your muscle mass, then I’m here to help.
If you want to help enhance your quality of life and enjoy all of the benefits of maintaining and developing strong, healthy muscles, then get in touch. Together we can create a workout plan that helps you to reach your goals and prevent sarcopenia for a fitter, healthier and more active life.
