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Are your muscles aging too fast and making you feel old?
Do you feel older than your years at times? Have you started moaning and groaning when you stand from a sitting position and avoid getting down on the floor at all costs. Are you in your 50s, yet feel like you have the energy of a 70 year old some days?
That groaning and lack of energy is your muscles trying to tell you something important. You are losing muscle mass just siting there! Its time to move those muscles and look at your diet to make sure you are getting the protein and B vitamins you need to prevent your muscles aging too fast.
There is no fountain of youth and no magical elixir that can turn back time. It is inevitable that your muscles – like the rest of you – are going to age, but are your muscles aging too fast? Science and research is showing us not only why our muscle are aging too fast, but how we can slow down this process to feel younger longer.
In order to slow muscle loss it is not necessary to bulk up and become a heavy weight lifter, but having quality muscles is an important part to overall health and maintaining mobility and function as we get older.
Muscle quality is closely intertwined with muscle strength and multiple factors have the potential to influence muscle quality such as muscle composition (e.g. architecture, fibre type), metabolism, fat stores and age. Sarcopenia is the term for age-related muscle loss, a naturally occurring weakening of the muscles associated with getting older. While aging is inevitable, you can slow to progress of muscle loss related to aging and help improve your muscle quality.
Maintaining muscle quality and function as you age is important as it affects your energy levels (think aerobic capacity), your weight (think metabolism) and your ability to perform daily activities (think strength) and recover faster from injury or illness.
The good news is modest improvements in muscle architecture and quality are possible with 4–5 weeks of resistance training (even only using your own body weight) and a diet high in protein, healthy fats, fruits and vegetables.
Preventing aging muscles can be as simple as movement and protein. When you work your muscles, whether taking a spin on your bike or going for a fresh air hike, your muscles strengthen and your body converts fat and carbs to the energy needed to keep you going. When you have a diet with adequate protein, your body can repair that muscle used to exercise and make it stronger for the next days round of activity.
Even if you have been sedentary for years, suffered a long illness or are working your way back from a debilitating surgery, you can reverse the effects of muscle loss and slow this part of the aging process. Consistency is important here: the more you exercise and include protein in your diet, the more muscle you build, which results in more efficient metabolism, fat burning and energy creation.
Tip 1 — Create an activity plan. Even moderate cardio exercise like these, 3 to 5 days a week, will do a lot to improve your energy and aerobic capacity.
Tip 2 — Give it some muscle. Add in some resistance training using your own body weight and slowly add in weights if you want. It is ideal for maintaining muscle and keeping you agile and flexible.
Tip 3 — Feed muscle with protein. Make sure to include protein with every snack and meal. Whether it’s a hearty breakfast of pancakes with protein powder, or perhaps a quick on-the-go fruit smoothie, you can’t go wrong
Keep your energy levels thriving and your muscles working by staying active and including protein at every meal. You will slow sarcopenia, prevent your muscles aging too fast, keep up energy levels, improve your metabolism, manage your weight and enjoy a healthy lifestyle long into your 60s, 70s and more.
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