Why Building Muscle Matters More as You Age

Disclaimer: Not Medical Advice. Opinions are my own.

In partnership with ​Momentous​

Today's newsletter at a glance:

• Showing Up Beats the Majority

• Don't Use It? Lose It

• The Most Powerful Intervention

• What You Should Avoid at All Costs

  
  

Exercise is single-handedly the most important tool we have to increase healthspan and longevity.

The sobering truth is that only 30% of adults participate in regular weightlifting or resistance training. That stat drops to 19% among adults aged 65 and older.

Resistance training isn't easy.

It takes effort. It takes time. It's uncomfortable.

But the data is undeniable: if you want to increase your chances of a long life on your own terms, it is a non-negotiable.

If you are a reader of the Human newsletter, I know health is a priority for you. Don't skip your resistance training.

In today's newsletter, we delve into the benefits of resistance training, particularly as we age.

Don't Use It? Lose It

Anabolic Resistance is a term I want you to be familiar with.

There's a good chance you have heard of insulin resistance, where your body doesn't respond to insulin effectively, preventing glucose (sugar) from being pulled out of your bloodstream and into the muscles.

Anabolic resistance is a similar concept: your muscles don't respond as effectively to stimuli, such as protein intake, in growing or maintaining muscle mass.

What this means for you:

• Decreased strength

• Slower metabolism

• Impaired balance and mobility

• Increased risk of falls

Sarcopenia is an age-related loss of skeletal muscle, strength, and functionality. We want to avoid this decline at all costs.

The bad news is that the game is rigged against us. The older you get, the harder it is to build/maintain muscle mass.

Building muscle is like investing. You wish you had started in your 20s so you could enjoy retirement. However, starting late is better than not starting at all.

The good news is that there are proven ways to slow the decline of muscle loss.

The Most Powerful Intervention

Clinically, the most powerful intervention to combat anabolic resistance is progressive resistance training.

Progressive overload refers to the gradual increase in load or weight over time.

Regardless of your starting point, over time, your goal is to increase your weight load or the number of repetitions.

Exercise-based interventions can retrain your muscles to be sensitive to amino acids.

Building on this, it's vital to fuel your muscles with adequate dietary protein. Another harsh truth for us as we approach midlife: we require more protein than young adults to achieve the same result.

Increasing dietary protein intake (especially leucine) to 1.2g/kg/day has proven to support muscle protein synthesis in older adults (0.55 g of protein per pound of body weight per day).

• A 150-lb person → 150 × 0.55 ≈ 83 g protein/day

Since life can interfere with your protein intake, I tend to aim higher on my slower days to compensate for days when I can't meet my protein goals.

What You Should Avoid at All Costs

Aging is inevitable.

It's an uphill force we will all face with time.

How we age is up to us.

We already touched on the power of resistance training for combating sarcopenia and anabolic resistance.

On the other hand, inactivity, especially as we age, is a damage multiplier.

Avoid it at all costs.

​In this study, healthy male participants were placed on bed rest for two weeks and incurred a 21.9% increase in anabolic resistance for older adults and a 9.2% increase for young adults.

This is an extreme case, but it clearly illustrates the danger that inactivity poses to the effectiveness of your muscles, especially for older adults.

So this is my push for you to join the 30% of adults or 19% of people 65+ or older who prioritize resistance training.

Start and start small.

Start where you are.

Start today.

Stack the deck of life in your favor to increase your chances of living a long life on your own terms.

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Only the best,

Jeremy London, MD

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