The bad news is that with age our muscle mass becomes reduced. However, the loss to your muscles can, to some
extent at least, be ameliorated with a routine of resistance or strength
training. It is quite astonishing to
contemplate the ability of the muscles to respond to demands placed upon
them. They will very quickly become responsive
when a weight training schedule is set in motion.
In fact despite the age of the person muscles adapt and develop so
well to strength training that it makes no difference at what age someone
begins, even if they don't start until they are in their 90s.
Although obviously an earlier and concerted programme of regular
training can reap surprisingly rewarding results.
We discussed the relative strengths and weaknesses of slow and fast
twitch muscle fibres in an earlier post.
Slow twitch muscles are good for endurance type disciples and fast
twitch take over when speed or explosive power is required. So it is interesting to learn that it’s the
fast twitch muscles which are the primary group to degenerate first, while the
slow twitch are more enduring and longer lasting. And, if you think about it this does make
sense as the slow twitch muscles are the ones which power endurance and as we
know, people well into their 80s are adequately capable of running marathons
but we’d be hard pressed to name an octogenarian sprinter.
The optimum life of the human muscles is from maturity to around
mid-life so very roughly age 18-40 although this of course varies greatly from
one individual to another and depends on a variety of factors, not least their
range of activity. For those of a
sedentary nature the outlook is not good with some people losing as much as 50%
of their muscle mass as they enter old age.
Another obvious truth becomes clear once we know the body’s
physiological characteristics, in that older people are prone to having falls
because the leg strength or leg muscles are apt to atrophy ahead of the arm
muscles. It’s true
that the arms, despite being powered by smaller muscle groups, retain more of
their power for longer than the larger muscle groups of the legs.
Training with weights or resistance machines at the gym is always
available and it’s never too late to get busy. Again it’s proven that
regular strength work can even aid in restoring some of the power of the
remainder of fast twitch muscles fibres, as by making strength gains they are increasing
in their size and ability.
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