Muscle. You work to build it and
continue to work to keep it so if you don't respect it, it won't
stick around. Further, we believed that as we grew older we would
experience a decline in muscle simply as a side effect of aging. Not
so say recent studies by Dr.
Vonda Wright. We've all heard the old saying Use It Or Lose
It. We hear it about our brains, our Aeroplan miles and yes, our
muscles. If you've done any sort of resistance or cardiovascular
exercise you might have noticed that once you stop so do many of the
benefits. Simply - the benefits seize from a lack of use. Imagine
that.
So this study by Dr. Wright is
supported further by a group of scientists from the University of
Western Ontario who had similar findings. This is definitely
something to get excited about. Until now we've expected to lose
muscle at about the age of 40 but according to these findings we
don't have to become heavier and weaker. It seems that a very
important factor had generally been ignored when studying the decline
of muscle with age: subjects had generally been sedentary. This is
not the case today as we often hear of amazing feats by those in
their golden years. So how do the muscles of our older active adults
weigh against those who are decades younger? Well after performing a
series of strength and fitness tests and also conducting MRI scans
''...neither leg muscle size nor strength declined significantly
with age among the subjects, suggesting that regular training had
warded off the muscle-wasting effects of aging. The sample MRIs
showed virtually indistinguishable quadriceps in a 40-year-old
triathlete compared with a 70-year-old triathlete. In contrast, the
quadriceps of a 74-year-old sedentary man were shriveled and
enveloped in fat...”
So of course this got me thinking.
When it comes to our physical abilities and expectations should we
stop looking at our age? What if we
removed the expectation that we will continue to decline with the
suggestion that what you can do at 40 you can do at 70, 80 and
beyond! Think of people like octogenarian
Ed Whitlock and centenarian
Fauja Singh who are setting world records. Perhaps we simply need to
put ourselves in environments to succeed with the only pre-existing
notion of - You Will. It's Possible. Age is Just a Number.
 | |
| Ernestine Shepherd, 73 |
But of course as wonderful as all this
is there is a caveat. Although the legs of these individuals were
almost indistinguishable, there was decline in other regions of the
body. It may suggest that no one type of exercise alone will give
you the best results. Variety is just as important as full body
resistance training. Just consider that 73 year old grandmother,
Ernestine
Shepherd, is bench pressing 150 pounds, curling up to 20 pounds
and runs 80 miles per week. So hit the gym, grab some weights and
the next time you find yourself
blowing out candles know that the number of candles say one thing but
your muscles say another.
Enjoy
yourself in good health and fitness/gena.
