Pandemic life had a tendency of exposing our flaws. For those of us of a certain age, that is literally true. You are not alone if you believe that certain home tasks, such as carrying groceries, hoisting children, moving furniture, or transporting laundry, are becoming more difficult. And you are not imagining it.
This is not a new phenomena; it was only in the 1800s that many of us lived long enough to witness this fall. For me, it began a few years ago, when I observed that lifting an air conditioner, carrying a child to bed, or bringing in a pile of firewood seemed more difficult than before. I made excuses for each obstacle ("Darned kid gained 20 pounds today!"), but now, at 54, I'm ready to admit that I simply can't lift as much as I used to.
Starting in our 30s (the figures are not precise), we lose up to 8% of our muscle mass per decade, a condition known as sarcopenia, as well as up to 30% of our strength and power. This makes us weaker, less mobile, and more vulnerable to damage from falls and other mishaps, particularly beyond the age of 50.
But it does not have to be this way. According to specialists, men and women can restore part of their lost muscle mass while also remaining strong enough to enjoy young activities far into their winter years. The key is strength training.
"I have people who start in their 60s, 70s, and even 80s," says Jordan Metzl, a sports medicine physician at New York's Hospital for Special Surgery. "Building and maintaining strength is one of the most important things you can do at any stage of life, and it's extremely important after age 50."
Why? Strength training improves your "economy of movement," which refers to the amount of energy expended to execute a task, and it "offloads joints, allowing you to do the same amount of work with less pain and a lower risk of injury." "You're basically getting more juice out of your muscles." Metzl is personally invested in this mission. He has run 35 marathons and competed in Iron Man triathlons, and even as he approaches his mid-50s, he says he wants to "keep going forever."
But what if your marathons are measured in Netflix episodes, or you simply need to jumpstart an engine that has been rusting for years? You are not alone, says Dixie Stanforth, an associate professor of instruction in the University of Texas at Austin's Department of Kinesiology and Health Education.
"Most people are professional sitters," she informs me. As a result, several muscles in our front bodies, particularly the hip flexors and chest muscles, shorten and tighten. This suppresses signals to their corresponding anterior muscles – the glutes and upper back — to continue working, causing those areas to weaken and inhibit. All of this sitting at home may be exacerbating the situation.
Stanforth, a 60-year-old personal trainer and "avid athlete," advises starting or resuming strength training by focusing on main muscle groups, particularly the glutes and back.
"Glutes are tremendously important, because they activate the 'rear chain' of the body and can produce a lot of power for movement," according to Stanforth. Rear chain muscles are essential for proper posture, balancing, sprinting, jumping, and, yes, lifting big objects. Squats, rows, and leg presses are ideal exercises for strengthening those muscles, according to Stanforth, because they activate the core and require movement in many joints.
She recommends strengthening front-facing muscles (chest, stomach, biceps, and quadriceps, for example) while also spending additional time stretching them due to how tense they become in our daily, deskbound existence. "Many people might consider a 1:2 ratio of exercises" — that is, double your strengthening time for rear-chain muscles — "but all of the major muscles [including biceps, calves, and triceps] should be trained."
And, before you ask, almost any workout you can perform in a gym can be done at home, with some modifications. Homebound strength workouts that don't require equipment include squats (with or without weight), chair dips, pushups, pullups, planks, lunges, burpees, and step-ups. If you have canned foods or empty milk or drink containers (a gallon of water weights about eight pounds), you can use them for strength training.
Stanforth and Metzl suggest growing muscle by executing a large number of reps with a smaller weight that can be lifted at least 15 times before failure, which is the fitness phrase for being unable to do anything more.
Data reveal that straining to accomplish fewer repetitions of substantially larger weights significantly increases the risk of cartilage, tendon, and ligament damage while providing no benefit over smaller weights. A 2017 meta-analysis of 21 studies published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that people who followed strength training regimens for at least six weeks, performing exercises to failure, had similar muscle cell growth whether they did high reps of low weights or fewer reps of heavy weights.
"Fatigue is fatigue no matter how you get there," Stanforth explains. "I recommend [sets of] a significant number of reps — 15, 20, 30 — and you'll see all the gains that you would with heavier weights." Research suggests that a single set of each exercise provides the majority of the benefits, eliminating the need for additional sets.
In terms of training frequency, the weekly guidelines for usually healthy adults aged 50 and older are the same as for other demographics: Strength train two to three days per week, engage in aerobic activity at least five days per week at a moderate effort, or three days per week at a high intensity, and stretch at least twice per week.
Metzl takes it a step further by combining high-intensity interval training (HIIT) – brief, hard bursts of activity that typically last 30 to 90 seconds with recovery pauses in between. "I do HIIT with people in their 70s and 80s," he explains. "We all change over the decades, but I don't want people to be afraid of intensity."
According to Metzl, people should increase their intensity as they age in order to "better stimulate all of the cells in our bodies." He referenced a 2017 study published in Cell Metabolism that found that high-intensity training considerably increased the body's ability to turn macronutrients into energy. However, he stated, "For some people, a sprint is severe. For others, it's going up the stairs."
For those who can do them, Metzl recommends burpees, jump squats, and lunges as full-body functional exercise. "Burpees work every muscle in your body. They're quite intense and effective. And, according to Metzl, you'll still benefit from burpees if you step — not jump — your feet back when descending into the push-up posture at the end of the exercise.
According to Stuart Phillips, director of McMaster University's Physical Activity Center of Excellence in Hamilton, Ontario, elderly persons who strength train on a regular basis should expect to experience considerable gains in strength and power, but not muscular hypertrophy. Still, the advantages of a fitness regimen — and the extended period of physical independence that comes with it — should be enough to encourage us all, he says. "It's about quality of life, and that's not a function of muscle mass, but of strength/power."
And, as Stanforth adds, "exercise is better than any drug" in maintaining bone and combating the increased risk of osteoporosis that comes with age.It's quite helpful. However, as we age, we must be more careful with how we provide the dose. So, do it well, and we'll feel stronger and smarter every day - with one less thing to worry about.
