Forever Strong: Building Muscle to Protect Against Mortality And Morbidity

All adults need to exercise, lift weights, women especially at every age to be forever strong protecting ourselves as we age.

First key to muscle gains is sleep. Shortened, restless sleep can exacerbate sarcopenia (muscle loss).

Then focus on adding in vs subtracting something: gaining muscle instead of losing fat.

We do this by shifting from being fat centric/phobic to muscle centric.

We need to give equal attention to our macro nutrient needs-protein, carbohydrates, and fats.

When faced with a choice of doing cardio vs strength work, pick strength first, cardio second, because strength training is catabolic-builds muscle- while cardio is more anabolic- breaks down muscle.

There are two populations I am addressing- athletic women, and the general population of women. Both lose muscle with menopause.

Of course men, older men, do need to focus on the same strength and cardio, but women need to approach their exercise/training slightly different than men.

Ask yourself questions when reading/digesting research studies about health and wellness. Ask, is the study on older adults, men or women, athletic population or the general population, who is leading the study, etc. Know if they are talking about you!

Are you ready for a mindset shift?

Know and believe you can gain muscle, strength, power at any age with the appropriate training and eating.

Are you ready to be consistent for a duration of time? If you are not, after one week of inactivity you could be experiencing a 12% loss in muscle, more if you find yourself dealing with an infection, illness, or injury. Consistency is key to hold on to any gains you make, for the duration.

If you are ready to be consistent for a duration (forever!), you can become more resilient from those illnesses, disease, and age related decline.

Muscle, skeletal muscle, is the organ of longevity, making up 40% of a persons mass. It is the keystone organ of health, the organ you can have input/control over influencing how you age, a say in your own aging process.

Shift your mindset to exercise to feel good, strong, resilient, safe in your body, to do “stuff” you love. Exercise to gain vs exercising to lose. You will find things fall into place when you focus on what you want vs what you don’t want. Metrics will improve when you focus on the inside-muscle and bone- vs aesthetics.

Hear this once again-Inside focus is about your bone health, and muscle mass.

Develop a growth mindset vs a fixed mindset to level up your fitness. Know your habits, your patterns so you know where to make your shifts. A growth mindset will get you to your goals.

Are you doing the same workouts, the same weight, the same reps daily, weekly, monthly, yearly? Our bodies adapt, so we must continue to create challenges. We cannot do the same thing and expect change, growth. Have a growth mindset about your workouts. Progress it.

Mindset shift from thinking/believing you are “to Old” to gain muscle, change habits or get stronger. We can develop strength at every age. Start gradually, if you are new to lifting weights, progress from there. Find a personal trainer to get you started on the right path.

Mindset shift that you can keep, or develop power at every age- do the training that builds power.

Fast twitch, explosive moves (plyometrics) develop power, keep them or add them in your weekly routine.

Women typically have more endurant muscle fibers, so be sure to train explosive moves: jumping/plyometrics -doesn’t have to be that you leave the ground to have a well rounded program. Men can retain their power, but still need plyometrics.

Your training/exercise shifts from what you used to do when you were younger. We do this work to keep those family genes-epigenetics-turned off. Control what we can control.

Do less weekly sessions of long slow cardio, shift to short, sweet, and intense sessions. Less time in the gym, but more quality.

Shift from the high reps, low weight sessions to low reps and heavier weights-remember a gradual progression is required!

Shift from the old way of under eating, under fueling, or fasting, to fueling sufficiently based on your macros for each day based on your body weight.

Fasted workouts show some gains for men, but not for women. Men still need to hit their daily macros if practicing fasting (I am not talking about fasting for religious beliefs). Women can practice fasting, for example, by taking dinner at 6pm, then waiting until 6-7 am before having breakfast leading to a 12-13 hour fast. Ladies, eat breakfast within 30 min after waking up. Some research has shown that women can lose up to 60% of their muscle when fasting. Aim for 30-40 grams of protein at each meal.

To gain muscle, lift weights 3 x each week. An example would look like: 1 day focus on leg strength, 1 day upper body strength, and day 3 a combo of upper, and lower body exercises. Gradually build over time-maybe 6 months-to get to lift heavier weights focusing on compound (multi joint) moves such as squats, dead lifts, hip hinge, and bench press.

Cardio workout example: 1 day slow walking, 1 day high intensity cardio, and 1 day of sprint work. Endurance athletes will want to include high intensity but, it will likely be done in your sport (ie, running if you’re a runner).

Allow time in every day to work on mobility-joint, ligament, tendon, and muscle health. You want the toes to bend, the knees to hinge, and shoulders move all without pain. Have a plan to keep the soft tissue sliding and gliding!

To develop the muscle and strength you desire you must also focus on fueling your body. Aim for 1 g of protein/lb of body weight. As we get older, we don’t utilize protein as well, so a higher protein intake may be necessary. Dietary protein not only supports muscle, but also bone growth, brain health, prevents cognitive decline, and hormone balance to name a few.

Carbohydrates have gotten a bad wrap, but avoiding carbs can lead to greater health problems. (I am referring to adults who do not have type 1 diabetes.)
Eat your carbs and know your recommended daily allowance. A good place to start is to aim for the same ratio of carbs to protein, so 1g of carbs/lb of body weight. The USDA recommendation for macro nutrients is 40% carbs, 30% protein, 30% fats or you could aim for 35% carbs, 35% protein, 30% fat. But, first know what ratios you are consuming before making adjustments.

Absence of dietary carbs can lead to greater muscle breakdown, less stable blood sugar, and cognitive decline, low energy, and increase in fat. The opposite of the health gains we are looking for.

Supplements: the second most researched supplement, behind caffeine, that has multiple benefits is creatine. Creatine shows significant improvements to muscle function, bone strength, and cognitive function to name a few. Dr Darren Candow is the top international researcher on creatine out of the University of Regina. if you’d like to learn more check him out.

I hope to see you at my next talk at the Lincoln Library, part 3. Date and Time to be announced.

Forever Strong: 3 Steps to Increase Your Daily Protein Intake. We hear and we know we should eat more daily protein, but how exactly do we do that? Join Celeste as she shares 3 key steps to meet those needs to reach our health goals.