A common quotation you hear is from Benjamin Franklin "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except Death and Taxes". Â Well I'd like to add "and muscle loss after the age of 40".
A recent study concluded that total muscle mass decreases by nearly 50 percent for people between the ages of 20 and 90. On average, people lose about 30 percent of their strength between ages 50 and 70, and another 30 percent of what's left per decade after that. Generally, people lose about 1 percent of their lean muscle mass per year after age 40.
The loss of muscle is a natural process but combined with a sedentary lifestyle you'll accelerate the effects. Â Move it or lose it!
More and more research results are being released to support the idea that just being active is not enough. Â To maintain a strong and fit body you need to slow down the loss of muscle tissue. Â And the most effective way of doing this is with resistance training at least twice a week.
The benefits to your body of lifting weights regularly reach farther than just stopping the loss of muscle. Â To keep your muscle you need to be active and this burns calories so now you are no longer sedentary.
Lifting a weight improves your strength, which leads to improved performance in other areas of your life. Â You can now carry your body better, your posture will improve, the look of your body improves and clothes will fit better. Â These are just some of the noticeable effects externally.
Building and maintaining your body's lean tissue has an effect internally as well.  Muscle protects your joints and tendons, improves your bone density, which is crucial in reducing osteoporosis.  Your heart will get stronger as it is a muscle as well and responds and pumps  blood with less effort thus reducing blood pressure.
Your risk of diabetes will decrease as your muscles become better at drawing the sugar from your blood thus clearing it from your bloodstream quicker.
These are some of the improvements to your health that you can expect from training with some weight. Â When done properly the benefits greatly outweigh any risks involved.
Throughout this article when weight has been mentioned you probably have visions of straining under a bar loaded to the max. Â This is far from the truth because a program using your bodyweight can be very effective in the initial stages to get the body prepared for ongoing progress.
The best bodyweight movements have stood the test of time and will provide the foundation for any strength program. Â Basic exercises like squats, push ups and pull ups and the like will stimulate the body sufficiently.
When mentioning any kind of work involving strength and weights and not talking about the role of protein would be remiss. Â Hitting the gym and lifting some weight will be less effective without the required intake of protein on a daily basis. Â The body is in a constant state of protein synthesis making new muscle but it needs protein to do it. Â The recommended daily intake of protein is based on bodyweight (measured in grams per kilogram of bodyweight):
The body is at its most efficient to use protein for repair and building inside an hour after completeing your exercise. Â
Even though we cannot stop the natural aging process we can make the quality of our aging better by staying active and hanging on to all the muscle we can.
Darren Moroney-Personal Trainer helping people for 10 years. Â Please check me out at www.fitasamalleebull.com
A recent study concluded that total muscle mass decreases by nearly 50 percent for people between the ages of 20 and 90. On average, people lose about 30 percent of their strength between ages 50 and 70, and another 30 percent of what's left per decade after that. Generally, people lose about 1 percent of their lean muscle mass per year after age 40.
The loss of muscle is a natural process but combined with a sedentary lifestyle you'll accelerate the effects. Â Move it or lose it!
More and more research results are being released to support the idea that just being active is not enough. Â To maintain a strong and fit body you need to slow down the loss of muscle tissue. Â And the most effective way of doing this is with resistance training at least twice a week.
The benefits to your body of lifting weights regularly reach farther than just stopping the loss of muscle. Â To keep your muscle you need to be active and this burns calories so now you are no longer sedentary.
Lifting a weight improves your strength, which leads to improved performance in other areas of your life. Â You can now carry your body better, your posture will improve, the look of your body improves and clothes will fit better. Â These are just some of the noticeable effects externally.
Building and maintaining your body's lean tissue has an effect internally as well.  Muscle protects your joints and tendons, improves your bone density, which is crucial in reducing osteoporosis.  Your heart will get stronger as it is a muscle as well and responds and pumps  blood with less effort thus reducing blood pressure.
Your risk of diabetes will decrease as your muscles become better at drawing the sugar from your blood thus clearing it from your bloodstream quicker.
These are some of the improvements to your health that you can expect from training with some weight. Â When done properly the benefits greatly outweigh any risks involved.
Throughout this article when weight has been mentioned you probably have visions of straining under a bar loaded to the max. Â This is far from the truth because a program using your bodyweight can be very effective in the initial stages to get the body prepared for ongoing progress.
The best bodyweight movements have stood the test of time and will provide the foundation for any strength program. Â Basic exercises like squats, push ups and pull ups and the like will stimulate the body sufficiently.
When mentioning any kind of work involving strength and weights and not talking about the role of protein would be remiss. Â Hitting the gym and lifting some weight will be less effective without the required intake of protein on a daily basis. Â The body is in a constant state of protein synthesis making new muscle but it needs protein to do it. Â The recommended daily intake of protein is based on bodyweight (measured in grams per kilogram of bodyweight):
- 0.75g/kg for adult women
- 0.84g/kg for adult men
- Around 1g/kg for men and women over the age of 70.
The body is at its most efficient to use protein for repair and building inside an hour after completeing your exercise. Â
Even though we cannot stop the natural aging process we can make the quality of our aging better by staying active and hanging on to all the muscle we can.
Darren Moroney-Personal Trainer helping people for 10 years. Â Please check me out at www.fitasamalleebull.com