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Preventing Muscle Loss as We Age

nytimes.com

321–330 of 334 posts

Re: Preventing Muscle Loss as We Age

#321

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I think I look OK for 47. I've been lifting 4 times a week since I turned 40, mostly on 5/3/1 but lately on some bespoke programming. It's all based around the 4 big lifts, and after doing some amateur strongman competitions I occasionally add an events day as well.

A good age to start topical pregnenolone + DHEA (5 mg : 5 mg), iodine protocol, selegiline, or anything else that maintains vitality. And a multivitamin, D + K, and chelated/TRAACS magnesium supplement.

Do you have any info on pregnenelone and DHEA I could read up on?

Re: Preventing Muscle Loss as We Age

#322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The motions are perfectly safe In theory, sure. In reality, not even close. I guarantee there isn't a single person in this thread who could tell me what someone's squat form should look like based on their femur:torso ratio and hip/ankle flexibility. Should they squat high bar or low bar? Wide or narrow stance? Parallel or below parallel? Flat shoes or heel lifts? If you can't easily answer all of those questions,…

> Squats, bench presses and deadlifts are extremely complex, high-risk lifts that serve no purpose for the average, non-competitive weightlifter. You've clearly never had to lift a couch or push a car out of a ditch, even just squatted down to pick up something larger than a breadbox. Your body isn't made of glass - it won't explode, and scaring people off these wonderful exercises is doing a disservice to humanity.…

Your body isn't made of glass - it won't explode

Considering my father got a herniated disk from improperly lifting a heavy weight (and he can never lift heavy weights again), and several other people I know experienced severe injury, this is not as good advice as you're making it to be.

I agree that weightlifting can be safe, but not riskless, and back injuries are no joke.

I'm all for exercise (in theory, in practice I'm a couch potato) but don't dismiss what can be legitimate fears, I'd rather you address them.

Re: Preventing Muscle Loss as We Age

#323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Squats, bench presses and deadlifts are extremely complex, high-risk lifts that serve no purpose for the average, non-competitive weightlifter. You've clearly never had to lift a couch or push a car out of a ditch, even just squatted down to pick up something larger than a breadbox. Your body isn't made of glass - it won't explode, and scaring people off these wonderful exercises is doing a disservice to humanity.…

Your body isn't made of glass - it won't explode Considering my father got a herniated disk from improperly lifting a heavy weight (and he can never lift heavy weights again), and several other people I know experienced severe injury, this is not as good advice as you're making it to be. I agree that weightlifting can be safe, but not riskless, and back injuries are no joke. I'm all for exercise (in theory, in practi…

You are right, there is the potential for injury, and some people herniate discs. But more people hurt themselves putting the lawn mower in the truck than in the gym. I took a look and the only statistic I could find for rate of herniated discs in a population (in this case Finland and Italy https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2907819/) was 1-3% - those aren't all caused by lifting. I've even found a website that was concerned about runners developing herniated disc (https://runnerclick.com/herniated-disc/) Life causes herniated discs, and can happen naturally with age as well. I don't mean to downplay that it can and does happen, and that sucks when it's so bad it's debilitating, but steering clear of the gym won't prevent it.

An injury is a fact of life. How many people tear ACL's during soccer practice or skiing? But then people tear their ACL's falling the shower as well. Any activity has built in risks.

Re: Preventing Muscle Loss as We Age

#324

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as others have said, that does seem pretty low. I am 220lbs (tallish at 202 cm) and was eating about 120g. When I increased it to 175g I found my recovery was much better and and even though I was increasing my weekly distances (I run ultras for fun!), I wasnt getting any nagging overuse injuries. I try to get most of my protein from food rather than powders, but found it hard not to cheat a bit with whey, hemp and p…

Protein powder is essentially powdered milk. I don't think you can really 'cheat' with it, it's just 'food' :) Random pro-tip: unflavoured whey powder goes into just about anything (and is 150% less gross than I thought it was before I tried it).

I get the unflavored whey too, and personally, I can be quite mercenary / practical about my food when I need to :) But I am a bit suspicious as to the bio-availability of these powders. Are the proteins really as good (or even good enough) as compared to actual food sources ? Quality also seems to vary immensely from what I have read. My intuition tells me 30g of protein from chicken breast and not the "restructured" stuff which is jacked with soy[1] is probably better than 30g of whey.

1 https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/marketplace-chicken-fast-fo...

Re: Preventing Muscle Loss as We Age

#325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A good age to start topical pregnenolone + DHEA (5 mg : 5 mg), iodine protocol, selegiline, or anything else that maintains vitality. And a multivitamin, D + K, and chelated/TRAACS magnesium supplement.

Do you have any info on pregnenelone and DHEA I could read up on?

https://raypeatforum.com/community/threads/pansterone-liquid...

Re: Preventing Muscle Loss as We Age

#326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I’ve been doing strength training 2 hours 3x/week with a coach, and I would never attempt this without a coach. Every work set she’s watching me and making frequent adjustments. It would be impossible for me to do this without her. Maybe I could record video and analyze it, but I would have to essentially learn all of her expertise and even then it would be delayed so I couldn’t make fixes until after I have al…

I have done strength training without a coach for 6 years. My squat went up to 185kg/407lb without any injuries. You can do it, and depending on the coach, you may be better doing it alone. However, with a good coach (not easy to find) you will progress much faster. I recently started competing and found a good coach, I wish I had found him earlier.

> However, with a good coach (not easy to find) you will progress much faster.

In what way coach is helping? Providing that your technique is correct, application leads you - so what's the coach's role?

Re: Preventing Muscle Loss as We Age

#327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Diet often isn't enough as you age. You will almost certainly lose muscle (and thereby lose autonomy) as you age, unless you're getting some form of strength training. Strength training also stimulates osteoblasts, strengthening bones.

Not true. Adding vitamin D3, vitamin K2 MK-4, iodine/iodide, boron, silica (monomethylsilanetriol), etc does a lot to slow decline. And eventually topical pregnenolone + DHEA (5 mg : 5 mg). Strength training is also great. If exercise continues into old age without proper nutrition and the additions mentioned above, it can worsen decline. And just adding supplements, improving nutrition, and ensuring regular movement…

At worst, you'll get injured if you aren't exercising correctly, but it's never going to directly worsen decline.

Solving aging, mental or physical health problems isn't as simple as taking a dozen supplements. Obviously proper nutrition is important, but regular exercise is the closest thing we have to a panacea right now.

Re: Preventing Muscle Loss as We Age

#328
post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's very interesting. I've frequently had to take time off lifting due to injuries, many of which never really relax properly. Eg a tense spot on my back I'm still having massage/physio done on. Do you do barbells lifts at high rep, or other things? Also, how many days a week do you do it and for how long?

Have you looked into Starting Strength (the book and the program)? It goes ridiculously anatomical in order to address the most common injuries uncoached weightlifters experience.

Yeah, I've gone through some of it. Helpful, I was waiting until I got my current back injuries fixed before trying to apply it. I don't think I can squat correctly while a certain spot is tight - have tried.

It did help me get closer to the proper position though.

Re: Preventing Muscle Loss as We Age

#329
post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believed I was susceptible to overtraining for most of my life. N=1 and all that, but I made an effort to consume more protein and switched to a higher volume program and have had much better results (and I bike to work ever day). One important aspect is that I de-load every couple of weeks when the volume starts to really wear on me. (I’m also vegetarian.) Most of my “program” is from Charles Poliquin’s writings.

I thought I was, too, until I committed to 2 hours a day, 6 days a week. After maybe a month of this I completely stopped being sore and it was tremendously beneficial to my overall health, even years after I dialed it down (2 hours got to be too much). I get sore now after working out but I no longer have the back, neck, and hand pain I used to have.

It depends on what training do you do and your personal recovery capabilities. You can do 7 days a week low intensity (in sense of resistance, not necessary cadence) cardio, no problem, but I don't know anyone who do can do high intensity weight training (as Mike Mentzer's and Arthur Jones defined it) that often and for that long.

Re: Preventing Muscle Loss as We Age

#330
post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believed I was susceptible to overtraining for most of my life. N=1 and all that, but I made an effort to consume more protein and switched to a higher volume program and have had much better results (and I bike to work ever day). One important aspect is that I de-load every couple of weeks when the volume starts to really wear on me. (I’m also vegetarian.) Most of my “program” is from Charles Poliquin’s writings.

I thought I was, too, until I committed to 2 hours a day, 6 days a week. After maybe a month of this I completely stopped being sore and it was tremendously beneficial to my overall health, even years after I dialed it down (2 hours got to be too much). I get sore now after working out but I no longer have the back, neck, and hand pain I used to have.

What kind of training do you do, which exercises? I'm mainly asking because I too want to avoid "back, neck and hand pain" as I get older.
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