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Preventing Muscle Loss as We Age

nytimes.com

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Re: Preventing Muscle Loss as We Age

#311

Post by DoreenMichele »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #133
matwood wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people have no idea I'm 41, and instead think I'm in my 30s. Balding and grey hair show I'm not in my 20s ;) My 'secret' is I workout every single day . I might do heavy weight training, sled pushing, surfing, or a spin class. It doesn't matter as long as I do something physically challenging. I also follow an 80/20 rule on eating paleo-ish. Mainly I try to avoid processed foods, but I'll still eat a pizza or go…

Counterpoint: my wife and I are well into our 40s yet often mistaken for being much younger. Being significantly overweight gives us nice smooth wrinkle free skin.

I have a genetic disorder. I'm quite convinced that one of the reasons I frequently get read as years younger than I am is due to my ears and nose being starved of nutrients and thereby growing slower than average.

In spite of being prematurely grey, I have a "button nose" and cute ears for a 53 year old.

There's lots of details that influence perception of age.

Re: Preventing Muscle Loss as We Age

#312

Post by andy_ppp »

dawidw wrote: post #180
andy_ppp wrote: post #48

I can't recommend StrongLifts enough. https://stronglifts.com I'm up to squatting 130kg now and feeling great!

Could you elaborate on your case a little bit more, please? How old are you? How long did it take you to get to 130kg and from which level did you start? Was that progress linear? What about your weight and fat - have they changed? Have you often got injuries? Thanks in advance! I really admire your achievements!

I'm 36, I started with literally nothing (like I'm also VERY risk averse in terms of deadlifting and also I'm naturally quite strong so I'm probably covering up some bad technique. I think this thread has made me think I'll get a coach to make sure everything is working correctly.

Re: Preventing Muscle Loss as We Age

#313

Post by agumonkey »

madeuptempacct wrote: post #3

More interested in preventing this: http://social-quotient.info/sq.4mg.com/brainpower.gif Much less clear on how accomplish that. Edit: To elaborate, I know exactly what I need to do to stay physically fit into old age and how to monitor my physical fitness - I know immediately when I get winded more from my regular run, my lift numbers drop, or I can't reach my toes. The scary part is if I stop working out for more…

My only theory is that you need to

1) find foreign things to do to stimulate your brain in non known ways

2) possibly pleasurable/happy things (shared games/challenges with people you like or care about)

3) do them slowly~ enough to be aware of when you're reaching your limits and then keep at that level to not overload your system.

After I partially lost control of my left hand fingers, I could clearly sense when a movement was triggering jitter or finger locks. If I tried playing around that movement again, I could feel my brain clogging just a little, it's was almost a mind tickle. I have zero proof that it made things better, beside a belief in that challenging your brain/muscle system is how we learned skills when we were born. I think newborn have the structure to get a lot of reward out of sensing their body or the world. So I just try to re-apply that strategy.

Re: Preventing Muscle Loss as We Age

#314

Post by ropable »

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #122
andy_ppp wrote: post #48

I can't recommend StrongLifts enough. https://stronglifts.com I'm up to squatting 130kg now and feeling great!

Starting Strength is another excellent program to follow and if you pick up the book it features an exhaustive description of the bio-mechanics involved in each lift (which you can skip if you just want the charts).

Agreed that it's an excellent novice program for strength training. They place a lot of emphasis on lifting with good form and proper technique. I feel that it's only effective for 3-4 months, but it can a build a solid foundation of strength for just about anyone.

Re: Preventing Muscle Loss as We Age

#315

Post by scarface74 »

bonesss wrote: post #308
scarface74 wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Balding and grey hair show I'm not in my 20s ;) I’m in my mid 40s also. I have a simple solution for that. When I’m interviewing, I’m completely clean shaven - head and all. Luckily, seeing a Black guy with a bald head by choice is not unusual. As far as working out everyday, I can’t do it. It’s just not in me. I need down time. I work out hard for about 150 minutes 3 days a week. According to the machines I’m burnin…

Bro... 150 minutes, 3 times a week? You're alreday on the G.D. ironman regime, using extra time, and doing it in a grueling fashion aimed at leaving you depleted, too. No wonder you don't have daily time! I don't know what your goals are, but: getting slim is 95% diet... Sourcing calories from diet is almost always cheaper than on a treadmill. Seriously. Generally slow and steady is the way to get it done, too much t…

It’s not a grind. It’s mostly resistance training that I do at home while just catching up on TV, listening to podcasts, or watching tutorial videos. It’s really relaxing.

Also, that’s a reduction from what I use to do. In another life I was a part time fitness instructor and between classes, training for runs, and my own weight workouts, I was exercising more than 10 hours a week.

You’re right. When people use to ask me how to lose weight, I would tell them it’s mostly diet. But I know myself. I’ve never been consistent about my diet but I like to exercise. I never cared about slim. Three days a week gives me the other four days to relax.

Re: Preventing Muscle Loss as We Age

#316

Post by ropable »

gthtjtkt wrote: post #244
cheald wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stronglifts (and other beginner LP programs) start the lifter at trivial weights, and by the time you reach weights that have the potential for injury, you have hundreds or even thousands of reps under your belt. The motion is practiced, the form is good, and you know how to move that weight. Squats can be started entirely unweighted. Bench can be started with dumbbells if you can't trivially handle a barbell. The mo…

> 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,…

If I can coach my 68-year-old mother up to a 45 kg squat with barbell (to say nothing of a dozen other clients; she's not even the oldest one), I'm pretty confident that I can coach anyone. I'm quite confident about recommending strength training using free weights as being lower-risk than most other fitness activities, including cycling, running and yoga.

Re: Preventing Muscle Loss as We Age

#317

Post by madeuptempacct »

randcraw wrote: post #206
madeuptempacct wrote: post #3

More interested in preventing this: http://social-quotient.info/sq.4mg.com/brainpower.gif Much less clear on how accomplish that. Edit: To elaborate, I know exactly what I need to do to stay physically fit into old age and how to monitor my physical fitness - I know immediately when I get winded more from my regular run, my lift numbers drop, or I can't reach my toes. The scary part is if I stop working out for more…

AFAIK nobody has a clear idea of which cognitive abilities degenerate due to normal ageing AND respond to exercise (other than N-Back helping short term memory, perhaps). I'd start by looking at the standard components of cognition. Start with the sub-metrics in the Wechsler IQ test. See what specific mental skills you might want to maintain or improve. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wechsler_Adult_Intelligence_Sc...…

If you are interested, google "gwern dual n-back", there is a lot of info there. In the end, it seems a lot of people disagree with Jaeggi that n-back training carries over to iq, which is unfortunate. Still, cool post.

Re: Preventing Muscle Loss as We Age

#318

Post by npongratz »

lifting_throw wrote: post #150
matwood wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people have no idea I'm 41, and instead think I'm in my 30s. Balding and grey hair show I'm not in my 20s ;) My 'secret' is I workout every single day . I might do heavy weight training, sled pushing, surfing, or a spin class. It doesn't matter as long as I do something physically challenging. I also follow an 80/20 rule on eating paleo-ish. Mainly I try to avoid processed foods, but I'll still eat a pizza or go…

Some folks are able to lift heavy weights frequently, and that's awesome. I'm jealous. But here's a comment directed at people who've tried that and hurt themselves. For years I tried to lift heavy. Big compound barbell lifts. In my early 20s it was OK, but by 30 I started hurting myself. I always warmed up fully, but kept tearing things. I tried eating more, eating better, more recovery, everything I could think of.…

I'm quantitatively motivated, and almost never have access to a spotter, so I usually get my 1RM "fix" by calculating/extrapolating by using a lower weight and counting number of reps until near-failure.

Something like this helps: https://exrx.net/Calculators/OneRepMax

Re: Preventing Muscle Loss as We Age

#319

Post by SketchySeaBeast »

gthtjtkt wrote: post #285
SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #258

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.…

You're wrong on literally every point -- especially bar placement and stance width -- and I don't buy into your false dichotomy about "living in fear". It's a simple matter of risk vs. reward. Squats are complex and high-risk. If you can achieve the same results with simpler, safer exercises, it would be stupid not to.

I believe you and I differ on what we consider the results of a squat. And I'm impressed that you can dismiss my points so quickly and not even put in the effort to try and enlighten me. Who knows, maybe I'll come around to your line of thinking if you put more than "squats bad, simple exercises better" on the page?

Re: Preventing Muscle Loss as We Age

#320

Post by SketchySeaBeast »

ropable wrote: post #314
SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Starting Strength is another excellent program to follow and if you pick up the book it features an exhaustive description of the bio-mechanics involved in each lift (which you can skip if you just want the charts).

Agreed that it's an excellent novice program for strength training. They place a lot of emphasis on lifting with good form and proper technique. I feel that it's only effective for 3-4 months, but it can a build a solid foundation of strength for just about anyone.

Yeah - if you start as a New Year's resolution you're running that puppy out by the time the snow melts, but it is simple and fast enough to be rewarding with long, punishing hours in the gym, and by the time you've run the program out you should see enough gains that you have the urge to move onto an intermediate program.
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