Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Preventing Muscle Loss as We Age

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 334 posts

Re: Preventing Muscle Loss as We Age

#41

Post by rrishi »

ekianjo wrote: post #31
davemp wrote: post #11

Am I missing something or is the article just giving a name to very generic muscle loss and saying that one can workout and get enough protein to combat it? I hate to be overly critical, but these types of articles published by the likes of nytimes just make digesting news more difficult. Puff pieces honestly subtract value from my life. I with more news vendors would think about the value they provide in the interne…

Agree. I see also way too many NYtimes articles on HN recently. What happened to the adage that "if its on the popular media, it should probably not be on HN". Is HN turning into the comment system of the NYT?

> "if its on the popular media, it should probably not be on HN"

Why though? Can't say for all but a majority of articles on popular media would be mostly right...that's why they are popular. As things go more fringe, there is less verification.

Re: Preventing Muscle Loss as We Age

#42

Post by rohunati »

matwood wrote: post #33
lysp wrote: post #14

I always like to show this picture as an example. https://i.imgur.com/ZcDedfo.jpg I don't have an original source but it shows a MRI leg scan comparison between a 40yo triathlete, a sedentary 70yo and a 70yo triathlete. The picture tells the story...

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…

Curious about your breakdown between heavy lifting vs. cardio. I find that I can't do more than 4x/week of heavy lifting, so I've been trying to run (or something else) on the remaining 3 days.

Re: Preventing Muscle Loss as We Age

#43

Post by oihoaihsfoiahsf »

SnowingXIV wrote: post #21
zaroth wrote: post #8

Ctrl-F Testosterone - was disappoint. For approximately half of the population, supplementing testosterone into old age is a great way to maintain (and build) SMM along with that physical activity which TFA admonishes the lack of.

I was too, basically the article is saying to lift. Which I do agree with but if you're suggesting TRT (testosterone replacement therapy), something that has definitely become popular and is being advertised heavily - I'd caution that it's not for everyone and there have been plenty of lawsuits filed already and problems allegedly associated with it. I guess like everything, check with your doctor which the article d…

It's true that Arnold is quite a specimen. And on Reddit there was recently a video of a ninety year old man deadlifting 400lb. https://www.facebook.com/SPORTbible/videos/1131499677007260/ He doesn't quite get the full range of motion but it's still damnably impressive.

Re: Preventing Muscle Loss as We Age

#44

Post by amelius »

lysp wrote: post #14

I always like to show this picture as an example. https://i.imgur.com/ZcDedfo.jpg I don't have an original source but it shows a MRI leg scan comparison between a 40yo triathlete, a sedentary 70yo and a 70yo triathlete. The picture tells the story...

You should also show the brain scans of the triathlete versus a sedentary computer programmer.

Re: Preventing Muscle Loss as We Age

#45

Post by [deleted] »

ekianjo wrote: post #31
davemp wrote: post #11

Am I missing something or is the article just giving a name to very generic muscle loss and saying that one can workout and get enough protein to combat it? I hate to be overly critical, but these types of articles published by the likes of nytimes just make digesting news more difficult. Puff pieces honestly subtract value from my life. I with more news vendors would think about the value they provide in the interne…

Agree. I see also way too many NYtimes articles on HN recently. What happened to the adage that "if its on the popular media, it should probably not be on HN". Is HN turning into the comment system of the NYT?

[deleted]

Re: Preventing Muscle Loss as We Age

#47

Post by amelius »

lysp wrote: post #14

I always like to show this picture as an example. https://i.imgur.com/ZcDedfo.jpg I don't have an original source but it shows a MRI leg scan comparison between a 40yo triathlete, a sedentary 70yo and a 70yo triathlete. The picture tells the story...

Can be summarized as "use it or lose it".

Re: Preventing Muscle Loss as We Age

#49

Post by stochastic_monk »

matwood wrote: post #33
lysp wrote: post #14

I always like to show this picture as an example. https://i.imgur.com/ZcDedfo.jpg I don't have an original source but it shows a MRI leg scan comparison between a 40yo triathlete, a sedentary 70yo and a 70yo triathlete. The picture tells the story...

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…

I don’t do paleo or low carb or any fancy diet besides eating plenty of protein and calories.

The key for me is regular, heavy strength training. I exercise 3-6 days a week, all compound lifts, at high weight/moderate (3-7) reps.

More than just managing my physique, I find it immensely helpful for my mental health and general well-being.

I’m not the biggest or most shredded guy in the gym, but the focus on strength keeps me from obsessing with aesthetics, while everyone who knows me has still noticed the changes to my physique.

My point in all this is that exercise and sufficient calories is more important than following a specific diet, and that it’s been a solution in multiple dimensions of my life. I heartily recommend it to all my friends.

Re: Preventing Muscle Loss as We Age

#50

Post by wjnc »

rerx wrote: post #29
lysp wrote: post #14

I always like to show this picture as an example. https://i.imgur.com/ZcDedfo.jpg I don't have an original source but it shows a MRI leg scan comparison between a 40yo triathlete, a sedentary 70yo and a 70yo triathlete. The picture tells the story...

The picture is taken from this study: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3810/psm.2011.09.1933 (use Sci-Hub if you do not belong to an institution paying for access)

The fallacy in this article is as follows:

(quote) "A cross-section of 40 high-level recreational athletes (“masters athletes”) who were aged 40 to 81 years and trained 4 to 5 times per week underwent tests of health/activity, body composition, quadriceps peak torque (PT), and magnetic resonance imaging of bilateral quadriceps."

The 81 yr old that trains 4-5x (!) a week is a lot more special than the 40 yr old (that's my hypothesis at least). Thus any regression is spurious, since we are sampling from different quantiles! So you don't know anything about the correlation with age.

I'm not disputing that training 4-5x a week keeps muscles strong and the body lean, but it's hardly prescriptive. It's like winning the lottery will make you richer when you retire.

I've tried to reach the authors about this when the article came out, but alas. A letter to the editor in a to me unknown journal seemed not the best use of my time. I've even got code demonstrating the fallacy with quantile regression ;)

Post reply on HN