{"id":32835,"date":"2014-10-07T17:15:14","date_gmt":"2014-10-07T21:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/?p=32835"},"modified":"2021-05-14T09:17:51","modified_gmt":"2021-05-14T13:17:51","slug":"strength-training-aging-study-100714","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/fitness\/strength-training-aging-study-100714\/","title":{"rendered":"Strength Training May Help Keep You Young"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Strength
Photo: Pond5<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Spending time pumping weights<\/a> in the gym and sipping on protein shakes<\/a> may pay off in a big way as you age.<\/p>\n

A new review of studies in the journal Age and Ageing<\/a> pinpoints building muscle<\/a> and eating lots of protein<\/a> as the best ways to fend off sarcopenia \u2014 a syndrome that causes people to lose muscle mass and strength in their later years. The review compiled 13-years worth of published research on sarcopenia interventions in adults 50 and older, to help scientists get a better grasp on how to prevent and treat the disease.<\/p>\n

On average, adults begin losing eight percent of their muscle per decade starting at age 40.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Think sarcopenia couldn\u2019t happen to you? It isn\u2019t a rare condition: One in three people over age 50 suffers from it. And on average, adults begin losing eight percent of their muscle per decade starting at age 40, according to researchers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sneaky part of this syndrome is that you really don\u2019t notice it until it comes to a point where you\u2019re so functionally impaired that it\u2019s hard for you to get out of your chair, or you slip and fall,\u201d says study author Jeffrey Stout, PhD, a professor in the department of educational and human sciences at the University of Central Florida. \u201c\u2026It\u2019s like with adult-onset obesity. We often don\u2019t think we\u2019re getting overweight until we look in the mirror and go, \u2018Oh my god, what happened.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

The good news is that researchers found two simple things \u2014 getting stronger and increasing your protein intake \u2014 can improve your quality of life for decades to come.<\/p>\n

RELATED:<\/b> 5 Beginner-Friendly CrossFit Workouts<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cResistance exercise is the single best stimulator for maintaining muscle function, strength and size, whether you\u2019re a young athlete, a pro athlete or an 80-year-old woman,\u201d Stout says. By contracting your muscles, weight lifting signals to your body that the muscles need to recover and then rebuild to be bigger and stronger, to be prepared for future stressors.<\/p>\n

Another key factor for a long, healthy life: Keeping up your protein consumption. As people age, they often develop digestive issues that make it difficult to consume enough protein from sources rich in it like meat. But turning to protein powders<\/a>, or other supplements<\/a>, can help, according to Stout.<\/p>\n

RELATED:<\/b> 13 Dessert-Inspired Protein Shake Recipes<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are studies looking at protein intake [in relation to] rate of muscle loss, and if you\u2019re getting adequate protein in your diet, the rate at which you lose muscle is much smaller,\u201d Stout says.<\/p>\n

Stout acknowledges that it\u2019s difficult to get people into the gym to lift weights<\/a>, especially if they\u2019ve never done it before. But he recommends working with a trainer or program<\/a>, and starting with simple body weight exercises before moving on to dumbbells or performing multi-joint moves, such as deadlifts. Multi-joint moves will not only improve muscle mass, but can help strengthen the skeleton, which also gets less dense with age, according to Stout.<\/p>\n

By adopting a weight lifting routine and protein-filled diet<\/a> early in life, Stout says a person\u2019s decline in muscle and strength will be much less pronounced as they age.  <\/p>\n

\u201cA recent study shows muscle mass is the single best predictor of mortality \u2014 the more muscle mass you have, the better your life is going to be [as you age],\u201d Stout says.<\/p>\n

Intrigued? Start building muscle and strength today with DailyBurn\u2019s new <\/i>Live to Fail<\/i><\/a> strength training program. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New research shows that strength training and eating a protein-rich diet may keep you feeling younger, longer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":32838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,6,14],"tags":[251,80,281,341,353],"class_list":["post-32835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exercise","category-fitness","category-strength-training","tag-news","tag-protein","tag-strength-training","tag-tax1living-well","tag-tax2weight-training"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}