Building Muscle as You Age

Is it still possible to build muscle as you age? The answer is simple: yes. Will it be a bit more difficult? Also, yes. But there are easy ways to stay strong or become strong once you reach your 40’s.

It’s common to experience muscle loss – or sarcopenia – as you age. This means that the amount of muscle you currently have will decrease annually or at a quicker pace if nothing is done to maintain muscle.

Now, don’t let this discourage you because I’m here to help and make sure your training is focused on longevity and improving health for as long as possible. 

How does the body change after 30?

Studies show that once you reach the age of around 30 you will start to see muscle loss (sarcopenia). Physical therapist Dr. Karena Wu says sarcopenia is a normal cellular change, so maintenance is crucial during this time. If you don’t continue to train you will naturally get weaker as you lose muscle and become more prone to injury.

Hormone levels play an important role in your body changes. For men, their bodies produce less and less testosterone, which is correlated to a decrease in muscle mass. For women, their start point in testosterone is already lower than men, and as women get older and go through menopause building muscle becomes harder due to these hormonal changes.

The good news is there are always ways to get around our body’s natural changes.

What you can do to build and maintain muscle?

Building muscle as you age is still possible, and actually, it’s a crucial aspect of how you should train as you age. The reality is we should be more focused on building muscle as we get older than when we were younger

It might take a bit more time, and you can’t compare your body to that of a 20-year-old. It’s much easier to see rapid changes in your body when you are younger,  so adjusting your expectation levels is important.

Depending on your body, you can lose 0.4-1 pound of muscle per year on average. Being physically active is key yoga, climbing, hiking etc will all place tension on the body and help with building muscle. However, it’s hard to constantly progress these activities with the goal of building muscle and at that point resistance training becomes the next step. If you’re the type of person that remains sedentary then you need to start moving and do some sort of resistance training program.

Understanding that mechanical tension and overload are the key principles of building muscle. First you need to place tension through a muscle, ideally through a full range of motion. Most of the main movements we train in strength training are broken down into these foundational patterns. You need to make sure you are placing workload through each of them:

1. Squat – think goblet squat or split squat
2. Hinge – think deadlift of glute bridge
3. Lunge – reverse or forward
4. Push – this is things like push ups and dips
5. Pull – are really important, things like pull ups and body weight rows
6. Carry –  farmers carries, suitcase carries  etc

With this, you will know that you are hitting all the main muscle groups in the body. The next key principle is overload. Overload is single-handedly the most important aspect of strength training. By gradually increasing the work you do on each of these foundational patterns you are creating a stimulus that your body needs to adapt to. One of the adaptations the body will have to do is lay down new or stronger muscles/tissue.

According to research conducted at the University of Michigan, it’s possible for an adult to add 2.42 pounds of muscle over the period of 18-20 weeks. It’s important to remember that building muscle is a slow process and its okay to take your time and not put to much pressure on yourself.

There are a few classic errors that people make when going about training to build muscle.

1. Constantly changing the workout/exercises – I appreciate that it’s important to keep exercise interesting but if you are changing your workout all the time it’s hard to know if you are creating overload or simply establishing if the weight is correct. It will take 3-5 weeks to get the correct load so changing everything every 4 weeks is going to slow/stop your progress
2. Choosing big exercises that crush their bodies (and not in a good way) – big lifts like back squats, deadlifts and bench press are all over social media and they have a shelf life. There’s a risk vs reward to anything you do and the big lifts end up tipping the balance more towards the risk end.
3. Training at high rep ranges for toning – toning isn’t really a thing, it’s a marketing term. To look more “toned” you need to build muscle and lose body fat, it’s as simple as that. There are no specific exercises or rep ranges that tone you up. Overload is key, you can do that at 5, 10, 15 or 20 reps but the reality is if you are doing 15-20 reps are you overloading the muscle or are you simply running out of gas to keep going. Its much easier to get the load selection correct for a slightly lower rep range 6-12 reps for example than it is for 12+.
4. Focussing in on the goal of building muscle rather than the performance goals of getting stronger – as already mentioned building muscle is slow and also very hard to measure. Photos & bio-impedance scales are commonly used as ways to measure progress. Not only are these inaccurate but seeing as muscle gain is going to be across your whole body its hard to see much change in a short timeframe and people can get disheartened. Whereas getting stronger is totally in your control and you will see these changes instantly (as long as you are consistently training).

Overload is the next most important factor. You need to start lifting more reps, more load, more sets with better form and more control of your body. There are lots of ways to progress and overload. Overload sounds a bit scary sometimes but its crucial. If you do something slightly more challenging every other week or so the body will internally adapt to make sure the next time it encounters that stressor it can do it again with ease. In that process the body will lay down new muscle tissue, improve blood flow, store more energy in the muscle it will even improve the nerve signalling from your brain to the trained muscle. There are lots of adaptations that occur way beyond what you can see.

Training for longevity is key, overload needs to be slow. Workouts don’t need to be crushing you they need to be slightly harder than the last and progressed slowly so you body can adapt. You might get a little sore in the process but getting very sore means your over did the sessions and either did too many new exercises or you progressed the load or volume (reps x sets) too quickly.

The industries obsession with “do more”, “leaving nothing on the table”, with brutal workouts is flawed at every level. Tension and slow progression is the key to progress. Crushing workouts might be good to sell a product but gradual progression will get you the results you want and spare your joints in the process.

If you need help with your programming check out my 18-week foundations programme or to work with me directly online fill in the application form here.