As we age, should we really be training less... or is that just a myth? In this episode, Kevin explores the science behind anabolic resistance, the age-related loss of muscle mass, and how older trainees can combat it through smart nutrition and resistance training.
As we age, should we really be training less... or is that just a myth? In this episode, Kevin explores the science behind anabolic resistance, the age-related loss of muscle mass, and how older trainees can combat it through smart nutrition and resistance training.
Get-Fit Guy is hosted by Kevin Don. A transcript is available at Simplecast.
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Hello listeners, I hope everyone is doing well this week. This week I am going to address the issue of older trainees and this idea that at we age, we should be doing less or should be doing things with less intensity to loading. Is there any truth to this? Should I be thinking now about a future with velcro tennis shoes and that hand bike thing at the gym?
The first thing to note here is that, as we get older, we do suffer from age related loss of muscle mass. I have spoken about this before. It’s called sarcopenia, which my biggest detractors will call a gratuitous use of Latin because I love making out I’m real smart. Well, fooled you, because its actually a Greek word. It means ‘death of the flesh’. The same prefix is in ‘sarcophagus’. As we age, we become ‘anabolically resistant’. Anabolic is muscle building, the opposite is catabolic. Anabolic resistance comes about due to a decreased response to stimuli like exercise and protein consumption. This decreased response leads to sarcopenia, which displays itself in ways such as decreased strength, balance problems, decreased mobility and an increase of a risk of ‘having a fall’.
So, why does this happen? Why do older people become metabolically resistant or resistant to muscle building?
Well, first of all, there is an event that occurs when we ingest protein. Its called myofibrillar protein synthesis. This is way too complex for a 10 minute podcast and I also don't think its particularly interesting to everyone at a deep level, so in the interests of keeping it light…some types of amino acids, when consumed trigger a metabolic process that builds muscle mass. This is important to repair muscle damage from exercise. I saysome types of amino acids because when we consume protein from different sources, whether they be plant or animal based, they contain different amino acids in varying amounts. The amino acid which we are looking at for muscle protein synthesis is called leucine. High leucine content is good. Anyway, as usual I am distressing from the original question I posed: why does anabolic resistance happen? Basically as we age we become less responsive to nutrient intake, including amino acids. So, when we continue ingesting the same levels of nutrition, we respond in a lower manner than we did when we were younger. This is made more complicated because due to a range of factors including diminishing sense of smell and taste, older people tend to eat less food anyway.
The next reason is a decreased response to resistance training. Again, this is way too complex for me to cover in 10 minutes, but there are lots of reasons such as decreasing levels of testosterone and growth hormone as we age, changes in sleep patterns, changes in heart function and vascular function and as already mentioned, decreased response to amino acid intake and therefore, lower levels of muscle protein synthesis.
So what can we do about this? Well, when cultural stereotypes, TV shows and even our loved ones tell us we need to slow down, eat less food, eat less meat (please don’t email me about the ethics of veganism) or even to ‘act our age’, its little surprise it can be hard to push back. I saw this in my own family. My father was a champion powerlifter, with a 310kg deadlift, a 285kg squat and a 210kg bench press, with a personal best total of 800kg, or 1760lbs. He is 78 this year and about a decade ago, his wife put him on ‘slimmers world’ ready meals. Apparently she watched a documentary and fat and protein are bad for you. Now, I get that the intentions here were good. But there is no way I would take an aging person, put them on a diet of frozen ready meals, with low fat and low protein. Fat is required to make hormones. Protein is required to make muscle. Calories are required to maintain body weight. It was all insane to me and whilst I can’t draw anything more that inductive inference from it, I have to say that his health nosedived in the last 10 years, everything from total absence of memory at points, to confusion and yup, having several falls. Age aside, how on earth does a man that could squat over 600lbs manage to fall up a set of steps, not be able to stop himself and end up in hospital. Not once, but 3 times in the last couple of years? The same man told me a couple of years ago to stop training before I ‘hurt myself’. This is a problem because its culturally ingrained that we need to slow down. Not all cultures are equal though.
Every morning, when I lived in Hong Kong, I got up early, about 0530am to head to the gym to coach the 6am class. On the way there, the small neighbourhood parks were full of locals in their 70’s, 80’s and 90’s doing exercise. Taichi mainly, but also hanging on pull up bars, doing ab work and so on. I’ll say that again: every morning there were local people in their 90’s at 0530am out as a group doing tai chi and pull ups in the park. Now, a quick google search of life expectancy by country tells me Hong Kong has the longest life expectancy globally, Japan, South Korea round out the top 3. All places I have lived and the theme is the same: elderly residents out as a group in the mornings doing tai chi, karate and physical training. The average life expectancy in Hong Kong is 85.7 and in the United States, it is 79.6. Again, it would be inductive inference for me to make any claims about this, but I will let you make your own inferences there.
So, anabolic resistance is a real thing. It is also a bad thing. Once we can get over the cultural mentality that might be limiting our beliefs about training and ageing, what can we do to attack this?
First of all, its like anything else, you train for it. Lets say that I had ‘auditory resistance’ and this meant my ability to hear music or hear the television was diminished. What would you say to me if I said I can’t hear the tv? The chances are you would say to turn it up. In other words, the dose of sound waves would increase. So, what should I do if I am resistant to amino acids and show a blunted response to them? Yup, turn them up. I need to INCREASE my protein intake, not decrease it because I am older. I might have to eat more often if I can’t get in a big meal anymore, but I need to increase the intake to create the same dose response I had when I was younger. I would specifically focus on protein intake rich in leucine, since that has the biggest impact on muscle protein synthesis. Beef has about 2900mg of leucine per 100g, chicken has 2000mg per 100g and things like eggs have less than half that at 1000mg and beans come in at about 600mg. So, yes, you can get leucine in on a plant based diet, but since older people do struggle with portion sizes, its perhaps better to stick to the higher end of the table.
The same goes for training. Again, if we view training like we would any medical intervention, which in the case of sarcopenia, it is, because it is agreed universally that resistance training is the best intervention for age related muscle wastage, then we need to think about dose response. If you go to the doctor and are put on medication and over time it stops working, the first thing the doctor does is…INCREASE THE DOSE. They don't change the medication. They know it works. No, the first line response is dose increase. You may get a great dose response from squatting sets of 3 once a week when you are 21, but at 61 you might be doing sets of 8-10 twice or 3 times a week to get the same dose response. Which should be easy to do, it’s my understanding many older people have retired, so time may be less of an issue.
So, thats it this week. Anabolic resistance will come to us all, but the data tells us that older trainees CAN overcome this and build muscle mass, critical to longevity. The key to doing this is looking at the dose response from amino acids and training and upping the dose of both.
I hope everyone has a great week and if you want to send me an email, then please do so on getfitguy@quickanddirtytips.com.
Get-Fit Guy is a Quick and Dirty Tips podcast. Thanks to the team at Quick and Dirty Tips Morgan Christianson, Holly Hutchings, the director of podcasts Brennan Goetschius and Davina Tomlin I’m your host, Kevin Don. If you have a question for me, leave me a voicemail at 510-353-3104 or send me an email at getfitguy@quickanddirtytips.com. For more information about the show, visit quickanddirtytips.com, or check out the shownotes in your podcast app