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Myth busting: does strength training really reduce mobility?
by Claudio Viecelli
You lose muscle as you get older – but only if you don’t do anything about it
23.2.2024
Translation: Megan Cornish
We age with every second that passes. You aged five seconds as you read that. As we age, we inevitably lose strength and muscle mass. But is the ageing process really responsible for this decline?
From the fifth decade of life onwards, we lose muscle mass [1] and gain fatty tissue around our stomachs [2]. This is very detrimental to our health as it can lead to sarcopenia (age-associated muscle loss) frailty, falls and metabolic diseases.
Regular exercise protects muscle mass
In older people, it was found that sprint athletes also had more muscle mass than their peers in the control group (P < 0.001). However, in contrast to young endurance athletes, older endurance athletes have significantly more muscle mass than participants of the same age in the control group (P < 0.05).
People with muscle mass in their extremities below the limit of 20 kg [4] came mainly from the older control group and accounted for 16% of participants. In the athlete groups, only two older endurance athletes (3%) and one strength athlete (2%) were below this limit.
Fat mass
Sarcopenic obesity
Across the young groups, only one person – from the control group – had less than 20 kg of muscle mass and more than 25% fat mass. In the older group, there were two endurance athletes, one strength athlete and 18 control subjects.
In contrast to endurance athletes and the control group, strength athletes have more muscle mass, while fat mass was not significantly different in the strength athletes compared to the control group (P > 0.05). However, endurance and sprint athletes had lower fat mass than the control participants (P < 0.05). The prevalence of low muscle mass below the threshold, obesity and sarcopenic obesity was highest in the older control group.
Age isn’t to blame
Sport and/or strength training protects and maintains muscles. So, it’s not age, per se, but the sluggishness and inactivity associated with age that primarily contribute to the loss of muscle mass and strength. So, it’s worth taking care of your muscles. That’s what lets you interact with your environment and do the things you love, be it jogging, weight training, skiing, climbing, mountain biking, etc.
I call this period of time based on the health span the performance span. It’s the time that you can actively spend doing the activities you love. It’s important that exercise and especially strength training are part of everyday life, just like brushing your teeth. It’s never too late to start, and it’s never a bad idea to invest time in something that will pay off as you get older.
Header image: shutterstock
Molecular and Muscular Biologist. Researcher at ETH Zurich. Strength athlete.
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