Unfortunately much of what are told to do
(which appears to be the easiest things) is ineffective for preventing or reversing Sarcopenia.
Things like:
-no resistance chair exercises
-walking
-light swimming or group aquafit
-light weight circuit training
The above has health value, just not for treating muscle loss (sarcopenia).
Now that we know...
WHAT do we do?
First we need to further understand more about muscle loss:
- With age changes in skeletal muscle fiber type and size occur with a decrease of Type 2 (fast twitch) and fat tissue infiltration into the muscle (Walston, 2012)
- After the age of 30, adults begin to lose 3-8% of their muscle mass every decade which results in a loss of muscle strength and power in addition to reduced mass (English & Paddon-Jones, 2012).
- Up to 50% of muscle mass can be lost by the 8th decade (Walston, 2012)
Muscle weakness is:
...consistently reported as an independent risk factor for high mortality in older adults
...the most important cause of functional decline and loss of independence in older adults (Walston, 2012)
...associated with impaired mobility and an increased risk of accidental falls and disability resulting in a decreased quality of life (Deschenes, 2004; Wong, 2016
...VERY Treatable!
The pictures to the right are of a 60yr old women and
an 80 yr old woman's muscle fiber. It shows the increase in fat, and decrease in muscle, with age. Also, the graph to the right charts the neurological decline in the muscle fibers which is significant over an aging lifetime.
The Key is: with Age specific Neuro-Resistance Training we can offer an effective countermeasure to this decline !