Why is muscle so important?

Hallelujah! We are finally seeing the light and understanding that muscle is vital as we age. 

As a society, we have been so obsessed with obesity and being over-fat that we have neglected the one organ that can make an enormous difference to our longevity, muscle.

The biggest problem we are facing is not that we are over-fat, it is that we are under-muscled. 

Muscle is an active organ. The healthier the muscle, the greater survivability you have, and I for one want to be functionally independent as I age. 

Society pushes into our faces that aging is a bad thing. Anti-aging creams, take this supplement to help anti-aging. I am 100% for Pro-aging because last time I checked, you can’t stop aging but you can do it bloody well.

Pro-aging is about surviving and thriving. Pro-aging is about having muscle. We improve our muscle mass, we improve our balance, we have good bone density and all diseases such as Cancer, Cardiovascular disease, dementia, diabetes can be improved on by being fitter and having improved muscle quality. 

How do we build muscle in the peri-menopause/menopause years?

Building muscle is about creating a stimulus. There are multiple ways to stimulate muscle tissue but none of them are easy (sorry!). To create stimulus you need to lift heavier than you have before. You need to do multiple joint movements, such as squats, deadlifts, rows over doing single joint movements such as bicep curls or tricep pulldowns. That’s not to say these isolated exercises don’t do something, it’s just that they don’t do enough. Big bangs for our bucks ladies. 

If you are reading this and it all seems too much, remember something is better than nothing and everyone is at different stages. 

A training stimulus for one person might be sitting to stand on a chair, while for someone else it might be adding another 10 kg to their squat at the gym. Don’t compare yourself to anyone else as they are 100% on their own journey. 

Our body needs challenges at this stage of life, so if you are sitting back and telling yourself; “I’m getting older, I don’t need to do things to stress out my muscles. I don’t need to change my nutrition.” Well I don’t want to say you are wrong but I do want to say you need to build up your body armor now so you can live a functionally independent life in another 20 years. So that was saying you are wrong but in a nicer way right?

Another question I was asked was: “Is walking enough?”

No, it’s not but if that’s the only movement you can do then go for it and go hard!  Walking is great for health, both your physical and mental health but I don’t consider walking as training. It is 100% beneficial for moving your body and if you work in an office and the only option is to go out for a lunchtime walk then absolutely get your butt out the door but we need more in our 40+ years. 

So what do we need to do?

Lift some weights. Do some HIIT. We need to induce adaptation. 

The cool thing about this is though, as I’ve said before everyone is at different stages so lifting weights might consist of lifting two water bottles above your head multiple times in the garage, or it could consist of getting under a bar at the gym and doing the same thing but with a heavier load. 

It may be sitting to standing has your legs shaking after doing it 10 times or it might be grabbing a heavy kettlebell and seeing how low you can goblet squat will challenge you. It doesn’t matter as long as you are challenging your muscular system to adapt. 

HIIT (high-intensity interval training) is the same. You don’t have to do a million burpees (and who wants to do that anyway?!?). You can do something as fast and as hard as you can for 20 seconds then rest for anywhere from a measly 20 secs (ouchy) to a few minutes. The key is to go as hard as you can when you are working. 

There are heaps of ways we can fit movement into our weekly schedules. If you are new to this then start small, your strength training could be doing squats when you brush your teeth and your HIIT could be doing step-ups on a wee step as fast as you can for 20 seconds. 

Remember adaptation is the key. Do the hard things. You’ve got this!

Lynne x