High performance athletes are always looking for an edge that can help them beat their competition. They try better training techniques, better diets, better supplements, better sleep habits, and some have even resorted to illegal and dangerous drugs. All in an attempt to run faster, jump higher, or be stronger than their competitor.

However, there is one supplement that is not a drug, is not a steroid, is not a vitamin, is totally safe, and has been proven to be highly effective at improving high intensity exercise and building muscle.

It’s called creatine monohydrate (I’ll refer to it as just “creatine” in the rest of this article). 

Here’s another great thing about creatine. Researchers have now found that creatine might have a significant beneficial use in improving the health of older people. The current research literature shows that creatine will significantly improve muscle mass and strength in men and women greater than 50 years old. 

I’m 65 years old, and if you tell me that there’s a totally safe, relatively inexpensive supplement that will allow me to run faster, jump higher, or be stronger, well then, I’m all in for that.

There is one caveat though. It only works if you engage in strength training.

(Please note that links to products in this article are affiliate links which means I’ll earn a small commission if you buy through the link with no extra cost to you. Thank you!)

What, you don’t strength train?

Me: Oh, you don’t engage in strength training?

You: No, but I’m thinking about it.

Me: How old are you?

You: 51

Me: Do you know that if you’re over the age of 35, you’ll lose about  3% – 5% of muscle every decade? Even worse, you could lose 4% of your strength per year.

Here’s the danger. Muscle is the organ of longevity. Without good muscle, your odds of early frailty and the chronic diseases of aging increase greatly.

Okay, enough of that. You can read my recent posts on why EVERYONE, unless your doctor says you can’t, should be doing some kind of resistance training to build up good muscle.

Photo by Gursimrat Ganda on Unsplash

If you are building muscle by doing some kind of resistance training, then creatine is going to take your muscle and health to the next level. 

In this post, I’ll briefly relate my experience with creatine, tell you what it is, how it works, give you the evidence supporting its efficacy, tell you how to take it, and then present some common misconceptions. 

My experience with creatine

I’m 65 years old, and I’ve been strength training for 7.5 years. When I started training, I had recovered about 90% from a 25-year struggle with severe chronic fatigue syndrome. Needless to say I was a weak 57-year-old.

I did do some training when I was in my late twenties, but I was never considered a naturally strong person. I was what some people would call a hard gainer.

About four months ago, I started to supplement with creatine. Since then, I have set personal bests in the overhead press and bench press. My deadlifts are also getting to where they were a few years ago, albeit I was younger then and at a heavier body weight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by John Bianchi DPM (@johnbianchi56)

I’m literally getting stronger at 65 years old!!!

My own experimentation with creatine has found the hype to be true. I have gotten stronger, which means I can jump higher and run faster if I wanted to. 

What is creatine monohydrate?

Creatine is a compound synthesized from three amino acids: arginine, glycine, and methionine. Your body naturally produces creatine, and it is formed in the liver and kidneys.

The building blocks for creatine come mainly from beef, pork, and fish consumed in your diet. Your body produces about 2 grams of creatine per day. Since creatine is used up by your body everyday, you have to continue enough of the previously mentioned foods everyday.

Most of your creatine is stored in muscle tissue. 

How does creatine work?

Creatine facilitates the recycling of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), primarily in muscle and brain tissue. ATP basically provides energy to drive many processes in cells like muscle contractions and nerve impulses.

Now here’s something important. Researchers have found that higher levels of creatine will improve ATP efficiency that will allow for improved high intensity exercise capacity. 

So it’s theorized that if your muscles become more efficient because of better energy supplied, an individual can train with higher volumes during resistance training sessions. Thus, a higher load on a muscle will eventually cause adaptation, leading to increased strength.

Another way in which creatine works may be by causing cell swelling through increased water via osmosis. This in turn may activate protein synthesis within muscle fibers.

Let’s look at some of the data that shows that creatine can increase muscle mass, strength, bone health, and decrease inflammation in older individuals who strength train.

Evidence supporting the muscle improving effects of creatine in older people

2013 Meta-analysis

In 2013, a meta-analysis involving 357 older individuals with an average age of 63.6 years was reviewed.

It revealed that individuals who took creatine and did resistance training (RT) for an average of 12.6 weeks showed a greater increase “total body mass and fat-free mass with no effect on fat mass as compared with RT alone.”

Also, the creatine + RT group showed “increased chest press and leg press one-repetition maximum to a greater extent than RT alone.”

The reviewers do note that it’s difficult to analyze the data and form absolute conclusions because of different RT protocols.

However, they do conclude that,

“The results from this meta-analysis are encouraging in supporting a role for creatine supplementation during RT in healthful aging by enhancing muscle mass gain, strength, and functional per-formance over RT alone.”

2017 Meta-analysis

Another analysis on the effectiveness of creatine when combined with RT among older people was performed in 2017.

The review included 721 participants, both men and women, with a mean age of 57–70 years,  randomized to receive creatine supplementation or placebo. RT was performed 2–3 days/week for 7–52 weeks.

Individuals with chronic conditions (e.g., osteoarthritis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Parkinson’s disease, and type 2 diabetes were excluded.)

The review found that the creatine-supplemented groups had significantly greater increases for lean tissue mass, chest press strength, and leg press strength.

The reviewers concluded,

“The important outcome from this meta-analysis is that creatine supplementation during resistance training results in ~1.4 kg greater increase in lean tissue mass than when placebo is consumed, and this translates to significantly greater increases in upper body (ie, chest press) and lower body (ie, leg press) strength in older adults.”

2021 Meta-analysis

This recent meta-analysis of over 500 individuals confirms what the previous two meta-analyses found. Creatine supplementation with RT significantly increased lean tissue mass, chest press strength, and leg press strength as opposed to RT without creatine.

The analysis went into some detail on optimal amounts of creatine that should be consumed for maximal improvement. I’ll cover that a little later in the post.

Creatine Supplementation Plus RT In Older Women 

There is not a lot of studies done concerning specific older women and creatine supplementation. It appears that there is a sex specific difference in creatine storage between men and women.

“Females may have higher intramuscular creatine stores (at rest), which may blunt their responsiveness to exogenous creatine, thus they do not appear to experience reductions in muscle protein catabolism (compared to males).”

Nonetheless, a 2021 systematic review and meta-analysis by Candow et al. which included 211 women (>60 years old) concluded that,

“Older females supplementing with Cr experience significant gains in muscle strength, especially when RT lasts for at least 24 weeks in duration.”

They do point out, however, that, “given the level of evidence, future high-quality studies are needed to confirm these findings.”

Okay, it’s pretty clear that supplementing with creatine is going to get you greater gains when resistance training.

But does supplementing with creatine provide benefits to other parts of your body?

Creatine Supplementation And The Brain

Several studies have reported “significant improvements in some aspect of cognitive processing following creatine monohydrate supplementation.”

Researchers believe that the mechanism for this is improving ATP function, thus increasing energy supply to the brain.

There have only been a few studies done concerning creatine supplementation and older individuals. However, there is some evidence that creatine does improve cognitive performance.

Creatine Supplementation And Bone Health.

There is some evidence that creatine supplementation and resistance training for over a year may have some beneficial effect on bone health.

Researchers, however, don’t have enough evidence to say whether creatine impacts bone health significantly in older individuals. See here, here and here. 

Creatine’s Possible Anti-Inflammatory Benefits

Low-grade inflammation is a characteristic of the aging process. Many longevity researchers have called this process inflam-aging.

So a key longevity strategy is to eliminate as much inflammation in your body as possible. 

There is some evidence in animal studies that creatine supplementation has reduced some markers of inflammation.

Researchers have also found that creatine will reduce inflammation caused by some aerobic activities like swimming, soccer, or running. But they have not found that it reduces the inflammation caused by strength training.

Overall, researchers feel there needs to be more investigation into this aspect of creatine. See here.

Is creatine effective for women?

As I mentioned before, women may have greater intramuscular creatine than men. This could be the reason women don’t show the amount of improvements men experience with creatine supplementation. 

However, from the study above, we know that older women do respond well to creatine when combined with strength training.

Nonetheless, the top creatine researchers determined that,

“In summary, there is accumulating evidence that creatine supplementation has the potential to be a multifactorial therapeutic intervention across the lifespan in females, with little to no side effects.”

The research concerning creatine and women presented in the above linked article is informative and well worth reading.

How much creatine should you take?

The typical dosage recommended for adults is ~3-5 g/day. It’s believed that optimal creatine saturation will occur in about 4 weeks. See here and here. 

This recent 2021 meta-analysis on creatine dosage found that,

“…older adults wanting to improve whole-body lean tissue mass and strength may expect these benefits from creatine supplementation (i.e., ≥5 g) either daily or only on training days during a resistance training program.”

The analysis also found that individuals suffering from sarcopenia or frailty might benefit by taking a loading dose of  ≥20 g/day for 5–7 days. 

I personally take 5/d. I add the creatine powder to my whey smoothie. It’s an established fact that protein absorption is attenuated in older people. While I don’t know if this applies to creatine, at 65-years-old, I’ll err on the higher side. 

This is the one I take from Muscle Feast.

Competitive athletes, who may desire to get their creatine saturation up quickly, also often engage in a loading phase. This strategy would be oral creatine for 5–7 days with a dosage of 20–25 g/day, often divided into smaller doses throughout the day (e.g., four to five, 5 g servings/day). Then a maintenance dosage of 3-5g/day.

Does creatine have adverse effects? (And Other Common Questions)

Okay, it sounds like creatine is too good to be true. Things usually are when they have these kinds of benefits. But not with creatine. It appears that there are no short term or long term severe adverse reactions.

There has been some speculation that creatine is an anabolic steroid or that it causes hair loss or that it causes kidney damage.

These are all untrue. 

Dr. Jose Antonio and other top researchers involved with creatine research have presented a thorough analysis debunking the creatine myths. Their 2021 study includes evidence-based scientific evaluation of the current literature. See here. 

Here is a summation of their conclusions. All of them are backed up with links to current research.

(1). Creatine supplementation does not always lead to water retention.

(2). Creatine is not an anabolic steroid.

(3). Creatine supplementation, when ingested at recommended dosages, does not result in kidney damage and/or renal dysfunction in healthy individuals.

(4). The majority of available evidence does not support a link between creatine supplementation and hair loss / baldness.

(5). Creatine supplementation does not cause dehydration or muscle cramping.

(6). Creatine supplementation appears to be generally safe and potentially beneficial for children and adolescents.

(7). Creatine supplementation does not increase fat mass.

(8). Smaller, daily dosages of creatine supplementation (3-5 g or 0.1 g/kg of body mass) are effective. Therefore, a creatine ‘loading’ phase is not required.

(9). Creatine supplementation and resistance training produces the vast majority of musculoskeletal and performance benefits in older adults. Creatine supplementation alone can provide some muscle and performance benefits for older adults.

(10). Creatine supplementation can be beneficial for a variety of athletic and sporting activities.

(11). Creatine supplementation provides a variety of benefits for females across their lifespan.

(12). Other forms of creatine are not superior to creatine monohydrate.

Also the International Society of Sports Nutrition has taken a very favorable stand on creatine supplementation. You can read their position here. 

Okay, it seems that no matter what age you are and you are strength training, creatine supplementation is going to improve your strength and muscle even more. There may even be other health benefits included. This longevity hack really is a no brainer. 

Of course, before you take any supplement, check with your doctor to make sure it is okay for you.

If you’re not strength training, you should be. See my post on how to get started: How To Start Strength Training Over 40.

That’s it for today. Blessings until next time. 

Read this next

Get A Good Grip: How Your Hand Grip Strength Predicts Longevity

How I’m Beating Sarcopenia With Weight Training

Why At 64 I Prioritize Strength Training Over Aerobic Training

The post How I’m Using Creatine To Get Stronger appeared first on Gluten Free Homestead.

Barbara and I are always encouraging our readers to get into strength training. We’ve been doing it for over seven years, and it’s something everyone over the age of 40 should really be doing. 

We’ve told you how we do it. We’ve also shown you videos of us doing it, but we’ve never shown you our gym or told you how you can set one up in your home.

In this post, we’ll give you a peek into our home gym.

Commercial Gyms Versus Home Gyms

If you like commercial gyms, that’s great. Commercial gyms have a lot of positives. They have machines for resistance training if that’s what you’re into. Some have barbell equipment. Some have good instructors. They also offer a social environment.

However, commercial gyms are not for me. I don’t want to spend time traveling back and forth to the gym, especially in the winter time.

Most commercial gyms don’t have barbell equipment, and the ones that do usually don’t have a lot. That means more wasted time waiting to get your sets in.

With my home gym, I can lift when I want and how I want. And no one can shut me down. Once I bought the initial equipment, there were no more fees.

I also don’t need to worry about someone spotting me. Most equipment today has attachable spotter arms that will protect you in case you miss a lift badly.

The only limitation to a home gym is space. If you have a garage or a basement, you’re good. If you’re creative, you can practically make any space work. 

If you have a downstairs neighbor, it’s probably not a good idea to do heavy deadlifts. Something like resistance band exercises might substitute for deadlifts.

Then you could use dumbbells to accomplish the other exercises.

But if you want to stop the eventual loss of muscle, you have to figure out something.

For example, during our move to NC, I was restricted to using the hotel gym, and my son’s apartment building’s gym. It was better than not having any place at all.

Okay, on to our garage gym.

Our Garage Gym

As I said, the program you choose will determine the equipment you need. Our program revolves around four main lifts: bench press, squats, overhead press, and deadlifts.

In order to do the above exercises correctly, you’ll need an Olympic bar. An Olympic bar accommodates weight plates that have a bigger center diameter than a standard bar. A standard bar is the one that sporting goods stores used to sell to people wanting to get into weightlifting back in the day.

You don’t want to skimp on a bar. Ours is from Rogue. They make good equipment. Sometimes they’re a little pricey. But their equipment is well made and lasts a long time.

The Rogue Bar

Here’s our bar. 

Cost: $290.00

Rogue’s Ohio Bar would be a good choice as well. 

Cost: $305.00

Women’s Bars

Okay, here’s an important thing about Oylmpic bars. The bar weighs 44 pounds. So if you’re a woman and can’t lift 44 lbs over your head, you may want to get a lighter bar.

This is the Bella Bar from Rogue. It weighs about 33 lbs.

Cost: $ 235.00.

Since the Bella Bar is shorter than a standard bar, I don’t know how practical it is for deadlifts or squats. 

For overhead press, Barbara was using dumbbells until a friend gave us a short standard steel bar. You can find them on Amazon.

Collars

You’ll need something to secure the weight to the bar. We bought our bar during a special sale, and it came with these collars.

Cost: $45.00

These spring collars look like they might work as well and are a lot cheaper. However, I have not personally used them and don’t know how difficult they are to put on if you don’t have a strong grip.

Plates

You’re going to want to load the bar with weights so you need to purchase plates.

I bought my plates from Rogue. If you’re going to deadlift, you probably want to get bumper plates so you don’t damage your concrete floor. My other plates are iron from Rogue. I have about 300 lbs in these weights.

You can purchase more plates as you increase in strength. But if you’re going to start deadlifting, you’ll need at least two 10 lbs bumper plates. With the bar that makes 65 lbs.

Rogue HG 2.0 Bumper Plates

2 – 45 lbs $185.00

4 – 25 lbs $230.00

2 – 10 lbs $62.50

Rogue Iron Plates

2 – 10 lbs $37.50

4 – 5 lbs $22.50

2 – 2.5 lbs $12.50

2 – 1.25 lbs $11.50

2 – 0.5 lbs $15.00

Plate Holder (Optional)

A plate holder is an easy way to keep your plates organized. This is the one I use from Rogue. It has wheels on it so I can move plates around the gym easily. Beware, the 45 lbs bumpers are difficult to carry. 

Cost: $245.00

Monster Rack With Safeties

In order to do bench press, overhead press, and squats, you need some kind of rack system. This is another area where I didn’t want to skimp. I knew my rack was going to get a lot of work so I wanted something I knew would last. 

Don’t buy one of those cheap bench press units you see on Amazon. Buy something to last.

When I bought my rack, I had a height limitation in the basement I was using for my first home gym. So the one I have isn’t the one I would buy now. Cost was also a factor at the time.

So I decided on the monster lite from Rogue. It’s technically a squat stand but works for bench and overhead press. It’s only 70” high so it fit with my 74” ceiling.

It’s a beast. It’s been used by 5 lifters 4 days a week for seven years and is still like brand new.

I purchased the attachable spotter arms so I can lift without a spotter if I choose.

Cost: $610.00 (with spotter arms)

If I had a higher ceiling originally, I would have probably bought a power rack.

image by Rogue Fitness

Titan makes some good equipment, but I don’t know how it compares to Rogue.

Bench

Of course, if you’re going to bench press, you’ll need a bench. I’ve been in gyms where they had benches that got all torn up. I wanted a bench that was stable and would last. 

So I got a rogue bench. It’s solid and comfortable, and, like the stand, it’s still mint after 7 years.

You probably can get a good bench cheaper than Rogue’s if you prefer. 

Cost: $210.00 

Deadlift Platform

In order to protect your floor from heavy deadlifts, you’ll probably want to have some kind of rubber platform to absorb the shock of the weight.

Commercial platforms are rather expensive. But you can make your own cheaply. There are plenty of videos on YouTube on how to do this.

I have a piece of ½” x 4’ x 8’ plywood cut into two 2’ x 2’ and one 4’ x 4 sections. On the 2’ x 2’ sections, I have rubber mats I bought at Home Depot. The platform has worked well for years.

I might upgrade to better mats in the future. People who do this generally use horse stall mats from Tractor Supply. When selecting plywood, get plywood that has been sanded. You don’t want splinters.

Cost: 1 sheet of plywood plus mats

Weight belt

Once you start lifting heavy weights, you’ll want to get a weight belt. People think a belt supports your spine. It does but not in the way most people think. The belt allows you to build up greater intra-abdominal pressure which stabilizes the spine.

This is the one I have. It’s lasted for 5 years and is still like new.

Cost: $42.00

Wrist Wraps

Since I have weak wrists and they’ve been injured in the past on heavy weight, I use wrist wraps.

Here are the ones I use.

Cost: $15.00

Knee Sleeves

Knee sleeves are a necessity if you’re going to do squats. Because of differences in anatomy, some people tend to put more stress on the knee joint. Knee sleeves will provide some support but also provide good warmth to the joint. 

Most importantly, though, good form and sometimes stretching cure a lot of knee problems.

These are the knee sleeves I have.

Cost: $40.00

Bands

I was suffering from some hip pain from squats and determined that it was probably coming from some joint stiffness. Squat University suggested some exercises with bands. Amazingly, after doing the exercises for a few weeks, the pain went away.

Bands are not a necessity, but if you need them Amazon has tons.

Dumbbells

I generally don’t do a lot of dumbbell work. They are useful for some accessory exercises. And if you’re starting out and a 35 lbs bar is too heavy, dumbbells can get you on the right track.

Find them as cheaply as you can. Used works. I assume there’s always someone trying to get rid of theirs.

Curl Bar

I’ve had a curl bar for many years, but I don’t use it any more. However, Barbara and our daughter, Nicole, use it regularly. They like the toned arm look! An Olympic curl bar weighs about 13 lbs.

Here’s a typical curl bar.

Cost: $58.00

Chalk

Last summer, I couldn’t figure out why on heavy deadlifts the bar was slipping out of my hands. It just wasn’t heavy enough to do that. Well, I figured it out. My hands were sweating just enough to make the bar slick. Duh!

Solution: chalk. After using it, I was amazed at how the bar stuck to my hands as if it was glued there. Problem solved!

If you use chalk, keep it in a sealed Tupperware container as this will prevent moisture from getting to it.

Cost: $13.00

Lifting Shoes

Running shoes are not good for deadlift and squatting. They are too unstable. Many people deadlift in their bare or stocking feet. That’s not for me so I use power-lifting shoes. These shoes have a non-flexible sole and a raised heel which are perfect for squats and deadlifts.

This is the new model for the ones I have.

If I were to buy them again, I might have saved up and gotten a more expensive pair with a higher heel.

Cost: $95.00

These are the basic necessities for equipping a barbell resistance training program.

Three New Additions

We recently purchased three new pieces of equipment. They are awesome.

Rogue Landmine

The Rogue landmine is a device that attaches to your rack. You place one end of the bar into the device, and it acts as a lever. This allows you to do various exercises such as landmine squats.  

Barbara hates, hates, hates to do back squats. So she can now work her legs with the landmine. She loves this device!

Cost: $100.00

Rogue Parallel Landmine Handle

This parallel landmine handle is a piece of equipment that attaches to the bar that is already attached to the landmine. This allows me to do heavy rows. Rows are one of the few accessory exercises I do. They build up hand grip and exercise the Lats. 

They are an excellent exercise in helping to increase deadlift strength.

Cost: $80.00

Hex Deadlift Bar

I thought I would mix up standard deadlifts with hex bar deadlifts. I purchased this hex bar from Titan. Titan’s bar is really well made and reasonably priced. If you don’t expect to load a lot of weight on the bar you can get a smaller one for about half the price.

It turns out that Barbara liked the bar so much that she is now doing hex deadlifts exclusively. They are a lot more forgiving on your lower back.

Cost: $290.00

Okay, that’s about it for this post. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Remember, “the strong shall survive” and “the best exercise is the one you enjoy doing.”

Blessings and have a great week.

Read this next

65 Years Old And Getting Stronger: How We’re Doing It!

If You’re Over 40 You’re Probably Losing Strength. You Must Deal With It Now!

Why barbell squats might be the most important exercise you can do

Your attitude toward aging might affect your odds of getting Alzheimer’s disease

How to start strength training over 40

The post How to Set Up a Home Gym: A Look at Our Garage Gym appeared first on Gluten Free Homestead.

Well, praise the Lord. I’ve reached 65 years old. There are some good perks with being 65. I get some cool senior discounts. Our market gives a 5% discount on groceries which means I can get beef a little cheaper. Oh, and I get Medicare. The government cares about me, ah, OK.

So I guess, technically, I’m a “senior citizen” now, though I don’t feel any different. I actually feel better than I did 20 years ago, and I’m stronger than I was 20 years ago. Actually, I’m stronger than I was last year.

Yes, at 65, I’m getting stronger. If I had been a weak 64 year old and now was slightly less weak, it would be no big deal. But currently I’m in an advanced category for most of my barbell lifts.

But don’t people get weaker as they age? If you read my last post, you’ll see that people do get weaker as they grow older. However, I showed you that people can defy the trend.

I’m defying that trend right now. At some point in the future, I suppose I’ll start to grow weaker. But for now I’m still trending upward. And by the way, Barbara is also getting stronger.

In this post, I’ll reveal some of the strength gains we’ve made and how we’re doing it.

Resistance training

The best way to build and maintain muscle and strength is through resistance training. There are many ways to do this, but seven years ago we chose barbell training. The rest of this post will focus on our barbell training.

If you’re new to barbell training, I recommend beginning with the Starting Strength Method. It starts with the new lifter and takes you to an intermediate level. The gains I made with this program were astounding.

The Starting Strength program revolves around 4 main exercises. These are bench press, squat, overhead press, and deadlift.

There are some modifications of this program for older individuals. Power cleans are not recommended for older populations so we don’t do them. Pull ups are great if you have the equipment. I don’t so I don’t do them.

If you want to start barbell training, here are some key resources you should start with.

Also check out here, here, and here.

Even though we’ve been lifting for 7 years and our program has modified slightly, the four main lifts still make up the core of our current routine.

One important point before I get into specifics: Barbara and I are not naturally strong individuals. We’re just average people. I myself was even below average when I started due to suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome for over 20 years. So the gains we’ve made are a result of good programming and a lot of hard work.

Where to train?

If you prefer to train at a gym, make sure the one you choose has barbell equipment, especially power racks. Not all of the commercial gyms have these. We chose to train at home. We can lift when we want and nobody can shut us down. In my next post, I’ll cover the essentials you’ll need for your own home gym.

Let’s take a look at our current gains and programming.

Bench Press

John: 65 years old. Body weight: 165 lbs

This year I put on over 10 pounds to my bench press maximum lift. I benched 185 x 1 pretty easily a few weeks back so I expect I’m around 190 max.  

Here I am recently doing 5 reps with 160 pounds.

Proof of work. Bench press tonight. 65 years old. Body weight 165 lbs. Week 1 of Wendler 5/3/1. Last set, 160 lbs. x 5. The strong shall survive. Praise God. pic.twitter.com/MOSbrMASPJ

— The Progressing Pilgrim (@The_Pilgrim67) January 11, 2022

I bench once a week and use the Wendler 5/3/1 routine. The core of this program is still centered on the four main lifts. 

This program has worked well for me for many years. Since I’m still recovering from chronic fatigue syndrome and also 65 years old, I have to be careful not to overextend myself. The volume and intensity of the 5/3/1 program seem to keep me in the sweet spot of exertion.

Barbara: 65 years old. Body Weight 129 lbs. 

Barbara upped her bench press to 70 lbs x 3 reps x 3 sets. She handles this pretty easily so I suspect she can do a lot more. Women have a tendency to lose repetition strength after the 3rd rep so she works 3 sets of 3 reps. She hasn’t missed a day of bench in years.

Here is an important point about bench press, especially for older people. While benching, your humerus literally jams into your rotator cuff. So it’s key to use correct form and not to over do it. I try not to lift maximum weight and avoid doing a lot of reps.

Overhead Press

John

This year I set an all time maximum 115 lbs for overhead press. That’s more than I was even able to do when I was lifting in my late twenties. 115 is huge for me. It put me into the advanced category for my weight and age!

Here I am doing 115 pounds overhead press.

Thursday night OHP. 115 lbs x 1. That's an all time PB for me. Who says old guys can't keep getting stronger. 1 month to 65yo (BW 165 lbs) Thanks to @SS_strength Started with their novice program 7 years ago. Thanks to @ShawnBakerMD for getting me to eat more protein. pic.twitter.com/mv8DULU0Nr

— The Progressing Pilgrim (@The_Pilgrim67) October 8, 2021

I use the Wendler 5/3/1 program for overhead press. I press once a week.

Barbara

A friend of ours gave us a short steel bar for standard weights, and it’s perfect for women to do overhead press with. So Barbara graduated from 12.5 lbs dumbbells on each arm to 30 lbs total x 8 reps for 3 sets. Again she handles this pretty easily so she’s probably ready to go up in weight. She presses once a week.

Squats

For both of us, squats are the most demanding but probably one of the most beneficial exercises anyone could do. See my post: Why Barbell Squats Might Be The Most Important Exercise You Can Do.

John

My legs have always been the weakest part of my body. Outside of running in my twenties and walking, I literally never exercised them.

This year I was able to do a 200 lbs high bar back squat easily. That’s an all time high for me. Okay, I didn’t achieve 100% parallel, but I was close enough for my needs. 

At light weight, this lift is technically not that difficult. But when the weight starts to get heavy you need total concentration. Ah, total concentration. Do you want to be more cognitively aware? Start doing squats. They are excellent for building better cognition.

Also, because of my age and previous shoulder bursitis, I cannot do a low bar squat so I’m limited to high bar.

There is a special safety squat bar made for people who can’t do back squats because of shoulder limitations.

You can find a Rogue safety squat bar here.

And from Titan, a safety squat olympic bar here.

I recently changed my programming for squats. I was using the Wendler program, but felt like I wasn’t recovering adequately. 

This is my current routine:

65 x 5, 115 x 5, 125 x 3, 155 x 1, 165 x 1, 177.50 x 5

I do squats once a week.

For my next 4 week cycle, I’ll end with 178.50 and then 180 for the next cycle.

After using this program for the last month, my recovery from squats is a lot better.

Again, the important thing with squats is that you want to have good technique. It’s way better to use lower weight and do it correctly.

Once I got to an intermediate level at squats, Squat University helped me develop better technique. See their instagram channel. It was here that I learned that your anatomy will dictate how you squat. 

If you start barbell training and you’re getting to heavy weight, you’re going to learn to lift correctly eventually. You’ll have to if you want to increase your strength and stay away from injury.

Barbara

Barbara hates, hates, hates to have a barbell on her back. We solved that problem this year by switching to landmine squats. Sounds out right bad-ss doesn’t it? Well, they are. Here’s what they look like.

She’s been doing them for a couple of months and has been adding weight steadily. She finally enjoys squatting. Well, kind of. Squats are hard!

Barbara does 4 sets of landmine squats with 35 pounds on the bar. She does them once a week.

Remember, the best exercise you do is the one you enjoy doing!!! Consistency is the name of the game in resistance training.

Deadlifts

John

My deadlift maximum is about the same as it was a few years ago. I haven’t tried a max in years, but it’s probably still around 300 lbs. When I did that, I was a few years younger and 10 pounds heavier.

I also changed my DL program slightly for the same reasons as I changed my squat program. DLs are the most neuromuscularly draining exercise so good recovery from them is a must. At older ages, you have to be acutely aware of this and not be afraid to adjust your programming.

This is my current DL routine:

65 x 5, 115 x 5, 145 x 5, 157 x 3, 215 x 1, 225 x 1, 247.50 x 4 @8

Next month, I’ll add a pound and adjust my totals. I’m increasing slowly at this point. I’ll get to where I have to go. That’s stronger!

I deadlift once a week.

The @8 means that I probably could have done 2 more reps. That gives me a projected 1 rep max at about 297 lbs. I’d really like to get 300 again. I’ll probably try when the weather gets warmer. After working with this program for a month, I’ve found my recovery to be a lot better. 

Barbara

After a brief hiatus, Barbara started back up with deadlifts. But get this. She’s using a new piece of equipment. She wasn’t crazy about DLs so we decided to get a rackable hex trap bar from Titan.

When using the bar, you’re doing a modified DL. There’s much less stress on your lower back. The leg muscles play a bigger role in the lift as compared to the lower back in a regular deadlift. 

She doesn’t complain about DLs at all now. Again, the best exercise is the one you like doing.

Here’s her routine. 90 X 5, 120 X 5

Barbara does this exercise once a week.

Accessory Exercises

As I mentioned, the above four exercises comprise the core of our barbell training. However, we do add in some accessory exercises. These are not necessary, but we enjoy lifting and can tolerate the exercises so we do them.

Barbara likes that toned arm look so she adds in some bicep curls. I add in lat rows and narrow grip bench press. I like to keep these muscle groups in shape because they’re used in other exercises.

Deloading 

Here’s one last important point. I take one week a month and deload my lifts. I’ll use a weight a little heavier than a warm up weight. It’ll be enough so that I won’t lose any gains I’ve made. I personally think this has helped me tremendously in recovering from the previous strenuous three weeks, and I think it’s probably the main reason I haven’t sustained any major injury. 

Barbara will deload spontaneously. Her body tells her when to take a day off.

Some Key Takeaways I’ve Learned About Resistance Training

1. Unless you’re severely disabled, you can do resistance training. Wait, let me rephrase that. You must do resistance training. See my post: If You’re Over 40 You’re Probably Losing Strength. You Must Deal With It Now!
2. Check with your physician to make sure you’re able to train.
3. Find a good gym that has barbell equipment.
4. If you can’t find a gym or prefer to train at home, you can do it.
5. Use a good plan and one that you like.
6. Stick to the plan and be consistent. Show up for every workout. When you don’t feel like training, remember why you’re doing it. Better strength means better health. You and your significant others will appreciate that.
7. There are different methods of resistance training. Barbell, machines, bands, body weight, etc.
8. If you’re going to start barbell training, try the Starting Strength Method. We started the program at 57 years old when we were completely untrained. It worked well for us.
9. Learn to lift correctly. At heavier weights, this becomes critical.
10. Evaluate your programming. If you’re getting injured, check technique, plan adherence, and recovery. If you’re exhausted everyday, you may need to deload or readjust your plan. I’ve done this several times.
11. Always be cognizant of your technique. Once you start barbell training, you’re in training. You’ll either need a coach or you can become your own coach. It’s not that hard to be your own coach, but it does mean learning about the process. I continually watch videos on technique.
12. Online coaches I would trust: Starting Strength & Barbell Logic.
13. Don’t worry about gains. They always come. Even if you can’t see them, they are still there.
14. If you’re an older lifter, then deload more often. That doesn’t always mean taking a week off, but it can.
15. Use good equipment. More on that in my next post.

Diet

Of course, if you’re going to do resistance training, you’ll have to have a good diet. Over the last 15 years, I’ve optimized my diet for me. You can see my diet plan here: How We’re Staying Healthy At 64: Barbara and John’s Diet And Exercise Strategy.

Barbara and I basically eat the same way. My quantities might be slightly higher.

One thing that’s not negotiable for older people is proper protein consumption. You must get enough protein. See here: Are You Getting Enough Dietary Protein To Maintain Healthy Muscle Quality?.

Sleep

In order to recover properly, you must get optimum sleep. See my posts: How’s Your Sleep Routine? and How To Optimize Your Sleep Cycles For A Restorative Night’s Sleep.

In order to get good sleep, you need a good mattress. See: Why We Bought a Sleep EZ 100% Natural Latex Mattress.

Supplements

My supplements haven’t changed dramatically from last year except for a couple of items. One big one was the addition of creatine. I’ll write a post on my experiences with creatine in the coming weeks.

Aerobic Training

Barbara and I have maintained a walking routine for over 10 years. We try to do at least 1.5 miles everyday. During cold or bad weather, we use our treadmill. Here’s a key insight into walking. You can break up your routine into 3 ten minute stints. You don’t have to get the whole 30 minutes at one time. The benefits are the same.

See this video by Stan Efferding, 54 years old (at one time one of the strongest men in the world), on why 10 minute walks are important.

Equipment

My next post will show you our home gym.

Okay, that’s all I have for this post. God bless and have a great week.

Read this next:

How to start strength training over 40

Get A Good Grip: How Your Hand Grip Strength Predicts Longevity

The 10 Most Important Strategies I Used To Beat Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

How I’m Using Creatine To Get Stronger

The post 65 Years Old And Getting Stronger: How We’re Doing It! appeared first on Gluten Free Homestead.

Losing too much muscle and strength increases your odds of mortality and the susceptibility to the diseases of aging. Here’s how to get stronger and build better muscle mass.

I recently came upon some health data that everyone over the age of forty who is concerned about their health should be keenly aware of. Here’s a visual representation of the data. Take a close look.

Age and Ageing, Volume 48, Issue 1, January 2019, Pages 16–31, https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article/48/1/16/5126243

These graphs represent data from a 2014 compilation of British studies that included 49,964 participants. They measure strength, as determined by grip strength, versus age. Handgrip strength appears to correlate well with overall body strength. See my article: Get a good grip: how your hand grip strength predicts longevity.

The horizontal lines on the graph represent different centiles of strength. The higher the number, the stronger you are. The dots are different individuals within an age cohort.

What these graphs show us is that generally, everyone past the age of 40 is in the process of getting weaker. (By the way, this is not an isolated study. There are many that confirm this trend.)

I think most of us intuitively know that humans get weaker as they age. We’ve all seen some of our relatives age. In their 20s, 30s, and 40s, they were vibrant and strong. Then all of a sudden in their 60s, 70s and 80s, they seem to have grown weak and frail.

I think most of us also suppress this fact. We know we’re aging. But that’s something to worry about in the future.

However, some of us know we’re aging and getting weaker. It terrifies us to think of our future selves as helpless individuals who at some point will need someone to take care of us.

This might all seem slightly depressing, and you really didn’t need to start the new year depressed, did you?

But hear me for a second. This fact of life has a lot of nuance attached to it. And there is a lot more reason to be optimistic than depressed!

There’s Reason for Hope

I’m 65 years old. I’m stronger now than I was last year, and I’m stronger than I was 30 years ago.

Does my personal experience invalidate the above model? Not necessarily. 

If we look a little more deeply into muscle strength, we’ll see that we can actually defy the trend and get stronger and healthier. Stay with me, and I’ll show you how I’m doing it and how you can do it too.

I’m assuming you want to get stronger. After all, the stronger you are, the harder you are to kill and the more useful you are in general.

However, this also applies to longevity.

There are numerous studies showing that the stronger you are, the greater your odds of living longer and staving off the diseases of aging. I’ll unpack that more later, but let’s take a closer look at the graphs.

The Tale of Two Graphs 

Keep in mind that the graphs represent people at specific times in their life; they don’t represent strength for a specific individual lifespan.

We don’t know if people are moving up or down in strength from age to age.

However, the overall trend for both males and females is that strength peaks in the mid to late thirties, remains relatively stable for a few years, and then declines.

As I mentioned, at different age points on the y axis, there are people of different strength ability.

Some people start adulthood stronger than others. In later years of life, some people end up weaker than others. No doubt you’ve seen this. 

In high school, there were strong people and weak people. And today we see some 70 year olds out on the tennis court while others are barely able to get around without a walker. 

As a general rule though, your strength will decrease as you get past your forties.

No matter what Arnold Schwarzenegger does, he’s never going to be as strong as he was at 35. Again, this is a normal part of aging. 

Let’s take a quick look at what normally happens to our muscles as we age.

Why do we lose strength as we age?

Researchers estimate that everyone, beginning around the fifth decade of life, will lose approximately 0.5-1.2% of muscle mass per year. That loss can accelerate up to 3% per year after 60 years old.

This is called age-related sarcopenia and, again, it’s a normal part of aging. See my article: How I’m beating sarcopenia with weight training. 

The loss of muscle mass and muscle quality are highly correlated to the loss of strength.

Strength however, is lost at a greater rate than muscle mass. Researchers estimate that individuals can lose strength at ~3% per year. Some individuals will be on the upper end of the range, others on the lower.

There are various scientific theories on why you lose muscle mass as you age. They are a little too technical to go into here, but researchers do know that there are some things that worsen the decline, and there are things that lessen the severity of the decline. More on that later. 

But think about it. If you were to lose strength at 3% per year, you would have lost about 44% of your adult strength by the time you’re 60 years old. That kind of strength loss could have a severe impact on your lifestyle.

Think about navigating stairs, lifting packages, or even getting off the toilet.

Fortunately, though, strength and muscle loss don’t usually happen that way. The biggest drop-offs in strength and muscle mass occur after the age of 60.

Okay, you say. I’ll get weaker as I age. Again, no big news there.

Hold on, I say. What’s ultimately going to matter is where you end up on the strength curve later in life.

Let’s get back to the graphs and make a few more observations.

The Gray Areas

See the gray areas on the graphs. This is the area where the authors of the study determined a weak grip and its corollary, weak strength, exist.

Any reading under 27 kg for men and under 16 kg for women was considered a weak grip. The authors of the study do point out that other studies have found similar data but suggest slightly higher cut off values for a weak grip (32 kg, 19 kg). See here. That dramatically increases the number of people who are considered weak.

Unfortunately, a weak grip in mid-age (45-68) is highly correlated with your odds of developing severe sarcopenia (muscle mass loss) or frailty later in life.

Several studies have also shown that a weak hand grip is also predictive of other future diseases of aging such as cognitive decline, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

Also, remember that strength is related to muscle mass. A host of medical issues such as frailty, heart disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance, and metabolic syndrome are all related to poor muscle mass. See here and here.

The Gray Area Population Increases as Age Increases

Notice how as age increases, the number of people populating the gray area is increasing. This is not something to be underestimated.

For those entering older ages, the complications of low strength can be even more severe.

Anyone who has cared for an elderly person knows that it’s incredibly difficult to care for them especially when they’re weak. Today, falls are at epidemic levels among the aged. Also see here.

There’s also research showing that a greater loss of muscle and strength in older populations is positively correlated with increased mortality. See here and here.

Since older individuals lose muscle mass at even greater rates than younger people, their odds of suffering from the health conditions I mentioned before also increase dramatically.

Okay, let’s recap and see what conclusions we can draw.

1. Everyone after the age of 40 will start to suffer muscle mass and strength loss.
2. Some individuals will lose it at a greater rate than others.
3. Muscle mass loss is associated with strength loss.
4. There is a population of people who are considered weak.
5. Excessive loss of muscle mass and weak strength is predictive of greater odds of suffering a negative health outcome.
6. As people age, more individuals will enter the weak strength population.

So far these are the important questions. 

• As you proceed on your health journey, have you considered the fact that you’ll be getting weaker as you age?
•  Do you know where you stand on the graph? You can get an idea by using a hand grip strength evaluator. Are you in the weak strength category or are you about to enter it?

• Are you someone who has poor strength? If you are, do you have to stay there for the rest of your life and be resigned to poor future health outcomes?
• Have you made modifications to your health and wellness program to deal with declining strength (more on that later)?

Okay, enough negativity. Let’s get to some good news!!!

Let’s take one last look at the graphs.

Who’s Moving Up, Who’s Moving Down

What the graphs don’t tell us is who is moving up and down between strength categories.

We do know that there are individuals who have good strength even into old age. These individuals have increased their probability of maintaining good health into their golden years.

That’s what you want. You want to avoid that gray area of poor strength, and you want to stay out of it as you age. 

No one knows the future, but if you’re not desperately ill, you don’t have to stay in the weak strength category or fear falling into it.

About 15 years ago, I had my grip strength tested. It was very weak. At 57 years old, I could barely bench press 25 lb. dumbbells. But now, at 65 years old and at 165 lb. body weight, I can bench press 185 lb.

By the way, I did this after suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome for over 20 years.

So here’s the important thing: there is hope for all of us. Unless you’re severely disabled, you are not consigned to spend your whole life at any one point on the graph. There are ways to keep or increase your muscle mass and strength. Even if you’re in your 80s.

Let’s see how we can do that.

How to Have Good Strength In Your Later Years

1. In order to have good strength in later years, you can start out strong

One way to keep yourself in the highest centiles of strength as you age is by starting out strong. Look at this graph.

Source: HEALTH AND AGEING: A DISCUSSION PAPER/HEALTH AND AGEING: A DISCUSSION PAPER: Health and Ageing/World Health Organization, https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/66682/WHO_NMH_HPS_01.1.pdf;sequence=1

As you can see, some people start out strong and stay strong throughout their life course.

How do you start out strong? The answers to that question are fairly straightforward.

The first is to have good genetics. There is some evidence to suggest that birth weight is correlated to strength in adults. This study found that a higher birth weight was suggestive of greater strength in later years. 

So, individuals who are able to pick strong parents seem to have a good base to continue being strong throughout their life.

However, exercising and having a good diet will also get and keep you stronger in early life as well.

If that’s the case, then this is a great motivation for parents to encourage their children to get and stay strong throughout their lives.

One of the best ways to get strength is through resistance training. There used to be some controversy concerning children using resistance training (weights) to get stronger. Several studies have now shown that resistance training has a positive effects on children’s health.

Personally, I was one of those individuals who didn’t start out with exceptional strength. In high school. I was kind of a tall Steve Rogers before he met Howard Stark. But in college I worked out to get stronger.

While I was only able to attain slightly above average strength, I was able to move myself up on the curve. 

Okay, maybe you didn’t start out strong, and you didn’t exercise into your adult years and beyond, and maybe you didn’t have a good diet. Does that mean that you’re confined to the lower centiles of strength for the rest of your life? Not necessarily. But if you stay there, you’re in for a world of hurt.

How to Have Good Strength in Your Later Years

2. Maintain your strength through your adult years

Let’s look at the graph again.

In the early adult life (≈ 35 years old) section of the graph, strength in the strongest individuals maintains for a time. However, the weaker population starts to decline. Remember muscle mass decline begins in the 4th decade of life.

The maintainers of strength are those who either started out stronger, continued to exercise through adulthood, ate well, and choose healthy lifestyle practices. These factors gave them a greater reserve of muscle and strength.

Notice what happens to the maintainers at about 45 years old. They decline, but at a more gradual rate than those with poorer strength.

As you can see, the bottom trend line, representing poorer strength individuals, is diving headlong into the disability threshold.

They are going to hit the disability threshold at a much earlier age than those who have been maintaining their strength through their adult years.

Some maintainers may never even hit the disability threshold.

So, the second thing to do if you want to maintain good muscle and strength in later years, is work to maintain strength throughout your adult years. If you do, you’ll reach older life with a much better chance of avoiding disability.

I’ll discuss how to do that shortly.

How to Have Good Strength in Your Later Years

3. Avoid muscle disuse

This was written way back in 1992:

First, for most persons 50 years of age and older, increasing age is not a cause of physical inactivity. As noted by Berger, current research, especially by Smith, suggests that 50 percent of the decline frequently attributed to physiological aging is, in reality, disuse atrophy resulting from inactivity in an industrialized world. The Second Fifty Years Promoting Health and Preventing Disability (1992) /P. 224

In other words, at least half of the decline in muscle mass and strength is not due to normal aging but to a sedentary lifestyle.

You’ve probably heard the phrase “sitting is the new smoking”. Okay, sitting is probably not as bad as smoking. But you get the point.

Today, more people are working from home, watching TV, playing video games, etc. People are generally more sedentary than years ago. The CDC reports,

It is estimated that only 1 in 5 adults and 1 in 5 high school students fully meet physical activity guidelines for aerobic and muscle-strengthening activities. About 31 million adults aged 50 or older are inactive, meaning they get no physical activity beyond that of daily living.

These are frightening numbers that do have consequences down the line. There is good documentation that a prolonged sedentary lifestyle will lead to poor health outcomes.

Intermittent periods of disuse

However, while sedentary behavior over a lifespan can have a deleterious effect on metabolic health, intermittent periods of disuse can also have serious negative effects on muscle mass and strength, especially after the age of 50.

Take a look at this graph.

Bell, Kirsten & Allmen, M.T. & Devries, Michaela & Phillips, Stuart. (2016). Muscle Disuse as a Pivotal Problem in Sarcopenia-related Muscle Loss and Dysfunction. The Journal of Frailty & Aging. 5. 33-41. 10.14283/jfa.2016.78.

It shows that after the age of 50, periods of muscle disuse can have a profound effect on increasing an individual’s chances of encountering disability at an earlier age.

In this study, researchers point out that this doesn’t only happen from periods of disuse resulting from injury, illness or hospitalizations but also from reduced ambulation. In other words, simply not walking enough will reduce muscle mass and strength.

So another way to maintain strength is to avoid periods of extended muscle disuse.

This is especially critical in older populations as they have an impaired ability to recover from muscle loss.

A practical case history

At 30 years old, I was in excellent health. I lifted weights and ran everyday. I was not at the top centile for strength, but I was above average. Then it happened.

I awoke one morning and was literally unable to get out of bed. I had no fever, no upper respiratory infection, no aches and pains. But I couldn’t move my legs. After about 30 minutes, I was able to get up, but I couldn’t walk more than a few feet before I had to sit down.

As it turned out, I had come down with a severe case of chronic fatigue syndrome. Nine years ago, I recovered enough to resume some normal activity, but then I developed severe shoulder bursitis, which lasted two more years.

Altogether, I was basically sedentary for about 25 years.

What I didn’t realize was the damage that was being done to my muscles. However, for some reason, one evening at 55 years old, I looked at my arms and became shocked. They had become thin and frail looking.

Visions of myself as an aged old man weakly ambulating around in a walker shot through my mind.

What I didn’t know at the time was that when you lose muscle mass, you generally lose a greater percentage of it in your legs. If my arms looked like that, what was the state of my leg muscles?

Muscularly speaking, I was a wreck.

Life comes at us hard sometimes

 At 30 years old, I was at an acceptable centile for strength but rapidly fell to a very low centile and stayed there for 25 years.

But here’s my big point. At 57 years old, though I fell into a low centile of strength and was on the curve heading for early disability, I was committed to not staying there.

What about you? If you’re in your 40s, 50s, or 60s, and for whatever reason you’re in the lower centiles for strength, do you have to stay there?

Are you saying to yourself that your strength is already shot? That a future of frailty and disability is already written in stone?

Well, I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t have to be.

Everyone, unless you’re severely disabled, can get stronger and move up on the curve away from early disability.

Even if you’re 80 years old.

Now, let’s look at the most important thing you can do to maintain and improve your muscle mass, strength, and muscle quality.

How to Have Good Strength in Your Later Years

4. Resistance training is the best way to improve muscle mass and strength

Remember your goal is to improve your strength capacity. To do this requires improved muscle mass and quality. 

The best way to do this is through strength training. 

Read what Dr. Thomas W. Storer, director of the exercise physiology and physical function lab at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital, has to say,

Older men can indeed increase muscle mass lost as a consequence of aging. It takes work, dedication, and a plan, but it is never too late to rebuild muscle and maintain it.

Here is the plan that Dr. Storer recommends for rebuilding muscle,

Therefore, the best means to build muscle mass, no matter your age, is progressive resistance training (PRT). With PRT, you gradually amp up your workout volume—weight, reps, and sets—as your strength and endurance improve.

Of course this applies to women as well.

Dr. Storer is simply reiterating what numerous scientific studies have found. The best way to build muscle and strength is through resistance training. And this applies to older people as well.

What is resistance training?

Resistance training is any exercise that forces the muscles to contract against an external resistance with the expectation of increases in strength, power, hypertrophy, and/or endurance.

You can do this in a number of different ways. You can use barbells, dumbbells, exercise bands, your own body weight, bricks, bottles of water, or any other object that causes the muscles to contract.

Stressing a muscle through contraction is a potent stimulator of muscle protein synthesis (MPS). Increasing MPS is what drives muscle mass and strength. As you continue to stress the muscle over time, it eventually adapts to the stress and improves.

Interestingly, this can be achieved even into your eighties. See here and here. This small study showed it even worked for people in their nineties.

Here’s an important question: How much can your muscles improve at an older age?

Resistance training can make your muscles younger?!

I mentioned earlier that researchers have some theories of why muscle mass and function decline with age. I already shared one: muscle disuse as the years go by.

Another is decline of muscle mitochondria function. Researchers have found that aging muscle decline is highly associated with mitochondrial DNA dysfunction.

If you’re interested in the deep science, see this review.

But here’s the thing. Even though mitochondria function declines as muscle ages, the process can be reversed. This is done through exercise, particularly resistance training.

But get this! This study revealed that after 6 months of resistance training, the muscle of older individuals showed that the “transcriptional signature of aging was markedly reversed back to that of younger levels for most genes that were affected by both age and exercise.”

This means that their muscle showed genes that were consistent with a younger age.

Yes, you can reverse aging in your muscles. I told you to be optimistic. Strength training may be a fountain of youth.

Oh, and remember all those diseases associated with poor muscle mass and strength I previously listed? Check this out!

Resistance exercise training as a primary countermeasure to age-related chronic disease

This in depth review presents scientific studies showing the efficacy of resistance training for preventing and improving many of the diseases associated with aging.

These diseases include sarcopenia, mobility issues, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Also see here.

Okay, one last thing on keeping your muscles and strength in good condition.

How to Have Good Strength in Your Later Years

5. Get enough protein in your diet

Do you know if you’re getting enough protein in your diet? In order to build muscle, your body needs essential amino acids. You have to get these by consuming protein.

How much protein?

If you rely on current recommended daily allowances, then you’re probably not getting enough. Current protein researchers suggest these values are not high enough.

Another thing is that as you age, your ability to utilize protein decreases. So older individuals will need more protein than younger people.

Here are the current recommendations from top protein researchers.

The consensus among leading protein researchers is that young adults should consume at least 20 g/meal (0.24g – 0.3g/kg/) per meal and at least 3 – 4 meals per day.

In a recent review, protein researcher Stuart Philipps suggests that older adults should consume 0.4–0.6 g of high quality protein/kg/meal for 3 meals per day to attenuate age-associated muscle mass loss.

This would translate to about 30 – 40 grams of protein per meal.

See my comprehensive post on protein consumption: Do you get enough protein to maintain muscle?

Okay, these are some of the major things you can do to improve your muscle mass and get stronger.

For me, while they are all important, the most important was employing a good resistance training program.

Let me tell you how I started resistance training.

How I started Strength Training

Before anyone starts an exercise program, they should check with their physician to make sure they’re medically able to do so.

As I mentioned before, there are many different ways to do resistance training. There are a lot of good programs out there using body weight, bands, etc.

However, at 57 years old, I chose to start lifting weights. I started with 20 pound dumbbells. As soon as I was able to lift 45 pounds overhead for multiple reps, I was ready to begin barbell training.

After a lot of research, I chose the Starting Strength Method.

This is a barbell training program that focuses on 4 main exercises (deadlift, squat, overhead press, bench press).

The program takes an individual from a novice level to an intermediate level. If you do the program, you’ll be amazed at how strong you can get regardless of your age.

To find out more about the program, check out these resources.

Starting Strength

Here is a new video that goes into the program in some detail.

*If you’re over the age of 45, you may need some modifications to the program. Those are covered in the above book. For example, generally if you’re 45, power clean exercises are not recommended.

Also, since older individuals can’t sustain the same lifting volume as younger people can, volume is somewhat reduced for older populations.

This book gives excellent insight into barbell training for people over 40 years old.

Check Dr. Sullivan’s youtube channel here. It’s specifically geared to older lifters.

Okay, that’s all I have for this post. God bless and have a great week.

Read this next:

Why barbell squats might be the most important exercise you can do

Your attitude toward aging might affect your odds of getting Alzheimer’s disease

How to start strength training over 40

The post If You’re Over 40 You’re Probably Losing Strength. You Must Deal With It Now! appeared first on Gluten Free Homestead.

Do you know how physically strong you are? Really, it’s a serious question. For your age and gender, what kind of strength do you have? Compared to other individuals at your particular season of life, is your strength above average, average, or below average?

It seems like a silly question, right? You can lift things and climb stairs without too much effort. Okay, you may not be able to open a jar of pickles as easily as Hillary can. But you can do things that require strength without too much difficulty.

However, do you know how strong you actually are? It’s not a silly question. It’s a deadly serious one. Here’s why.

A 2018 meta-analysis of over 2 million men and women showed that “Higher levels of upper- and lower-body muscular strength are associated with a lower risk of mortality in adult population, regardless of age and follow-up period.”

Did you pick that up? Regardless of age, your risk of dying is directly correlated to how strong you are. Or, to put it another way, the weaker you are, the higher risk you have of dying.

The above study is not an outlier. Numerous studies examining the correlation between muscle strength and mortality have been performed through the decades. And they all reveal the same thing. Stronger muscle strength means lower mortality.

Further studies

This 2001 study followed 6,040 healthy men, aged 45 to 68 years old, at baseline for30 years and found that “in healthy middle-aged men, long-term mortality risk was associated with grip strength at baseline, independent of BMI.” 

Another large study performed in 2008 followed 8,762 men, aged 20-80, for 18.9 years. The researchers discovered, “Muscular strength is inversely and independently associated with death from all causes and cancer in men, even after adjusting for cardiorespiratory fitness and other potential confounders.”

So, I think we can safely say that good muscle strength is a major factor in longevity. If you have good muscle strength, your chances of living longer improve.

Strength coach Mark Rippetoe interprets the data this way,

Strong people are harder to kill and are more useful in general.

Why exactly does good muscle strength correlate with lower all cause mortality?

Poor muscle mass is associated with insulin resistance

Researchers are not sure of exactly what the mechanism involved is that causes good muscle strength to correlate with lower all cause mortality. However, they do have a few theories.

First, skeletal muscle is the largest site for insulin‐stimulated glucose utilization. When you consume a meal that contains glucose (from carbohydrates), that glucose will end up in your bloodstream.

Too much glucose in your bloodstream is toxic, so your body has to move it out. Most of that glucose is transported to your skeletal muscles and once there insulin moves it into your muscle cells. Most of the glucose entering muscle cells will be stored as glycogen which can be used for energy at a later date.

If this process in skeletal muscles is disrupted due to things like poor muscle quantity or quality, muscle inactivity or denervation, glucose homeostasis can be disrupted. This can lead to a condition known as insulin resistance. See here, here and here. 

In turn, insulin resistance is highly associated with pre-diabetes, type 2 diabetes, and metabolic syndrome. Note that all of these diseases are related to increased mortality.

Consider some of these studies.

A 2017 study, composed of over 200,000 Korean men and women free of T2DM atbaseline and followed for 2.9 years, found,

In young and middle-aged Korean populations, RMM (relative muscle mass) was inversely associated with a risk of T2DM in a dose-response manner. RMM may play an independent role in the pathogenesis of T2DM and can be considered as a modifiable risk factor for this disease. 

T2DM stands for type 2 diabetes.

Here is another notable finding from the study,

…the association between RMM and the risk of incident T2DM was stronger in the younger age group and premenopausal group even though the absolute incidence was higher in the older age group and postmenopausal group. 

Notice younger people are not immune from the developing insulin resistance because of poor muscle mass. 

Additionally, this recent study 13,620 participants showed that sarcopenia (loss of muscle mass) was an independent risk factor for MetS (metabolic syndrome) regardless of age, sex, obesity, DM (diabetes mellitus), HT (hypertension), DL (dyslipidemia), smoking, alcohol intake, and CRP (C-reactive protein) levels.

*I added the definitions of the abbreviations to make the information clearer.

See also here.

Again the risk of developing metabolic syndrome from poor muscle mass was not limited to elderly people.

Good muscle quality is important for healing

There is another theory researchers propose for the increased risk of mortality due to poor muscle mass.

During times of physical stress resulting from such things as severe infection, physical trauma, or advanced cancer the body needs increased amounts of amino acids for the healing process. Skeletal muscle is the reservoir where the body will need to get those amino acids.

If muscle quality or quantity is poor, then the amino acid pool might be diminished and the healing process retarded.

Muscle metabolism expert Dr. Robert R. Wolfe notes, 

Whereas muscle mass plays a key role in recovery from critical illness or severe trauma, muscle strength and function is central to the recovery process. … Extensive losses of muscle mass, strength, and function during acute hospitalization causing sustained physical impairment were likely contributors to the prolonged recovery. If there is a preexisting deficiency of muscle mass before trauma, the acute loss of muscle mass and function may push an individual over a threshold that makes recovery of normal function unlikely to ever occur. For this reason, >50% of women older than 65 y who break a hip in a fall never walk again.

So the key here is to have good muscle strength before anything bad happens.

Okay, we’ve established that muscle strength is crucial for maintaining good health and longevity, but how do you know how well you’re doing?

Using strength tables

One way to access your strength is by using strength tables.

For example, one found at https://strengthlevel.com/strength-standards allows you to determine your strength according to different kinds of barbell lifts. Below is a strength standard for males and females corresponding to bench press. According to the site, these standards were determined after over 13,000,000 responses.

The chart also allows you to enter your gender and age.  

Here’s the chart adjusted for my age (64).

As you can see, the standards decrease with age. This makes sense because generally people get weaker over time. However, this isn’t always true.

I started lifting weights 7 years ago after 25 years of suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome. At that time I could only bench press a 25 pound dumbbell. Now, at 64, I’m 20 pounds past the advanced standard.

Since these standards are for bench press, they give you a pretty fair assessment of chest and arm strength. There are standards for most major lifts.

The squat standard will give you a good idea of how strong your legs are. I’m still a little short of advanced so I know my legs are my weak link.

Okay, I can hear what you’re saying, “This is all well and good. But I don’t go to a gym, and I don’t lift weights so this isn’t really practical for me.”

I get it. If you don’t know how to lift weights, then don’t start until you know what you are doing.

But hold on.

There’s another way to test your strength, and it’s very easy to do and inexpensive. It may not give you a perfect indicator of your strength. However, it is used by doctors all over the world to assess strength in their patients.

You may have heard of hand grip strength (HGS).

Let’s take a look and see if a simple measurement of your HGS can predict possible future health outcomes.

Hand grip strength

A method widely used by physicians to assess strength is the measurement of hand grip strength (HGS) through the use of a dynamometer.

This is a Jamar dynamometer. It’s similar what most physicians would use for a HGS evaluation.

You grip the device and then squeeze as hard as you can. The measurement you attain can then be compared to a table of standards to see how your strength compares to the general population.

Though HGS measures the strength of muscles in your hand and forearm, it appears to be closely correlated with lower limb strength. So it is believed by health professionals to give a good overall assessment of total muscle strength.

Now, how is HGS associated with the overall health of your body and possible health in the future?

It appears from numerous studies, over decades of time, that HGS is closely correlated to overall mortality and mortality related to specific diseases. 

Let’s take a look at some of these studies.

Hand grip strength studies

This recent study reviewed 8 different meta-analyses and reviews. It included over 23,000 participants.

After reviewing the data of the study, authors concluded that handgrip strength is a useful indicator for:

1. General health status
2. Early all-cause and cardiovascular mortality
3. Future disability

*Soysal P, Hurst C, Demurtas J, et al. Handgrip strength and health outcomes: Umbrella review of systematic reviews with meta-analyses of observational studies.J Sport Health Sci2021;10:2905.

Another review of several meta-analyses and reviews investigating the relationship between HGS and mortality was conducted in 2018.

After reviewing 38 studies that included almost 2 million healthy men and women, researchers found:

1. Higher levels of handgrip strength were associated with a reduced risk of all-cause mortality (HR=0.69; 95% CI, 0.64-0.74) compared with lower muscular strength
2. The association was slightly higher in woman
3. The results were independent of age and follow-up period

Also in 2018 a large United Kingdom study designed to investigate the association of grip strength with disease specific incidence and mortality was released. The study included 502,293 participants (54% women) aged 40-69 years. The mean follow up period was 7.1 years.

Again it was found, “Higher grip strength was associated with a lower risk of all cause mortality.”

But it also found that higher HGS was also associated with a lower incidence of mortality from cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and all cancer and sub-types of cancer.

The Honolulu Heart Program

This particular study on HGS was begun in 1965. However, it is significant because of the duration of the study.

The study measured the HGS of 6,089 healthy men, aged 45-68 years old, and followed them for 25 years. 

The authors of the study made the following conclusions:

1. Among healthy 45 to 68-year-old men, hand grip strength was highly predictive of functional limitations and disability 25 years later.
2. Good muscle strength in midlife may protect people from old age disability by providing a greater safety margin above the threshold of disability.
3. Those in the lowest grip strength tertile had the greatest risk and those in the middle tertile had intermediate risk compared with those in the highest tertile. 

But here is their really insightful finding,

Muscle strength is found to track over the life span: those who had higher grip strength during midlife remained stronger than others in old age. People with greater muscle strength during midlife are at a lower risk of becoming disabled because of their greater reserve of strength regardless of chronic conditions that may develop.

If you’re in that midlife age range, it’s critical to make sure your HGS is good to excellent. If it is, then you have an important asset in your quest to age well. 

Okay, I think we can safely say that your HGS is a good predictor of how well you will age. If you have a poor HGS, the odds are you will age poorly. If you have an excellent HGS, your chances of becoming frail or disease prone in old age are greatly diminished.

Now, how do you measure your HGS?

Measuring your hand grip strength 

Many physicians have a sophisticated HGS dynamometer, like the Jamar above, in their office. 

However, there are many different makers of dynamometers for sale on Amazon. I can’t recommend any because I haven’t tried them. From the reviews they seem to do the job. See here.

You squeeze the device, get a read out, and then compare it to a chart that gives you an idea where you fall in accordance with your gender and age.

However, I want to make a comment about HGS standards. If we have a table of standards, where exactly do they come from?

Where do hand grip strength standards come from?

You could easily google hand grip strength standards and get a quick set of standards to judge your self by. But where do those standards come from. I like to have that kind of insight to make sure we get accurate information. 

Below are three studies that present good data for HGS standards.

The Italian Study

In 2020 a study of 11,148 Italian individuals was conducted to determine normative HGS. The mean age of participants was 55.6 years (standard deviation: 11.5 years; range: 18–98 years), and 6382 (56%) were women.

These are the normative standards discovered.

Normative values for handgrip strength (kg) in men, stratified by age

Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle 2020; 11: 1562–1569 Published online 4 November 2020 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/jcsm.12610

Normative values for handgrip strength (kg) in women, stratified by age

Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle 2020; 11: 1562–1569 Published online 4 November 2020 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/jcsm.12610

As you can see from the charts, HGS peaks in early adulthood, is maintained for a few decades, and then starts to drop off noticeably. This makes sense because we know that as we grow older muscle mass declines. It’s a normal part of aging.

However, some people can have an accelerated loss of muscle due to health issues or a sedentary lifestyle. This is known as age-related sarcopenia.

See my article here: How I’m beating sarcopenia with weight training.

On the other hand, some people may actually improve muscle quality or gain mass even into their eighties by the use of a well structured strength training program. More on that later.

Here are standards from another study.

German Study

In 2016, a survey similar to the one above was performed throughout Germany. It consisted of a random sample of the 11,790 individuals, aged 17 – 90. This study however, added height as a category.

These are the standards they came up with.

Normative Reference Values of Handgrip Strength for German Men

Citation: Steiber N (2016) Strong or Weak Handgrip? Normative Reference Values for the German Population across the Life Course Stratified by Sex, Age, and Body Height. PLoS ONE 11(10): e0163917. doi:10.1371/journal. pone.0163917

Normative Reference Values of Handgrip Strength for German Women

Citation: Steiber N (2016) Strong or Weak Handgrip? Normative Reference Values for the German Population across the Life Course Stratified by Sex, Age, and Body Height. PLoS ONE 11(10): e0163917. doi:10.1371/journal. pone.0163917

In this study, the researchers noted that there is a 1 standard deviation drop in strength for men in the 65 to 69 category. This is about a 10 KG drop when measured with the grip device.

They ultimately concluded, “Using this simple approach, a weak grip was defined to start below 33 kg for men and below 21 kg for women.” 

The researcher continued, “Relaxing the definition, using a cut-off at 1 SD below the sex-specific peak mean values, weak grip would be defined to start already below 44 kg for men and 28 kg for women.”

The researchers concluded that according to this definition, “around 20% of 50–54 year olds would be classified as weak, about half of the population aged 65–69, and about three quarters of the population aged 75–79. The vast majority of octogenarians have a weak grip (88%) according to this alternative definition.”

Notice that the standards were close to the Italian standards.

Finally, a British study.

British Study standards

A 2014 British study combined 60,803 observations from 49,964 participants (26,687 female), aged 4 to 90, of 12 general population studies.

Their objective was to produce cross-sectional centile values for grip strength across the life course. And to investigate the prevalence of weak grip, defined as strength at least 2.5 SDs below the gender-specific peak mean. More on that in a moment.

Here are their results.

Dodds RM, Syddall HE, Cooper R, Benzeval M, Deary IJ, et al. (2014) Grip Strength across the Life Course: Normative Data from Twelve British Studies. PLoS ONE 9(12): e113637. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0113637

The question here, though, is according to these standards, what is considered a weak grip? The study authors propose that for women a weak hand grip would be equivalent to 19 kg in females and 32 kg in males. They base this on a 2.5 standard deviation from mean peak HGS. 

For example, a 55 year old female with a HGS of 19 kg would be considered to have a weak HGS, and the chart would also place her in the lowest centile.

The authors do state that other studies have found a higher cutoff for weak grip. Indeed, the German study above had a weak HGS at 21kg for women and 33kg for men. The German study also stated that a weak HGS at slightly higher values would not be totally unacceptable.

Observations From The Italian, German And British Charts

Okay, so how do we use this information? Let’s say you are a 55 year old female with a HGS 22. According to the Italian chart your HGS would be weaker than the mean population and you would be approaching the 25th percentile. The German chart has you approaching a higher risk category.

The British standard would also show that you were in a lower centile of HGS. Thus, you should perhaps be concerned that this result indicates that you are at risk for a poorer health outcome long term.

If you are a 50 year old male with a HGS of 45 according to the above standards charts, your HGS would be about average. However, if for some reason your strength diminished suddenly you would be in danger of approaching riskier categories for HGS and possibly increased odds of mortality.

The bottom line

Hand grip strength is now a standard procedure used to predict future poor health outcomes and mortality. The good thing is that you can purchase a dynamometer inexpensively and test yourself at home.

If you have a good HGS, that’s great. But be aware that your strength probably will decrease over time. Over a long enough time span, everyone’s strength goes to zero.

If your HGS is good, the key is to maintain it or to increase it. If it’s not as good as you want it to be, then you’ll want to increase it to good levels.

Is that even possible?

Twenty years ago I went to a naturopathic doctor to see if he had some insights to help me heal from severe chronic fatigue syndrome. As part of his examination, he had me squeeze a handle that was attached to a gauge. 

After the test, he looked at Barbara and said, “When your husband says he doesn’t feel good, he’s not lying. His strength is poor.”

He probably was measuring my HGS.

Now, after healing from CFS and employing an excellent strength program for 7 years, I can deadlift a 300 pound barbell in my hands. You need a pretty good HGS to do that.

So you can improve your HGS.

The best way to do it if you are healthy is through strength training.

See my article here on how I started strength training.

Every adult can do it. Even if you’re 80 years old or even 100.

So have your physician test your HGS or do it yourself. Remember this though the more strength you have, and you can increase it, the greater your chances of living a healthy longer life.

God bless and have a great week!

Lead photo credit: Photo by Alena Darmel from Pexels

Read this next

The 10 Most Important Strategies I Used To Beat Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Part 1; Will these strategies work for everyone who has CFS? I don’t know. But I do know this, every one of the strategies I used is scientifically proven to make my body stronger and better able to heal itself from the disease.

The 10 Most Important Strategies I Used To Beat Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Part 2: I’m not recommending these strategies to anyone suffering from ME/CFS. I can’t do that. But they worked for me and they do have the science behind them that proves that they can reduce inflammation and promote healing.

Why Barbell Squats Might Be The Most Important Exercise You Can Do: Why wait to start strengthening your legs when it may be too late? The best way to prevent falls and instability as you age is to start strengthening your legs and hips now by doing barbell squats.

The post Get A Good Grip: How Your Hand Grip Strength Predicts Longevity appeared first on Gluten Free Homestead.

Maybe you’ve visited your MD recently for your annual physical. She points out to you that the “couch potato” lifestyle you adhere to is not the best medicine for aging well. So she suggests that maybe you should consider doing some exercise.

Or maybe you’re reaching middle age and realize you’re not in the best of shape. Climbing those stairs are definitely not as easy as they were 10 years ago. You know you have to do something to improve your health.

So, you consider putting on the trainers and going for a jog around the neighborhood. 

After all, isn’t that what you do to get fit? Aerobic training is the way to go, right?

But how much aerobic training should you do? Is a 20 – 30 minute walk five days a week sufficient or should you do some higher intensity training like cycling?

Screeching Halt!!

Let’s back up. Let me ask you this question. If you’re getting to middle age, is aerobic training even the best exercise for you? 

Notice I didn’t say aerobic training wasn’t good for you. I said, if you’re approaching middle age (or beyond), is aerobic training the best choice for you?

Let’s say you’re in your late 40s, 50s, or even 60s, and you’re now determined to start an exercise program to maintain better health.

Exactly what kind of exercise should you do? What exercise modality will give you the best bang for your buck?

In other words, should you concentrate on aerobic training (AT), like putting on the trainers and jogging around the block? Or should you concentrate on resistance training (RT), stressing your muscles with machines or weights? Or should you spend time equally on both?

I’m not raising this question as a hypothetical. As an older adult, the exercise modality you chose to concentrate on may matter when it comes to optimizing your health benefits.

In this post, I’ll explore why I believe resistance training may be a better exercise protocol to emphasize if you’re an older adult.

Over seven years ago, I started to concentrate on resistance training (RT). While I still do a brisk walk almost everyday, RT is what I prioritize. Since I started RT, I’m stronger, healthier, and more agile than I’ve been in 30 years. If you’re interested in my current strength totals see here.

Let’s take a look at why RT may be the important exercise protocol for the older individual.

Before we do that, though, let’s first look at how much exercise the experts tell us we must engage in to obtain optimal health benefits. 

How much exercise do we need?

To maintain optimal health the Mayo Clinic advises that average healthy adults get at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity weekly, or a combination of moderate and vigorous activity. They also recommend strength training at least two times a week, exercising all major muscle groups.

Okay, that’s the recommendation for the average adult. But what about older adults? 

To help older people reduce the risk of chronic diseases associated with aging (cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer), the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommends the same aerobic training (AT) guidelines as the Mayo Clinic. 

They also recommend that older persons perform RT at least 2 days a week. This includes progressive weight training or weight bearing calisthenics (8-10 exercises involving the major muscle groups of 8-12 repetitions each).

Notice that there is no either or with these guidelines. The Mayo Clinic and the ACSM both recommend doing AT and RT on a regular basis.

So, if you’re an older adult, you should be getting at least 30 minutes a day of AT and at least 2 days of significant RT.

Now, most health professionals seem to stress AT as the best exercise modality for preventing the chronic diseases of aging. 

But what if you as an older individual are for some reason unable to engage in 30 minutes of AT training every day?

For example, let’s say you’re 65 years old with arthritic knees. A 30 minute brisk walk every day might be too much for you. 

Or maybe you’re 60 years old and live in North Dakota. Walking around the neighborhood in the middle of the winter might not be such a good idea.

Also, if you’re 55 years old, overweight, have type 2 diabetes, and haven’t exercised in years, a 30 minute daily stint on a treadmill might do you more harm than good. 

Or what if you just hate AT because it bores you to death and you refuse to do it!

Does that mean that you as an older individual are consigned to a future of rapidly deteriorating health because you don’t engage in AT?

Not necessarily. I’ll answer that question shortly. Remember, we still have RT recommended by health professionals as a prescription for good health.

First, though, I want to introduce an important factor older individuals must consider when choosing exercise modalities.

Older people: don’t forget your muscles!

Image by line2art from Pixabay

If you’re in your 50s or 60s, your muscular physiology is probably very different than it was when you were in your 20s or 30s. That’s obvious right!

However, here’s an important fact of aging.

After about the age of 35, everyone begins to lose muscle mass. This is called age-related sarcopenia. It’s one of the consequences of human aging that we can’t avoid. Like wrinkled skin and gray hair. I didn’t have to remind you of that, did I? Sorry.

However, and this is important, the loss of muscle due to aging is even more acute in someone who has been sedentary for years. That person can lose up to 5% of muscle mass per decade. Most men in fact will lose about 30% of muscle in their lifetime.

If you think that’s no big deal, consider why older people use walkers, higher toilets and prefer ranch homes. 

The loss of muscle happens slowly and imperceptibly at first. But the day will come when you notice that your arms and legs are not as strong as they once were. They may not look like they’ve gotten weaker. That’s because our insatiable desire for donuts has caused some muscle to be replaced with fat.

But you know what? Your muscle mass is deteriorating, and unless you do something about it, your arms and legs are going to get a lot weaker. 

Okay, that’s the bad news. Now the good news. We can slow down the process of muscle deterioration and even increase muscle mass and strength into old age. 

Dr. Thomas W. Storer, director of the exercise physiology and physical function lab at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital, tells us,

Older men can indeed increase muscle mass lost as a consequence of aging. It takes work, dedication, and a plan, but it is never too late to rebuild muscle and maintain it.

As we’ll see later, Storer’s “plan” is the implementation of a good RT program.

Of course, Storer’s insight applies to women as well.

Now, here’s something to carefully consider. The loss of muscle mass will make you weaker. And it will also make you less healthy.

 The lack of muscle mass and chronic disease

It appears that muscle loss is a recipe for a poor aging process. If you lose muscle you’ll get weaker, and if you’re weaker you’ll be more prone to falls. If you suffer a fall in old age, all kinds of bad things can happen. Some of us with older parents know that well.However, many of the diseases of aging are made even worse because people have lost too much muscle mass. Researchers now know that the loss of muscle mass can exacerbate insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is highly associated with type 2 diabetes. And type 2 diabetes is associated with several other metabolic diseases like cardiovascular disease and cancer.

We don’t know all the exact association between muscle loss and poor healing in the aged. But we know for sure that people with poor muscle quality don’t age as well as those who have better muscle mass.

So, we see here that RT is something older people must do. There’s no way around it. Without engaging in some kind of RT, a poor aging process is guaranteed. 

A major limitation of AT for the older adult   

As I said previously, health professionals usually prioritize AT as a prescription for warding off chronic diseases. If they can get their patients off the couch and moving around, it’s a major victory for them.

However, AT will do little to improve muscle quality and mass. Jogging around the block may strengthen your quads a little, but it will not build the muscle your body needs for a good health outcome.

I’m not saying this disqualifies AT as an important exercise strategy for the aging adult. But AT alone is not sufficient exercise for the aging adult.

However, what if we were to prioritize RT over AT as our exercise modality of choice? Would we seriously hurt our chances of aging well?

In other words, if RT gave us little benefit in our ability to fight off type 2 diabetes (T2D), cardiovascular disease, and cancer, would it really be an optimal exercise program? Probably not.

But what if RT helps us to significantly reduce our risk of developing the chronic diseases of aging while at the same time improves our muscle mass? 

Then, if you’re an older person, it may be worth considering prioritizing RT over AT as an exercise modality.

Let’s take a look at what science actually says about how well RT does at improving our ability to fight the chronic diseases of aging.

Resistance training and increased mobility

Check out some of these statistics on falls among our aging population:

• One in four Americans aged 65+ falls each year.
• Every 11 seconds, an older adult is treated in the emergency room for a fall; every 19 minutes, an older adult dies from a fall.
• Falls are the leading cause of fatal injury and the most common cause of nonfatal trauma-related hospital admissions among older adults.

There is little doubt that as we age the loss of mobility and strength are important factors contributing to falls.

Fortunately, there is now significant evidence (see here, here and here) that acombination of AT and RT have a profound effect in reducing age-related declines in physical mobility.

However, and here is the important question, is there an improvement in physical function in older individuals when RT alone is employed?

In fact, there is!

This umbrella review that included 6,927 pre-frail and frail older individuals showed that “resistance training alone also appeared to be beneficial, in particular for improving muscular strength, gait speed and physical performance.”

Another review of 33 randomized controlled trials of 2172 participants found that “PRT (progressive resistance training) is an effective intervention for improving physical functioning in older people, including improving strength and the performance of some simple and complex activities.”

After evaluating the data from 18 RCTs involving 2,580 participants, researchers found that in community-dwelling, mobility-impaired older adults, physical performance was better when strength training was incorporated into the exercise therapy program.

At this time, researchers are not sure which exercise modality, AT or RT, is the best for improving physical performance in the older person. However, there is little doubt that RT significantly improves performance and probably as much as AT.

How does RT improve physical function?

While RT will increase neurological function and bone density, the primary way RT increases physical function is through the increase of muscle mass. 

As I mentioned before, a loss of muscle mass is associated with poor physical performance. RT is a potent stimulant for increasing muscular hypertrophy and mass. See here and here. Increased muscle mass means increased strength, and if you are stronger, then your physical performance will also increase.

Remember that AT alone cannot produce the same increase in skeletal muscle mass and strength as RT.

Okay, so far we have learned that AT and RT combined will probably give us the best opportunity for increasing physical performance. But RT alone is also a potent prescription for guarding against age-related declines in physical functioning.

How much RT is necessary to ward off frailty?

This meta-analysis found that high-intensity RT (≥70% of 1RM) tended to be more effective than low-to-moderate intensity RT (30–69% of 1RM) in combating loss of mobility.

In order to reach these kinds of 1RMs, it would appear that heavy-weight might have to be used. However this study found that body-weight exercises (e.g. body weight squats) alone could achieve similar results as those achieved by an external load such as free weights.

I should note here that all of the above studies are extremely difficult to perform. Different parameters such as exercise modalities, frequency of exercise, and measuring methods can differ from study to study.

However, I think it’s safe to say that RT alone is extremely effective in improving physical performance in older individuals. 

Does resistance training help in the fight against type 2 diabetes?

As we age, our body’s sensitivity to insulin and subsequent glycemic control decreases. Again, it’s another one of those consequences of making it to your golden years.

Unfortunately, this predisposes older people to type 2 diabetes (T2D). In fact, about 26.8% of Americans over the age of 65 have T2D.

Now, there’s an important connection between muscle mass and T2D. After you eat,about 80% of the glucose from that meal is deposited into your skeletal muscle. If you don’t have a lot of skeletal muscle, then your body’s ability to effectively clear the glucose will be diminished.

Conversely, the more muscle you have, the better insulin sensitivity you’ll experience. The lack of insulin sensitivity (insulin resistance) is highly associated with T2D.  

Scientific data has also shown that there’s an inverse relationship between lean body mass and insulin resistance. In older people, scientists have shown that this relationship is independent of obesity but does seem to be made worse by it.

Also, as most individuals grow older, their muscles weaken, and they move less. This small study showed that in elderly, obese, pre-diabetic individuals, after two weeks of inactivity (e.g. hospitalization or recovering from and illness), experienced worsening of glycemic control that did not correct after two weeks of normal activity.  

Interestingly, in 2002, a Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) study of individuals who were at a high risk for T2D, showed greater reduction (58 vs. 31%) in the incidence of T2D when diet and exercise were prescribed as opposed to therapy with the drug metformin. Metformin is one of the frontline pharmaceutical treatments for T2D. 

Unfortunately, the main exercise protocol the DPP focused on was AT. There was little consideration of the beneficial effects of RT on glycemic control.

However, we do have some excellent data on the benefits of RT on glucose metabolism.

The benefits of RT on glucose metabolism

The scientific data appears to support resistance exercise training as an excellent prescription for attenuating the effects of impaired glucose metabolism.

In 2017, a study of 170, sedentary, obese, pre-diabetic adults, aged 50–69 was conducted. These individuals were placed on a 3 month, 2 times a week, progressive, supervised, whole-body (1 set at 70–80% of a one maximum repetition) resistance training program. The study revealed that after only three month, about 34% of the individuals were no longer pre-diabetic.

A large analysis conducted in 2012, on data taken from Health Professionals’ Study of approximately 32,000 men between the ages of 40–75 years, showed that men engaging in at least 150 min/week of RET had a 34% lower risk of developing diabetes over an 18-year period. 

More recently, a 2017 meta-analysis of 360 older patients with T2D, who did RT for at least 8 weeks showed clinically relevant improvements in glycated-hemoglobin (HbA1c) and muscle strength.

See also here, here and here.

One caveat to remember here is that these are association studies. Diet plays an important role in the formation and progression of insulin resistance. We don’t know in the above studies how much of a part diet played.

That, notwithstanding, it appears that there’s excellent data to support the conclusion that RT has an important role to play in prevention and treatment of insulin resistance in older adults. 

How much resistance training is enough to help mitigate insulin resistance?

At this time, we don’t know exactly what optimal amount of RT provides the best help for glycemic control.

However, we do have some evidence. Gordon et al., preformed a systematic review in 2009 that suggested that exercise intensity is the key variable and that performing high-intensity RT (≥70% 1RM) results in the greatest improvement in glycemic control. 

However, this 2017 study, of 62 T2D patients showed that when matched for volume, there was no significant difference in glycemic control with high- or low-intensity RET (75 vs. 50% of 1RM, respectively).

So the takeaway here is that RT is an excellent prescription for helping to improve glycemic control.

Does resistance exercise training help in the prevention of cardiovascular disease?

The CDC tells us that one person dies every 36 seconds in the United States from cardiovascular disease and about 655,000 Americans die from heart disease each year.

That’s about 25% of all deaths in a year in the U.S.!

There is little disagreement among health professionals that regular exercise, especially AT, will improve cardiovascular health. 

So, it’s not difficult to see why physicians put a greater emphasis on AT rather than RT.

However, does RT also provide a significant benefit to cardiovascular health?

Consider some of these recent findings.

Health professionals’ follow-up study

In 2002, researchers examined data from the Health Professionals’ Follow-up Study with the intent to assess potential coronary heart disease (CHD) risk factors, identify newly diagnosed cases of CHD, and assess levels of leisure-time physical activity.

From the data of 44,452 men, researchers were able to conclude that RT for at least 30 min per week resulted in a similar risk reduction compared to 2.5 h of brisk walking in fatal and nonfatal myocardial infarction

Women’s health study

In 2017, researchers looked at data from 35,754 healthy women (mean age, 62.6 years, range 47.0 – 97.8) from the Women’s Health Study concerning the effect of RT on cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Researchers found that women engaging in 60–120 min of RT per week had a similar 22% reduced risk of incident CVD as women engaging in 60–120 min of AT per week. 

Small comparison study

A small 1992 study of 37 previously untrained males (aged 50 ± 9 years) was performed to gauge the effect of RT and AT on CHD risk factor intervention.

Fourteen participants engaged in RT (whole-body, progressive 2 sets at 60–70% 1RM)), 13 in AT (treadmill walking/jogging (75–85% heart rate reserve)) and 10 did no exercise.

Researchers discovered at the end of 20 weeks that RT and AT have comparable effects on risk factors for CHD. 

Okay, so here we have three independent studies that confirm that RT and AT produce similar results when it comes to reducing your chances of developing CVD.

I’ll throw in two more studies for good measure.

A 2017 study of 403,199 participants revealed that “men and women with greater GS (grip strength) had lower risks of all-cause and CVD mortality, independent of adiposity.”

Apparently, the stronger your muscles are, the lower your risk of dying from CVD.

Getting even more specific, this study showed that RT will improve several risk factors associated with CVD to the same degree as AT. These include blood pressure, blood lipids, insulin sensitivity, and vascular function.

Now check out the benefits RT will offer concerning one specific cardiac risk factor.

Resistance training and its positive effect on lowering blood pressure

Hypertension is a well known risk factor in the development of CDV. Physicians often recommend several life-style strategies to help treat hypertension. These include things like weight loss, lowering stress, and exercise.

But what about RT as a specific modality for lowering our blood pressure (BP)?

Two meta-analyses have shown that in healthy adults, RT can indeed reduce systolic and diastolic blood pressure to the same or greater degree than AT. See here, and here.

Notably the second meta-analyses also showed that individuals with hypertension also benefited from RT and even showed larger reductions in blood pressure than healthy individuals.

So, RT could be an important prescription for lowering the blood pressure for the over 100 million people suffering from hypertension.

Is RT training dangerous for your heart?

If RT is effective for lowering the risk of CVD, then why don’t more physicians prescribe it?

Doctors probably assume the risk of injury from RT is a lot higher than AT.

One specific worry is that high pressure loads from RT can cause cardiac hypertrophy or an enlarged heart. It is believed that this can lead to a higher death rate. 

However, the evidence doesn’t seem to confirm this conclusion. Consider the following.

This study found that excessive blood pressure elevation is seen only with high-intensity RET (≥70% of 1RM) while lighter-to-moderate intensity RET (30–69% of 1RM) didn’t appear to be a concern. 

The authors of the study state, “Weight lifting is a relatively safe sport with few instances where the excessive elevations in blood pressure, demonstrated in this paper, are known to result in injury.”

Note, however, this study was done on young healthy men.

Another study that pooled together data from five studies evaluating adverse events during low-to-moderate intensity RT (30–69% of 1RM) in older adults with CVD found that RT was actually associated with a lower rate of adverse cardiovascular complications than AT. 

Finally, a recent meta-analysis of 653 older adults who have or at risk for developing CVD demonstrated that arterial stiffness (a risk factor for predicting CVD mortality) does not increase or worsen following RT. 

So, there doesn’t seem to be sufficient evidence that RT is dangerous to your heart.

Here’s an important point about lower intensity training. If you do RT at a lower intensity, you won’t lose any of the benefits of improved blood pressure.

Okay, have I convinced you yet that RT might be the exercise you concentrate on to improve your aging process?

If you’re wavering, this might tip the scale. Let’s see if RT helps in reducing your cancer risk.

Does RT help to reduce the risk of getting cancer?

The American Cancer Society estimates that “in 2020, there will be an estimated 1.8 million new cancer cases diagnosed and 606,520 cancer deaths in the United States.”

Researchers now know that there seems to be some common risk factors associated with many cancer diagnoses. In particular, T2D, CVD, obesity, and a sedentary lifestyle.

Since we know that exercise will improve the above factors, it makes sense that increasing your level of physical activity will reduce the risk of getting cancer, dying from cancer, and improving recovery from cancer treatment. See here.

But does RT specifically help in our fight against cancer?

This recent meta-analyses of over 80,000 adults over the age of 30 showed that performing RT (at least two times per week) was associated with a 34% reduced risk for cancer death.

However, adhering to the AT guidelines provided no statistical benefit. 

A 2014 study of 2863 male and female cancer survivors, aged 18 to 81years old, showed that RT at least once a week reduced all-cause mortality by 33%.

This large cohort study from 2017 showed that following a diagnosis of cancer individuals who engaged in regular AT and RT “were observed to have a lower relative risk of cancer mortality and recurrence and experienced fewer/less severe adverse effects.”

These findings all make sense in light of the fact that increased muscularity is associated with an overall decrease in cancer mortality.

There have been several reasons offered for the positive effects RT has on reducing the risk of cancer. They include the following:

• Improved insulin sensitivity and body composition
• Improved immune function
• Decreased inflammatory response
• Increased secretion of myokines

So, as we can see, there is excellent evidence that RT is a potent prescription for reducing our risk of cancer.

What’s the best type of RT for warding off the chronic diseases of aging?

It’s difficult to definitively answer this question. It depends on your age, current health, goals, and lifestyle. 

Initially, I started with dumbbells and a month later graduated to a barbell. I set up a power rack in my basement and started using the Starting Strength program.

There are, though, some parameters everyone can follow:

1. Always check with your doctor first before you start any exercise program. Make sure he clears you for the program you want to do.
2. The best program is the one you are committed to do.
3. You don’t have to use a barbell or dumbbells. Bodyweight exercise (squats, push-ups, pull-ups) to failure (you can’t do any more) can be very effective for improving health. Resistance bands can also be used. 
4. Light-to-moderate relative loads (30–69% of 1RM) can be just as effective as lifting heavy relative loads (≥70% of 1RM) for exerting health benefits. See here.

Now if you think you’re too old to start strength training watch this.

So my last word is this. If Gussie can do it, you can do it. Just get up and do it!

Thanks for reading. God bless!

Intro photo : Image by Henryk Niestrój from Pixabay

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The post Why At 64 I Prioritize Strength Training Over Aerobic Training appeared first on Gluten Free Homestead.

As Beatles lovers, Barbara and I have sometimes laughed about what it would be like when we turned sixty-four. If you’re a Beatles fan, you know why.

Their song When I’m Sixty-Four is a story about a young man wondering if the love of his life will still cherish him when he’s sixty-four. The man recognizes that growing older changes you. He sings,

“When I get older losing my hair
Many years from now
Will you still be sending me a Valentine
Birthday greetings bottle of wine.”

Then he laments,

“Will you still need me
Will you still feed me
When I’m sixty-four”

Well, at sixty-four, Barbara and I still need each other, and we still feed each other. And, as you can see from her recipes, I get fed pretty good. 

As far as the negative effects of aging go, we’re not experiencing a lot of downside to being sixty-four. We’re both stronger, healthier, and have more vitality than we had 20 years ago.

However, health officials are constantly reminding us that there is a downside to being 64. We’re told that because of our age, we’re close to that “high risk” category for catching “bad things”. You know what I mean.

That may be so. But it’s not really a major concern for us. Here’s why.

This recent virus has taught us that maintaining good health into old age is critical for helping us survive stressful health events. This is obvious when we consider that a large percentage of older individuals who succumbed to the illness had other health issues such as diabetes, pulmonary disease, heart disease or obesity.

So, over the last 10 years, Barbara and I have done much to strengthen our bodies so that even if we did “catch something bad”, we could quickly heal from it, God willing. And, yes, we also still take all the sensible precautions that are recommended.

But our major strategy for protecting ourselves from the harms of a stressful health event in our older years is to strengthen our bodies to heal quickly or fight off any bad things that may come our way.

In this post, I’ll tell you how we’re doing that.

Two major keys to maintaining good health

In order to maintain good health into your older years, health professionals have stressed two lifestyle areas that you must try to optimize.

The first, of course, is a good diet. Second, health professionals have also stressed our need for a regular exercise program.

Regular exercise is so critical to good health that recently the Academy of Medical Sciences has called it a “miracle cure”. 

Since we haven’t shared our current diets and workout programs recently, we thought we’d take the time to give you an update.

As I mentioned before, we don’t feel like 64. Barbara certainly doesn’t look a day over 39 (see why I’m her DH). We’re both stronger than we were at 34 years old, and neither one of us takes any prescription meds.

Okay, let’s get to it. Barb first.

Barbara’s diet

I’ll start by introducing a sensitive issue. Barbara says be very careful when discussing this topic. Okay, I can do that.

Maintaining a healthy weight has been a central focus of our diet plan for at least 10 years.

For Barbara, however, it’s been a 40 year battle. One that she’s actually won! She’s maintained an ideal weight for about 3 years now. She fluctuates about 2.5 pounds in either direction depending upon the season.

Nope, I’m not going to tell you her weight! But it’s ideal. Not only according to me but according to the ideal weight charts from 1960.

This is how she does it:

Macronutrients

We don’t count macronutrients anymore. We’ve come to know approximately how much carbohydrates, protein and fat are contained in our food. And since we know what our targets are for our macros, we eat accordingly. 

Here’s a general analysis of Barb’s diet.

Carbohydrates

Limiting carbs is Barbara’s central focus. Her carb intake is always lower than 40 grams a day. Some days lower than thirty. Her carbs come from low glycemic vegetables, but she does like blueberries and the occasional apple.

There is a caveat here. We do drink red wine occasionally. We are currently enjoying the wines from Dry Farms Wines. They are billed as a keto-friendly wine because of their low sugar content. So far they haven’t had any effect on her weight.

Protein

Both of us are very conscious of our protein intake. Maintaining good muscle mass is extremely important at our age. In order to do this, we must get adequate protein intake.

Barbara consumes at least 30 grams of protein three times a day. This is the minimum amount someone our age needs. We both eat high quality protein such as beef and chicken. To find out why adequate protein is important for older adults see my post here.

Fat

Several years ago Barbara and I went on a ketogenic diet. The problem here is that some keto diets tend to be high in fat. She found out that too much fat in her diet is a no-no!

At first she lost significant weight, but then hit a plateau and couldn’t lose any more. She found that when she cut down her fat intake, the excess weight came off like butter. Maybe it was the extra butter in her coffee, lol.

There is a caveat here as well. She does take 1 tablespoon of MCT oil everyday. Her mom suffered from early Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and she really wants to guard against that. MCT oil is converted directly into ketones in our body. Researchers now know that ketones are an excellent fuel source for the brain in lieu of glucose. 

One theory on the cause of AD is the brain’s inability to use glucose as a fuel. This is why AD is commonly called Type 3 diabetes. If the brain can’t utilize glucose, it will essentially be starved and begin to break down. But ketones can replace glucose as a fuel. See my post on Alzheimer’s here.

Remember, though, oil is a type of fat. To minimize its dreaded effect of causing weight gain, Barb puts in some extra time on the treadmill or goes for a walk outside. 

One note here is that Barb is 100% gluten-free. She doesn’t have celiac, but three of us in the family have non-celiac gluten sensitivity so she just refrains as well. 

Fasting

Barbara tried intermittent fasting (24 – 48 hours) several years ago. She found that this didn’t help her significantly. What does appear to help is time delayed eating. We generally allow at least 16 hours of fasting between our last meal of the day and our first of the next day.

An overall low-insulin producing diet

Overall, Barbara’s diet can be characterized as a low-insulin producing diet. By limiting high glycemic carbs, her overall glucose intake is low.

Remember that one of insulin’s primary jobs is to transport glucose out of your bloodstream and bring it to cells for energy. If you consume a lot of complex high glycemic carbs over a span of years, you’ll definitely gain weight. I didn’t have to tell you that, right?

But this continued consumption of carbs will also cause an enormous flow of glucose into your bloodstream. That means your pancreas is going to secrete huge amounts of insulin. Over time, this over secretion of insulin can lead to a condition called insulin resistance.

Insulin resistance has been highly associated with Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.

As I mentioned, since Barb has a family history of AD, she wants to maintain good insulin sensitivity.

Also, as we age, our body’s sensitivity to insulin decreases and subsequently our glycemic control decreases. That means your chances of developing type 2 diabetes is increased. It’s one of those consequences of making it to your golden years.

So increasing insulin sensitivity is key to maintaining good health, at any age!

Okay, I’ll mention one more caveat. We’ll both have a small piece of 88% dark chocolate once a day with our green tea. The sugar content is pretty negligible, but the taste is divine.

Let’s take a look at supplements.

Barbara’s supplementation

Barb swears by her collagen supplement. She says it keeps her nails strong and her hair lustrous. Who am I to argue with that? She adds one scoop a day to her first cup of coffee.

Okay, let’s look at vitamins. We both take 5000 IU of vitamin D3 a day. Definitely make sure you get your Vitamin D levels checked. It’s critical to your health. Many people who didn’t do well with the current virus had low vitamin D levels.

We both also take magnesium daily. If you’re on a low-carb diet, you need extra magnesium.

Okay, here’s something we take just to be on the safe side. It’s reported that vitamin K2 is helpful in guarding against heart disease. See here. This is the one we take.

That’s about it for Barb’s diet. Let’s move on to exercise.

Barbara’s exercise program

Barbara and I have been going on a 30 minute brisk walk five days a week for about 10 years. When the weather is bad, she’ll use our treadmill instead.

While Barbara really enjoys walking, she’ll tell you that it’s not the most important part of her exercise program.

You see, Barb is also a strength trainer. She’s been doing barbell and dumbbell training for over 5 years. (In my next post I’ll explain why strength training is so important for us older adults).

This is her routine (all exercises are done once a week):

Bench Press: Barbara is currently doing 4 sets x 3 repetitions x 45 pounds. That’s an olympic bar with no weights on it. She was up to 65 pounds but reduced after she hurt her shoulder.

No, she didn’t hurt it by lifting weights. I think it was from holding, with one hand, her humongous Lodge cast iron skillet. She’s said she’s feeling better now and is ready to start increasing her weights.

Squat: Because of her shoulder, she had been doing bodyweight squats with a 25 pound weight. She had been doing 3 sets of 5 repetitions. This week she went back to the 45 pound olympic bar for squats with no more shoulder pain. She’ll be gradually adding more weight to get back up to her max of 70 pounds.

Barbara used to have terrible knee pain. Now it’s a thing of the past. She attributes a big part of this to squats.

Overhead Press: She does 3 sets x 5 repetitions with 15 pound dumbbells. She has no pain at all with this exercise now.

Deadlift: Barbara is actually an excellent deadlifter. She was up to 130 pounds for 3 reps. Deadlifts are necessary to build up overall body strength. Unfortunately Barb’s recent shoulder injury prevented her from doing them. However, she says she’s ready to get back to “pulling a lot of weight again.” That means heavy deadlifting in powerlifting lingo.

She’s a pip.

Okay I think that covers her diet and exercise program. If you have any questions, shoot her a message.

John’s diet

First, I’m 100% gluten-free. Fifteen years ago, after trying everything to recover from years of severe chronic fatigue syndrome, I learned about the problems that gluten could cause in the areas of intestinal impermeability. This permeability can allow all kinds of toxins to enter your bloodstream and affect your immune system. 

Also, it turned out I had many of the symptoms associated with non-celiac gluten sensitivity. So I ditched the gluten.

Did I feel better immediately? No, it was just the beginning of the journey.

The problem with going GF was that I’m a carboholic. At the time, manufacturers were coming out with their new GF brands (alternatives to wheat products), and I was consuming them like crazy. Thus I ballooned up to 193 pounds. Unfortunately, most of that weight was in my abdomen.

Okay, long story short. I discovered the paleo diet and lost about 10 pounds. I also started feeling much better. Read my post on the differences between a GF and paleo diet.

Then I went low carb and lost another 10 pounds and was feeling even better. I was well enough to even start lifting weights.

Even though I was feeling much better, I still had a big problem. I was carrying too much weight around my abdomen.

My skinny-fat body type

I have a classic skinny-fat body type. Others call it TOFI (thin-outside-fat-inside). The problem with this body type is that while you may not look obese on the outside, on the inside there’s a disproportionate amount of fat stored in your abdomen.

Many skinny-fat individuals also have a lack of lean muscle mass. 

Health experts tell us that this is an extremely unhealthy body type where the risk of heart disease is significantly increased. See my post here.

So my goal was to see if I could improve my health in this area. Since I was already low carb (< 70 carbs/day), I had to do something more drastic.

I started reading about the benefits of the ketogenic diet (I was consuming <25 grams of carbs/day). This was 3 years ago. See my post on keto diet here. 

So I went keto. Within 3 months, I was down to 163 pounds, lost most of the fat around my waist, was making consistent strength gains, and I FELT GREAT. I wasn’t 100%, but I was getting there.

A year and a half ago, I went on a carnivore diet. Have you heard of that diet? I eat a 95% animal based diet. 

Because the carnivore diet is the ultimate elimination diet it has lately gained a lot of popularity. So if you have any kind of suspected autoimmune problems, it may be a way to help in that area.

The second reason is because I wanted to increase my protein intake. I was still lifting heavy, and you need protein to make muscle. Also older individuals need more protein, not less protein, than younger people. See my post on protein here.

Now, I’ll get into some specifics.

Protein

My diet is protein centered. I consume at least 40 grams of protein three times a day. 

Breakfast protein: (like Barb I eat at about 12PM) 3 eggs, bacon or ham, some chicken or ground beef.

Lunch Protein: ground beef (minimum 7 oz.)

Dinner Protein: one of the following — steak, chicken, ground beef, liver

I will supplement with 20 grams of whey protein after working out. I also take a scoop of collagen at 12PM.

There’s been some controversy over the fact that too much protein can damage your kidneys. This recent review says this belief has not been scientifically proven.

Carbohydrates

My carbs are usually under 25 grams/day. I will have some broccoli or zucchini daily but not a lot. I may have a small portion of white rice after a heavy bench session just to get a glycogen refeed for my muscles.

Fat

My fat intake is generally from the food I eat and whatever fat Barb cooks with (olive oil or butter).

Treats

I’ll have some dark chocolate daily and some non-fat Greek yogurt after dinner. Like Barb, I’ll occasionally have a small glass of the low-sugar wine.

Supplements

I take 5000 units of vitamin D3 daily. Magnesium is another important supplement, especially if you’re on a low-carb diet. I take this one. It’s a large tablet and little more difficult to swallow than the one Barb takes.

Like Barbara, I take vitamin K2 daily.

Sodium is another important part of a low-carb diet. Throughout the day, I’ll take some Redmond’s Real Salt. See here.

As you can see, my diet, like Barb’s, is insulin friendly. There’s not a lot of glucose in it.

John’s exercise program

Like Barbara, I go for a brisk walk (3.5 mph) at least 5 days a week. While walking will give you some cardiovascular and psychological benefit, it will not build muscle to any significant amount.

And maintaining good muscle mass is critical to aging well. See my upcoming post.

In order to maintain and even increase muscle mass as you age, you must do some kind of resistance training. Yes, you can build muscle even into your eighties.

Currently I’m using the Wendler 5/3/1 barbell program. This program focuses on four main lifts – deadlift, squats, bench press, and overhead press. Each lift is done on one day. So I lift heavy at least four days a week. Each session takes about 40 min.

These are my current 1 repetition maximum lifts. I’m 64 years old and weigh 164 pounds. Just to note, I’ve been lifting for over 6 years. I started by lifting 20 pound dumbbells.

Deadlift: 300 pounds

Squat: 205 (yes, my legs are my weakest link )

Bench Press: 190

Overhead Press: 115

These totals represent the strongest I’ve been in over 30 years.

After I became strong enough to use a barbell (45 pounds), I used the Starting Strength Method. In my opinion, this is the best strength training program available for someone who wants to get started, regardless of age. Of course, you should always first check with your doctor before you start any exercise program!

As I’m about to turn 64, I will say that I feel the best that I have in 30 years. I’m stronger and have more vitality than I thought possible only a short 6 years ago.

Okay, so these are our strategies for aging well. We’ve incorporated these into our overall lifestyle so it’s not really difficult to follow.

So far, we think it’s working well. Thanks for reading!

God bless and have a great week!

Read this next

Staying Healthy: 8 Practical And Easy Ways

Your Attitude Toward Aging Might Affect Your Odds Of Developing Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s Disease Is Surging Among Millennials – What’s Going On?

How To Start Strength Training Over 40 

How to Recompose Your Dad Bod in Less Than a Year (Even if You’re in Your Fifties)

Why Barbell Squats Might Be The Most Important Exercise You Can Do

The post How We’re Staying Healthy At 64: Barbara and John’s Diet And Exercise Strategy appeared first on Gluten Free Homestead.

Many of you in the baby boomer generation have already experienced this terrible scenario: A few years back, you noticed your aged mom or dad starting to forget things. Then it started to get worse. And then before you knew it, they were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia.

This is not an unusual occurrence. In the U.S. alone, there are more than 5 million people living with dementia and about 70% of those have Alzheimer’s disease. And these numbers are expected to increase.

But if you think Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is only something “old people” get, consider this. A recent report from the health insurer Blue Cross Blue Shield revealed that AD and early on-set dementia is surging among millennials. 

That’s right. If you’re one of the older millennials and you think that AD is only something you have to worry about when you get older, then think again.

This observation from Blue Cross Blue Shield seems to correlate with a new study performed by researchers at Stony Brook University.

The researchers at Stony Brook found that communication among brain regions can begin destabilizing in individuals much earlier than scientists previously thought. Some individuals showed brain deterioration as early as their forties which worsened with age. 

The importance of this is that as brain destabilization increases, cognition decreases.

The Stony Brook study also found that younger adults who had type 2 diabetes (T2D) exhibited brain network destabilization (i.e brain age) that was found in much older non-diabetics.  

This finding was not novel. Many previous researchers have found that T2D and insulin resistance, a condition found in T2D, are highly associated with AD. 

The bad news and the good news

Okay, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of good news here. Americans are getting dementia at younger ages. Our brains begin deteriorating at much younger ages than we thought. And if we have T2D or insulin resistance, our chances of getting dementia probably increase.

So what do we have to look forward to as we age? A progressive loss of cognition, possibly at a younger age with the possibility of something far worse such as AD. 

Not necessarily! There’s a silver lining in this cloud.

The Stony Brook study also included a unique experiment that seems to confirm what other research has suggested. Dementia may be significantly tied to diet and how our brains use glucose for fuel.

This means that if we can adhere to some common sense dietary guidelines, we may be able to significantly reduce our chances of getting some form of dementia whether in early or later age.

Let’s take a look at the Blue Cross Blue Shield report and the Stony Brook study, and then see what we can do to improve our brain function and cognition throughout our adult life.

Alzheimer’s disease among millennials is surging

The major private health insurer Blue Cross Blue Shield reported that between 2013 – 2017, AD and early onset dementia increased 83% among commercially insured Americans aged 30 to 44.

In 2017 alone, about 131,000 commercially insured Americans between the ages of 30 and 64 were diagnosed with either condition.

Among these Americans, those between the ages of 30 to 64, early-onset diagnoses increased by 200%.

Individuals who were in the 45 to 54-year-old range experienced a 50% jump and those 55 to 64 experienced a 40% increase in diagnoses. 

The average patient diagnosed with either AD or early-onset dementia was 49. Women were disproportionately more affected.

These statistics are nothing less than alarming and seem to be in line with other reports suggesting that early-onset AD is on the rise.

John Dwyer, president of the Global Alzheimer’s Platform Foundation, had this to say about the report,

Research has shown that Alzheimer’s disease starts in the brain years before clinical symptoms become apparent. This report shows that people as young as 30 have outward symptoms.

While the report alerted us to the increased incidence of dementia in younger adults, there were two important things the report didn’t tell us. 

What about the APOE4 gene? 

The first thing I would have liked to have known from this report was how many of those experiencing early-onset AD had the apolipoprotein E4 (APOE4) gene allele.

Okay, I realize the report was not a medical but a statistical report so I understand its exclusion. However, this is something important to be aware of concerning your risk of getting AD, no matter how old you are.

The APOE gene has three alleles or forms. They are APOE2, APOE3, and APOE4.

Each person receives one allele from each parent. If you have one copy of the APOE4 gene allele and one copy of the APOE3 allele (expressed as APOE3/APOE4), you have a 20-25% risk of developing mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or dementia due to AD by age 85. 

If you have APOE4/APOE4 genotype, you have a 30-55% risk of developing MCI or dementia due to AD by age 85. There is also some evidence that individuals who have the APOE4/APOE4 genotype are at a greater risk for developing AD at an earlier age.

However, if you have the APOE4 allele, you don’t necessarily have to get AD.

Now, consider the risk for the other genotypes. The risk for the APOE3/APOE3 genotype is 10-15%, while the risk for someone possessing one copy of APOE2 alleles is less than this.

So, if you carry the APOE4 allele, your risk of developing AD dramatically increases. 

The reason why I stressed this point is that researchers are now finding that the APOE allele may give us a clue on why some people develop AD at earlier ages. This may help healthcare individuals find ways to prevent and successfully treat the disease. More on that later.

Now to the other question I have about the Blue Cross Blue Shield report.

How many younger Americans getting dementia have T2D or insulin resistance?

In the U.S. today, the rates of younger people (<40 years old) with type 2 diabetes and obesity are skyrocketing.

And, as I mentioned before, insulin resistance is closely associated with type 2 diabetes and also obesity. And it’s also associated with dementia. More on that later.

Also, about 1 in 3 Americans have pre-diabetes. While this condition does not have the symptoms of type 2 diabetes, it is also characterized by insulin resistance.

So, we know that insulin resistance is closely associated with dementia, type 2 diabetes, and obesity, and these are all increasing among younger adults. Could this then be a possible reason why younger adults are experiencing increased rates of dementia?

It’s possible, but the report didn’t give us any stats to see if there was a correlation. Also, it would be exceedingly difficult to perform a clinical trial to find out.

Let’s look closer at the Stony Brook Study to see if we can strengthen the link between T2D, insulin resistance, and AD.

The Stony Brook University study on brain network stability

Neuroscientists believe that cognitive function results from interactions of various brain areas operating in large scale networks. Further, as the loss of functional communication between these networks decreases, poorer cognition results.

Lilianne R. Mujica-Parodi and fellow researchers at Stony Brook University used neuroimaging data from almost 1000 people, aged 18 to 88, and observed the stability of brain networks as individuals age.

The images showed that destabilization of brain networks progresses as we age and this can begin as young as 47-years-old with the most dramatic changes occurring at age 60.

The Stony Brook researchers were surprised to see this type of brain aging, as they called it, beginning at such an early age.

As I mentioned before, the researchers also found that young type 2 diabetics showed deterioration consistent with older non-diabetics.

So the Blue Cross Blue Shield report discovered that the number of younger adults who have dementia is rising. And Stony Brook showed that indeed brain aging can occur at younger ages than previously thought, especially among type 2 diabetics.

However, Mujica-Parodi and her colleagues didn’t end their study at just identifying how early brain network stability deterioration starts.

They wanted to see if they could discover the cause of the deterioration process and if something could be done about it. To do this, they added another component to the study.

The hypometabolism of glucose and network stability

The Stony Brook researchers had some clues as to what causes functional communication destabilization between brain regions.

Kuehn BM. In Alzheimer Research, Glucose Metabolism Moves to Center Stage. JAMA. 2020;323(4):297–299. doi:10.1001/jama.2019.20939

Recently, several important studies have shown that AD and other types of dementia may have a metabolic origin — specifically the hypometabolism or underutilization of glucose by neuronal cells.

In this 2017 study, researchers observed positron emission tomography (PET) scans of individuals with dementia and Alzheimer’s and concluded that glucose hypometabolism was a reliable indicator for tracking the progression of cognitive decline. 

An earlier study also involving PET scans revealed similar results. People at high risk for developing AD showed decreased rates of glucose metabolism in the brain decades before the appearance of AD symptoms. 

What’s glucose hypometabolism got to do with AD?

Although the brain accounts for only about 2% of the body by weight, it requires about 20% of its energy intake. This energy mainly comes in the form of glucose.

In order to get that glucose into the cells of brain neurons, the hormone insulin must work efficiently.

However, in diseases like type 2 diabetes (T2D), metabolic syndrome, obesity, and even pre-diabetes, insulin doesn’t work properly.

Let’s take a quick look at insulin dysregulation as this will help us understand why glucose hypometabolism is so important in the development of AD.

Insulin dysregulation

T2D is a disease primarily characterized by hyperinsulinemia. That means that there is too much insulin being secreted by the pancreas. 

There are several reasons why this happens. I believe the theory that has the most validity is that it is primarily caused by the constant overconsumption of refined carbohydrates including sugar. 

These foods are ultimately broken down in your body into glucose. It’s insulin’s job to get the glucose (fuel) into your cells.

However, the more glucose that’s around (from eating too many refined carbohydrates), the more insulin will be secreted. If this happens for years, and insulin remains constantly high, there’s a good chance your cells will become resistant to the effects of insulin. That means your cells can’t get any more glucose into them.

(This is one reason why T2D is often discovered by high levels of glucose in the blood. Since insulin is having a hard time getting glucose into body tissues, it accumulates in the bloodstream.)

This is the result of hyperinsulinemia and ultimately insulin resistance.

For a good discussion on insulin resistance, see here. For a technical biochemical explanation of insulin resistance, see here.

What’s important though is that as the above process continues, the cells of your peripheral body organs such as the pancreas, liver, and even the brain can become resistant to the effects of insulin.

Insulin resistance in the brain

One of the effects of insulin resistance in the brain is the decreased availability of glucose to its neuronal cells. 

Your brain needs a lot of energy in the form of glucose to function correctly. If it can’t get enough glucose, its structures and functions will break down. This will eventually result in cognitive decline. And the longer it goes on, the worse it becomes.

There are several large meta-analyses suggesting that insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and poor glycemic control are risk factors for later-life dementia. See here, here, here and here.

Type 2 diabetes is so closely linked with AD that AD is now commonly referred to as Type 3 Diabetes. 

Further, a recent perspective in JAMA titled “In Alzheimer’s Research, Glucose Metabolism Moves to Center Stage” highlights the accumulating research suggesting glucose hypometabolism in the brain is not just a marker of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), but may perhaps be the cause of it. 

So the Stony Brook researchers’ theory that the association of AD with glucose hypometabolism was supported by some solid research.

Stony Brook extends their study using ketones as a brain fuel

The researchers at Stony Brook understood the relationship between insulin resistance, glucose, and the brain, but they also knew that glucose is not the only fuel available to the brain.

The human brain can use ketones as an alternative fuel source. 

Our bodies can access ketones in two ways. We can produce them endogenously in our liver from long-and medium-chain free fatty acids released from adipose tissue during fasting or when following a low-carbohydrate/moderate-protein/high-fat diet.

Or we can get them exogenously through supplementation with a d-β-hydroxybutyrate ketone ester.

The important thing is that ketones can fuel the brain without the need for insulin.

Relying on this concept, the researchers at Stony Brook devised a study to see if network stabilization increased when ketones were used as a primary fuel.

The Stony Brook ketone experiment

The Stony Brook experiment included 41 young (< 50 years old) healthy adults. Each individual was placed on a combination of different diets. They included a standard diet (primary fuel from glucose), a ketone producing diet, a high glucose diet, and a diet that included exogenous ketone.

MRI neuroscanning was used to measure brain stabilization.

Researchers found that brain activity increased and functional networks were stabilized by ketosis (the production of ketones), whether it was induced by a standard ketogenic diet, fasting, or exogenous ketones. All three interventions produced similar results.

The researchers were particularly surprised at how fast the brain responded to ketones. It was one week following a ketogenic diet and one hour after ingesting exogenous ketones.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Mar 2020, 117 (11) 6170-6177; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1913042117

The standard diet and high glucose diet produced a destabilizing effect on brain networks.

The significance of these findings is enormous for those at high risk for early brain aging, dementia, and AD. 

If these conditions are related to a lack of fuel because of the hypometabolism of glucose, then adding an alternate fuel like ketones has a strong possibility of restoring the brain to a more youthful function.

The study did stress the fact that these were healthy young adults. It also suggested that more work has to be done in older populations.

Nonetheless, Mujica-Parodi explains the significance of their findings,

The bad news is that we see the first signs of brain aging much earlier than was previously thought. However, the good news is that we may be able to prevent or reverse these effects with diet, mitigating the impact of encroaching hypometabolism by exchanging glucose for ketones as fuel for neurons.

The implications of the Stony Brook study

Mujica-Parodi and her colleagues showed that a ketogenic diet can restore energy to the brain and possibly produce a subsequent improvement in brain activity.

However, much more investigation must be done to see if ketones can have a direct effect on increasing cognitive performance in older populations.

But here’s the important point. Insulin resistance and the subsequent hypometabolism of glucose appears to be a large contributing factor in the development of dementia and AD, even in young adults.

And if insulin resistance can be detected early and treated, that could go a long way in preventing or mitigating the severity of dementia for many people, especially for those who are at a high risk.

Detecting insulin resistance

Most people find out they have insulin resistance when their doctor diagnoses them with type 2 diabetes. This usually happens when a blood test reveals that their fasting blood sugar or Hb1Ac test is high.

However, insulin resistance like AD and dementia can be present and progressing long before symptoms arise.

So, if you are significantly overweight or have a body type suggesting you have a lot of visceral fat (skinny-fat) and have a normal fasting blood glucose or Hb1Ac, you might want to ask your doctor about having your fasting insulin checked. See here.

Treating insulin resistance

As I’ve already stressed, a key to fighting AD appears to be overcoming the effect insulin resistance has on glucose metabolism in the brain.

The Stony Brook researchers showed that ketones as a brain fuel can be one way to do that.

However, what about individuals who have insulin resistance and don’t yet show outward symptoms of cognitive decline? Can insulin resistance be treated in order to prevent premature brain aging?

As I mentioned before, insulin resistance is closely related to T2D. The Mayo Clinic even suggests that it’s the cause of T2D.

Most doctors will treat T2D with insulin or some current diabetic drug. While these medications lower blood sugar to normal levels, they don’t really treat insulin resistance. They treat the effect insulin resistance produces

However, there is a treatment for insulin resistance. Very low carbohydrate diets can reverse insulin resistance. Also see here. Okay, that’s a lot harder than taking a pill. It means drastically reducing our consumption of refined carbs and sugar.

Many doctors have had success in curing T2D and insulin resistance by prescribing very low carbohydrate diets. See here and here.

Unfortunately, we don’t know how much of an effect reducing or eliminating insulin resistance will have on reducing or preventing AD and dementia. Those experiments are extremely hard to perform.  But we do know that it’s a large risk factor. And eliminating risk factors is always a good thing.

I want to add one other piece of research that appears to confirm that the Stony Brook researchers are on the right track when proposing that AD is mainly a problem of the hypometabolism of glucose.

Let’s take another look at the APOE allele.

The protective effect of the APOE2 allele

As I mentioned before, if you have one copy of the APOE4 allele, your chances of getting AD are increased. If you have two copies, your odds rise dramatically.

However, research has shown that the APOE2/APOE2 genotype is highly protective against AD.

This recent mouse study might shed light on the reason why.

Researchers discovered that mice carrying the APOE2 allele showed an increased uptake and metabolism of glucose in brain cells while the APOE4 brain displayed the most deficient profile.

Interestingly, the APOE2 and APOE4 brains showed a similar level of robust uptake and metabolism of ketone bodies. 

Again, if the brain cannot metabolize glucose for energy, brain structures will deteriorate. There is recent evidence suggesting that decreased energy metabolism will damage synaptic function. Synapse damage is thought to be an early and progressive event in AD.

So, again, we see that there is evidence that the hypometabolism of glucose is associated with AD. 

Okay, let’s summarize.

The takeaway

Alzheimer’s disease and dementia are occurring more frequently in younger adults. We don’t know exactly why. But we do know that Obesity and T2D are also increasing in younger populations and dementia is highly associated with these conditions.

Advanced brain aging associated with poorer cognition is now known to start in some individuals in their late forties. Research has shown that this process may be the result of the inability of people to metabolize glucose as fuel in their brains due to insulin resistance.

However, since our brain can use ketones as an alternative fuel supply, a very low carbohydrate diet that induces ketosis or the consumption of exogenous ketones has been shown to increase brain activity and network stabilization in healthy individuals.

Researchers at Stony Brook University speculate that if this can be done early enough in dementia, it might have the effect of returning the brain to a more youthful function.

Okay, that’s it for this post. If you have any comments, please let us know. Blessings and have a great week.

*Cover Image by Kalhh from Pixabay

More posts about alzheimer’s disease

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The post Alzheimer’s Disease Is Surging Among Millennials – What’s Going On? appeared first on Gluten Free Homestead.

In the midst of flu season, I want to be proactive in supporting my immune system. Here’s some of what my family and I are doing to try to stay healthy.

1. Drink bone broth

My slow cooker has been running non-stop making batches of bone broth. Drinking a steaming mug of beef bone broth is a wonderful way to strengthen the immune system.

How To Make Beef Bone Broth (And Why It's Good For You)

You can use bone broth as stock for your favorite soups or gravies (or even serve it as a refreshing broth). It’s so nutritious and easy to make.

Check out this recipe

Links are affiliate links which means I will earn a small commission if you buy the item at no extra cost to you.

2. Increase the humidity

I run vaporizers 24/7. It’s so important to increase the humidity in our home and ensure that our home is a much healthier and pleasant place to live. Read more here:  Stay Healthy This Winter: How To Increase Humidity In Your Home.

3. Take time to relax

We enjoy a relaxing tea time every afternoon. Want to be more relaxed and creative in the afternoon? Tea might be the perfect afternoon beverage. Read more here: Want To Be More Relaxed And Creative In The Afternoon? Drink Tea.

4. Get moving and get rest

We go for walks, try to get proper sleep, and strength train. Barbell training is a perfect prescription for maintaining good health. It’s never too late to start an exercise program. Read more here: Can Starting An Exercise Program In Your 50s Help You Live Longer?

5. Take supplements

I know I’m not getting enough daily sun so I take vitamin D3 every day. 

6. Eat fermented foods for gut health

I try to include fermented foods like yogurt and sauerkraut in our diets. Gut health is key to boosting the immune system.

How To Make Delicious 24-Hour Probiotic Yogurt Every Time

How to make fresh, creamy 24-hour probiotic yogurt. For more tips, refer to my detailed step by step guide.

Check out this recipe

How To Make Super-Nutritious Sauerkraut

Here is an easy tutorial with beautiful photos showing how to make sauerkraut and restore gut health. You're going to love delicious homemade sauerkraut.

Check out this recipe

7. Get enough protein

Maintaining good muscle mass is essential for good health. Since John and I are over 60, we get at least 30 grams of high quality protein in three separate meals a day. Remember, muscle is the organ of longevity. Quality protein meals include: how I make a perfect steak, quick and easy pan-seared salmon, and delicious chicken fajitas.

How To Make A Perfect Pan Seared Flat Iron Steak

So, what’s the secret to a really tender and juicy flat iron steak? Marinate it for at least 4 hours and then quickly pan sear it. After pan searing the steak, you can take the flavor to the next level by accompanying the steak with a sauce made from the pan drippings.

Check out this recipe

Keto Crispy Skin Salmon In White Wine Sauce

Whether you’re keto or just trying to eat healthier, salmon should be a central part of your diet. This pan-seared salmon is quick and tasty with a delicious creamy white wine sauce!

Check out this recipe

Gluten Free Chicken Fajitas: Recreate Restaurant Quality in Your Kitchen

Chicken fajitas made with tender chicken infused with homemade fajita seasonings, colorful bell peppers and caramelized onions. gluten free, dairy free, low carb

Check out this recipe

8. Eat like my life depends upon it

For a healthy immune system, I try to avoid refined sugars, processed foods, and empty carbs.

I always love hearing how you’re doing. Leave a comment (comments are awesome) or email me back and let me know. Or if you’re on Instagram or Facebook? Come say hi.

I hope you’re feeling your best.

God bless.

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How We’re Staying Healthy At 64: Our Diet And Exercise Strategy

The post Stay Healthy: 8 Practical And Easy Ways appeared first on Gluten Free Homestead.

Losing weight is probably one of the most popular New Year’s resolutions. This is attested to by the spike in gym memberships seen every January.

While some people successfully follow through on their pledge to lose the extra pounds, most of us seem to fail to win the endless battle against our bulging waist and hips.

We try and try to lose weight, and we may for a little while, but something happens, and we gain it right back.

If this has happened to you, and it probably has if you ever dieted, you’re not alone. In fact, 80 -90% of people who diet and lose weight eventually regain it.

However, there are several strategies you can use to win this battle. For instance, a recently released scientific study has shown that increasing the amount of protein in your diet can help you in your fight against regaining the weight you’ve lost

In this post, I’ll take a look at why we tend to regain weight when dieting. This insight will give us some good clues on how to craft a winning diet loss strategy.

The Biggest Problem With Dieting

You know how it goes: you enthusiastically begin the new year by promising that this will be the year that you definitely lose those horrible pounds that have been plaguing you for years. 

You start out on your mission like a disciplined warrior. Meticulously, you watch your calorie intake. You agonizingly refuse to indulge in mouth-watering desserts and avoid anything that would destroy your daily calorie ceiling. Perhaps you even go so far as to drink your coffee black. No Smoked Butterscotch Frappuccinos for you.

And then you exercise. You toil and sweat knowing that you’re burning off calories, right?

Amazingly, those extra 10 or more pounds disappear. Your efforts were rewarded. You did it. Congratulations, mission accomplished.

But, then, as the months wear on, something nasty happens. Little by little the weight gradually returns. In disgust, you lament, “This diet plan just doesn’t work for me.”

By December, you’re ready to make the resolution all over again.

What in blazes happened? 

The Biggest Loser Fails

Remember that TV show The Biggest Loser from a few years back? The theme was to put 16 extremely obese people through a 30-week intensive diet and exercise program. The individual who lost the most weight would be the winner.

In reality, any time someone who is extremely obese loses a lot of weight they’re a winner.

Unfortunately, though, this story had a sad outcome. After the competition, most of the participants gained back most of the weight they lost, and some were even heavier than when they started.

What happened? Did all of the individuals just pig out after the competition and let themselves go back to their previous lifestyles?

That would seem like the simple answer, but it would be wrong!

Scientific Study On the “Biggest Losers”

Following the 2009 Biggest Losers competition, diet researchers saw a unique opportunity to examine the long term effects of significant weight loss.

Following the end of the 30-week competition, they measured the resting metabolic rate (RMR) and body composition of the competitors.

RMR is the rate that an individual burns calories at rest. They’re expending energy but only on essential things like breathing, circulating blood, digesting, or basic brain functions, etc. 

Body composition was how much they weighed.

Researchers then remeasured these parameters six years after the competition.

After completing their study, the researchers discovered an important clue as to why individuals are generally unsuccessful at keeping the weight off during dieting.

The Expected Finding

At the beginning of the competition, the participants, though obese, had resting metabolisms that were normal for their size. In other words, their calorie expenditure was normal for their weight.

However, when the competition ended, their resting metabolism had slowed down considerably. This made sense to the researchers.

The competitors had in essence starved their bodies. It was already known that during severe calorie restriction, for example during starvation, the body will lower metabolism to preserve calories.

This was shown in an experiment performed in 1995.

Resting Metabolic Rate Slows Down In Response To Weight Loss

In 1995, Dr. Rudolph Leibel performed an experiment to illustrate a key physiologic response associated with weight loss.

He took 41 individuals and increased their caloric intake so that their body weight increased by 10%. Then he allowed them to return to their normal weight.

He then reduced their caloric intake so that they lost 10%. Then he reduced it even more so that they lost 20% of their normal weight.

N Engl J Med 1995; 332:621-628
DOI: 10.1056/NEJM199503093321001

At each point, he measured the individual’s BMR.

Leibel discovered that at the 10% weight gain, the body burns about 500 calories more per day compared to baseline. After 10% and 20% weight loss, the body burns about 300 calories less per day.

This demonstrated that when a person loses weight their metabolism will indeed slow down to compensate for the weight loss. 

So it was no surprise when this happened to the “Biggest Losers”.

What they didn’t expect was what happened years after the competition.

The Unexpected Result

After six years, researchers discovered that the resting metabolic rate (RMR) of the contestants “remained suppressed at the same average level as at the end of the weight loss competition.”

They also reported that

Mean RMR after 6 years was ∼500 kcal/day lower than expected based on the measured body composition changes and the increased age of the subjects.

For most of the competitors, as their weight climbed, their RMR never recovered. For some, it became even slower.

One of them was Mike Cahill, the winner of the competition. After six years, he exhibited the worst RMR recovery. 

As he regained more than 100 pounds, his metabolism slowed so much that, just to maintain his then current weight of 295 pounds, he had to eat 800 calories a day, less than a typical man his size. Anything more he said, “turned to fat”.

Though Leibel, in his 1995 study, didn’t examine the permanence of the changes in rates of energy expenditure, he did expect that the reduced RMR in individuals with weight loss might be persistent.

He noted that,

A reduced level of energy expenditure has been reported to persist in subjects who have maintained a reduced body weight for periods ranging from six months to more than four years.

Leibel had previously shown that in a study he performed in 1984. Leibel and others expanded on this in a 2010 paper. 

Dr. Michael Schwartz, an obesity and diabetes researcher at the University of Washington, gives us insight into how this affected the “Biggest Losers”.

The key point is that… you can lose enormous amounts of weight, you can go on for six years, but you can’t get away from a basic biological reality. As long as you are below your initial weight, your body is going to try to get you back.

Did you catch that?

If you diet and lose weight, your body will fight to get back to the weight you started at. One way it does that is by lowering your RMR.

Wow, what’s up with that! That doesn’t seem fair, does it?

You struggle to lose weight. You deny yourself, you punish your body, and then your own body fights against you. It wants you to fail. What kind of sick joke is that?

But it appears to be a biological fact.

Okay, all is not lost. Take heart. There are still ways to win this battle.

However, you must first understand your enemy before you can defeat it. Well, it’s not really an enemy because it’s your own body. But it is something you must understand in order to win.

It’s called your body set weight (also known as body set point). 

Understanding Your Body Set Weight

Nephrologist and diabetes expert Dr. Jason Fung (Obesity Code), has a helpful explanation on why conventional (calorie counting) diets fail. It essentially has to do with what is called your body set weight (BSW).

Fung likens your BSW to the temperature you set on the thermostat in your home. If you set the thermostat to 72 degrees your heating system will strive to keep your house at that temperature. If your ambient temperature goes under 72, the thermostat will direct the furnace to turn on in order to get back to 72. 

Likewise, in the summer, if the temperature goes up, the thermostat will direct the AC to come on.

Our bodies appear to have a BSW (also called an appestat) that acts as a thermostat for body fatness. Whenever we gain or lose significant weight, our appestat strives to return us to the body weight it considers to have become normal.

So, if you limit your caloric intake as a dieting strategy, your body will compensate for the subsequent weight loss by lowering how many calories you expend at rest. This is its attempt to get you back to what your body perceives is your ideal weight.

Fighting The Uphill Diet Battle

Dr. Fung gives us another illustration of what we encounter when we diet.

Let’s say your thermostat is set to 72 degrees, but you want the temperature to be 70 degrees. 

Instead of lowering the thermostat, we turn on a portable AC and drop the temperature to 70 degrees.

What happens now? The thermostat kicks in and raises the temperature back to 72. But we still want 70 degrees so we turn on another portable AC.

So the thermostat kicks in and raises the temperature. So we get another portable AC and … you get the picture. We are essentially fighting a losing battle, and also maybe stuck on stupid.

The simpler solution, of course, would be to … turn down the freaking thermostat.

Putting It In Practical Terms

This is what happens when we simply try to restrict calorie intake to lose weight. For example, let’s say your BSW is 150 pounds, but you want to get down to 130 pounds.

So you decide to restrict your calorie intake. Theoretically, if you cut 500 calories per day from your diet, you should lose about a pound per week.

Now, let’s assume you lose ten pounds, and you now weigh about 140. What happens?

Your appestat kicks in and tries to get your body to regain the weight you lost. Your metabolism slows down. But then you start experiencing the things that go along with it. 

Have you ever started dieting and then started to feel tired and moody and even cold? That’s the result of a slowing metabolism.

And here’s probably the worst part! You’re getting hungrier. Oh, the hunger! You want to eat so bad! Your body is doing every darn thing it can to get you back to your BSW.

What’s the solution to all this craziness? The answer is obvious. Turn down the thermostat… I mean appestat.

I’ll give you some ideas on how to do that in a second. But, next, I just want to say a few brief words on how the appestat is regulated.

Understanding Weight Gain 

Now, the most common answer as to why people gain weight would be that they eat too much. But that might not necessarily be true in all cases.

Don’t forget about your appestat. If it’s working correctly, you should maintain a relatively constant body weight.

Okay, true, you say, but my BSW is way too high. I’m maintaining too much weight. Fair enough. But is your BSW the same today as it was 10, 20, or 30 years ago?

Probably not. That’s why you want to lose weight. So what happened was that your BSW kept gradually readjusting upwards.

Why?

Understanding Insulin And Weight Control

Our BSW is maintained by what is known as a negative feedback loop. The loop starts with the hormone insulin. Among its many important duties, insulin is responsible for signaling your body to store food energy in the form of body fat.

When you don’t eat for long periods, such as when you’re sleeping, you’ll burn that stored energy for fuel.

Now if insulin secretion becomes excessive, it will try to pack even more fat into your cells. This, however, causes fat cells to secrete a hormone called leptin. Leptin then sends a signal to your brain saying, “Hey, we fat cells down here are getting overloaded. Tell your boss to curb his appetite.”

So the brain complies and restricts our appetite. We then stop eating, insulin levels drop, and we start burning energy which keeps our BSW stable. 

Fine, you say. But how did my BSW reset so far upward?

Okay, this requires that we understand that not all calories are the same.

BSW And Hormonal Imbalances

No one becomes significantly overweight or obese overnight. It’s a process that takes years. Think about it. If you gain only 2 pounds a year for 20 years, all of a sudden you’re 40 pounds overweight.

So the process that causes your BSW to increase is a gradual one.

But it’s important to know how this happens.

Let’s get back to the hormone insulin. If you’re overeating high glycemic foods like refined grains, sugar, or fructose (carbohydrates), or eating often, your insulin secretion can increase to abnormal levels. 

Fat and protein don’t produce nearly the same insulin response that carbohydrates do.

If you are chowing down on a lot of carbs and chowing often, then insulin levels can stay high, even though leptin is doing its best to counter insulin and curb your appetite.

Remember that insulin wants to pack fat into your cells. So if you continue to consume high glycemic foods and eat frequently year after year, you will gain pounds. And, subsequently, your BSW will rise accordingly.

What’s happening here is that insulin is winning the war over leptin.

The Worst Case Scenario

If the above scenario continues for years, an individual could develop a condition called hyperinsulinemia. That means that insulin levels are chronically elevated. 

Again, insulin wants to pack fat into your adipose cells. So, eventually, you’ll gain even more weight.

However, if this continues, an individual could develop insulin resistance. Unfortunately, insulin resistance leads to more secretion of insulin which leads to a host of problems including obesity, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease.

This is called carbohydrate-insulin model of obesity. For a more detailed explanation of this model, see here.

However, let’s not forget leptin. If insulin continues to rise, then leptin will also continue to rise. However, insulin is winning out because of your diet. But the continued rise of leptin could result in your body becoming resistant to the effect of leptin.

That means insulin will not be opposed. It’s won the war and weight gain is assured. Also, your appetite will not be suppressed, and you’ll be hungry all the time.

Leptin resistance is almost always associated with obesity. 

So, significant weight gain and obesity is not so much a problem with calories as it is a hormonal disorder.

Okay, I think you get the picture.

But you’re still dreaming of losing that weight. You know losing those pounds will make you look better, feel better, and be healthier.

What’s the recipe for success?

The Battle Strategy

The most important strategy for reducing your BSW and maintaining successful weight loss is to reduce chronically high insulin levels. If you can keep insulin levels low, then your body will use your stored fat for the fuel it needs.

That’s the most efficient way to lose weight. But reducing your BSW is key.

Here are some strategies for doing that.

Strategy 1 – Reduce Carbs

Reduction of the intake of sugar, refined grains, and fructose is a sure way to reduce insulin levels. If you don’t put a lot of glucose (carbs) into your bloodstream, insulin secretion will stay low. 

How much should you restrict your carb intake?

This depends on how aggressive you want to be with your weight loss. Dietdoctor.com has some excellent strategies on how to use low-carb and ketogenic diets.

Virtahealth.com is a good source for those struggling with type 2 diabetes.

See our series of posts on our ketogenic diet experience.

Remember, though, that it took years to gain the weight. It’s going to require changing your eating habits for a long time in order to be successful!

*Always check with your doctor before you start any diet. If you have type 2 diabetes and are on insulin medication, a low-carb diet can lower your blood sugar too quickly. So always work with your doctor.

Strategy 2 – Stop eating often

We’re taught that we should be eating every few hours or so in order to suppress our hunger urges. This is completely wrong advice. Eating often means keeping insulin high.

Enjoying that Snickers bar at 4:00 in the afternoon is going to do to your insulin secretion what pouring gasoline does to a fire.

For myself, I limit my eating window to only 8 hours during the day. So, basically, I fast for 16 hours and eat for 8.

Intermittent fasting is also an excellent strategy for limiting insulin secretion and resetting your BSW. Check out Dr. Fung’s site for everything you need to know about fasting.

Strategy 3 – Increase Protein Intake

If you consume more protein, you’re likely to consume fewer carbs. Also by consuming more protein, you’re likely to consume more fat. More fat in your diet is not necessarily a bad thing.

Too much fat is not good especially if you want to lose fat. But the fat found with protein in food such as beef, pork, lamb and salmon won’t raise insulin appreciably. 

Also, protein is very satiating. Eat a 12-ounce ribeye steak and see if you’re hungry after that.

How much protein should you include in your diet?

There’s a big controversy around today on the amount of protein we should get in our diets. Some practitioners believe we should limit the amount of protein in our diet to recommended daily requirement (RDA) of 0.8 grams/kg of bodyweight per day.

As I explain here, the RDA for protein might not be a healthy amount for everyone. 

Maintaining good quality muscle mass is a key component of overall health and fitness. If you have poor muscle quality, especially if you’re in your older years, you are susceptible to a plethora of health issues. See here.

According to the best protein researchers in the world, in order to maintain good muscle mass, younger people should get at least 0.24 grams of protein/meal at least 3 -4 times a day. Each meal should consist of at least 20 grams of high-quality protein. 

Older people (>65 years old) should consume at least 0.4 – 0.6 grams of protein/meal at least 3 -4 times a day.

See my extensive post on current protein recommendations. 

Personally, I was on a ketogenic diet for about 2 years, and now I’m on about a 98% carnivore diet. That means I eat mostly animal protein. My carbs are extremely low.

Since increasing my protein intake, my body composition has improved even more than when I was on a keto diet. My weightlifting totals also are increasing. At 63-years-old and weighing 165 pounds. I can easily deadlift 300 lbs. Not bad considering I suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome for over 25 years.

Red Meat Does Not Cause Heart Disease

There’s been a myth perpetuated for years that red meat is associated with heart disease. Let’s bury that myth right now!

Last December, a team of researchers at Purdue University analyzed 24 randomly controlled studies and found that there was no link between eating a lot of red meat and heart disease.

So have no fear about eating red meat!

Now, let me introduce the study I began this post with.

High Compared with Moderate Protein Intake Reduces Adaptive Thermogenesis

A November 2018 study, performed on 38 individuals, showed that a higher protein diet as compared with a moderate protein diet had the effect of increasing resting metabolic rate.

That’s exactly what you want if your desire is to lower your BSW.

In the study, the moderate protein group had a diet that consisted of 15/55/30% of energy from protein/carbohydrate/fat and the high protein group’s diet was 25/45/30% of energy from protein/carbohydrate/fat.

Needless to say, the high protein diet had a much lower glycemic index.

The researchers’ conclusion at the end of the study was that “These results indicate the relevance of compliance to an increased protein/carbohydrate ratio for long-term weight maintenance after weight loss.”

So higher protein will help to reset your BSW.

Strategy 4 – Low-Carb Recipes

Barbara has created some of the tastiest low-carb recipes. Check them out here.

What About Exercise?

Notice I didn’t mention exercise. Exercise is great for fitness. I lift heavy weights 5 days a week. It’s excellent for building muscle. I walk at least a mile every day. But when it comes to helping with significant weight loss, these things are just not very good.

Lowering your BSW is the key to successful weight loss! 

Thanks for stopping by. And have a blessed week!

*None of the above comments should be construed as medical or dietary advice. Remember always consult with your doctor before making any changes to your diet.

*Cover image  PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay 

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The post How To Make Dieting Successful: Strategies For Keeping Off The Weight You Lost appeared first on Gluten Free Homestead.