How to Grow Muscle After 50

by Jes Williams @feelmoregooder

Gone are the days of muscle development only being pertinent for bodybuilders and Olympians. The way of thinking that the general population is completely separate from athletes has caused many humans to completely disregard or neglect to prioritize the health, strength, and integrity of their muscles. Everyone has a body that thrives off of mindful movement and muscles that thrive off of being challenged and engaged.

All of us possess lean muscle mass on our bodies, and the implications of such mass are markers for overall health and longevity. Importantly, we know from the science that reductions in muscle mass and strength are directly associated with mortality rates in the elderly. (1)

Looking into the literature on this, we see that muscle mass, on average, decreases approximately 3–8% per decade after the age of 30 - and this rate of decline is even higher after the age of 60. (22) However, this post is not about bad news. On the contrary, it’s important to know there is a lot within your control regarding reducing muscle degradation, maintaining lean muscle mass, and even building muscle mass.

The Importance of Muscle Mass

Most men likely wouldn’t mind putting on some muscle size, but on the whole, many women still seem to shy away from lifting weights and incorporating strength training out of fear that their physique will become bulky. Though this is a small detail of the muscle conversation, perhaps it’s pertinent to point out that most women do not become increasingly bulky as a result of this training. In fact, when women put on lean muscle mass, they become more metabolically healthy and become more efficient fat burners. In many instances, women find that with attention to strength building in addition to a sensible diet, their clothes fit them better and they look & feel better thru their own eyes.

Besides being advantageous for metabolism, having sufficient muscle mass on your body is important for maintaining posture, breathing fully & properly, locomotion, metabolic enzymes, glucose disposal, and maintaining the integrity of your connective tissue. (1, 7)) Low levels of muscle mass are associated with increased risk of several ailments related to your cardiovascular and metabolic systems. (5)

What is Sarcopenia?

Sarcopenia is defined as the generalized decline/loss of skeletal muscle mass, function, low muscle strength, and/or low physical performance. It is one of the most important causes of functional & mobilization decline and loss of independence in order adults. (2, 3) The incidence of sarcopenia has been reported to be up to 29% in older persons in the community healthcare setting. (3)

Movement To Support Lean Muscle Mass

Resistance training is the most prevalent and promising intervention for the treatment of sarcopenia. A targeted nutritional approach is needed, too - which we will discuss later in this post.

Resistance training has been shown to consistently improve muscle mass, strength, and physical function compared to a non-exercising control group. (23)

If you’re wondering if more is better, there is perhaps a ceiling. However, studies do show that resistance training volume and intensity do show greater yields in muscle strength improvements. (6)

Workout Suggestions

As far as workout structure, it is suggested to integrate multiple sets (3−6) of 6 to 12 repetitions with short rest intervals (60 second maximum) paired with moderate intensity of effort (60−80% 1RM), and gradual increases in training volume (12–28 sets/muscle/week). (5)

Ten weeks of resistance training may increase lean weight by 1.4 kg, increase resting metabolic rate by 7%, and reduce fat weight by 1.8 kg. (10) Other studies suggest a time-focused framework where you aim for three 13-min weekly sessions over an 8-wk period. (4)

Vitamin D3 and Muscle

As we know it, the sunlight vitamin is linked to your skeletal muscle in many ways that you may not expect. Systemic vitamin D3 levels impact more than the vitality of your immune system and ability to combat illness. Vitamin D is an essential nutrient for the maintenance of skeletal muscle and bone health. (19)

An array of studies have found that adequate sun exposure increases bodily vitamin D3 levels - which enhances athletic performance, improves testosterone levels in men (which serves muscle growth), enhances neurogenesis, decreases neuroinflammation, bone growth, and strengthens muscles. (14, 15, 18)

Too, your muscles actually have vitamin D3 receptors. And within them, uptake of Vitamin D3 takes place into mature muscle cells, which express a transmembrane protein called megalin. (17)

It is clear that vitamin D3 is crucial for both your hormonal and muscular systems. Having a low level of vitamin D3 significantly increases your risk of age-related loss of muscle strength. Also, a suboptimal vitamin D3 level is linked to increased risk for inflammatory injury, stress fracture, muscle pain/weakness and suboptimal muscle performance.

David talks about a study looking at muscle growth of older people using Vitamin D3 and HMB in this article: How to Build Muscle Without Exercising.

Additional Benefits to Resistance Training

In addition to helping you to improve upon your muscle strength, mass, and density, resistance training offers a multitude of other systemic benefits:

-Improved physical performance and output

-Movement control and stability

-Walking speed

-Confidence and self-esteem

-Helps to decrease visceral fat

-Reduces HbA1c

-Improve glucose disposal and insulin sensitivity

-May enhance cardiovascular health by reducing resting blood pressure

-Decreases LDL (“bad”) cholesterol and triglycerides, and increases HDL (“good”)

-May reduce lower back pain

-Can increase bone mineral density

-May ease discomfort with joint-related ailments

-Can reverse specific agiing factors in skeletal muscle

-May slow bone loss and help build bone (10, 11)

Nutrition to Support Lean Muscle Mass

The apparent consensus in the literature regarding dietary accompaniments to a muscle-focused exercise routine is to adopt a protein-based nutritional approach to ensure that muscle protein synthesis can take place. In other words, including dietary protein alongside training your muscles hard will give your skeletal muscle the fuel it needs to recover and grow. (1, 7)

During training, your muscles are developing small, micro-tears (this is good!), and this is how growth of skeletal muscle inherently takes place. But, the protein intake is crucial to help replenish the body after intense bouts of musularly-challenging movement. (1, 7)

Some studies suggest adding in an amino acids supplement, as these are the “building blocks” that dietary protein breaks down into. Too, creatine is sometimes suggested. (8) Additionally, some studies suggest slightly increasing your total daily caloric intake, as this will help with muscle building and repair. (13)

These approaches with food, along with adequate vitamin D an antioxidants, have been shown to have positive effects against sarcopenia. (3) A great way to get more bioavailable antioxidants into your days is ResverElite, which regulates cell signaling pathways to inhibit dysfunction and promote normal cellular activity.

Tacking These Goals After 50

If you’re at a place where you’re feeling like your window for health has passed you by, or you are starting too late - no way! Let’s ditch that way of thinking. You are absolutely right on time. You can start today with baby steps and they most definitely add up.

Even when we look at the science, we know that exercise and proper nutrition can have dramatic effects on muscle mass and strength. (13)

We know that on average, muscle mass and strength increase steadily from birth, and then peak at around 30-35 years of age. After that, muscle power and performance decline slowly and linearly at first, and then faster after age 65 for women and 70 for men. (12)

Those findings come from the longest-running study of human aging — which pioneered a series of simple tests severadecades ago, known as the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB), to track mobility and muscle performance. (12)

However, also just as apparent in the literature is that the decline of strength and power with aging can be substantially slowed down by maintaining an active lifestyle. (12)

It’s been deemed a public health problem that individuals ages 65-70 typically begin to lose muscle mass, a state which we call sarcopenia, and muscle strength, a state we call dynapenia. Importantly, know that strength-based training has been proposed as a valid and effective methodology to reduce the prevalence of these muscle degradation states. (8)

If you’re aging and concerned about these potential effects, be empowered knowing that these anti-sarcopenia strategies have been shown to be effective, safe, and even improve your body composition & your overall functionality. (8) Furthermore, adopting a healthy lifestyle and working on muscle strength will improve your insulin sensitivity, which is shown to be more prevalent in the elderly. (13)

“Aged muscle”, as the literature calls it, is still very plastic and can respond to anabolic stimuli by increasing its mass and strength. It’s pivotal to know this when designing lifestyle habits to reverse or attenuate the loss of muscle. (13)

A Nod to Circadian Rhythm

Circadian health also comes into the conversation here, as you cannot out-work a poor light environment. We tackle this in a previous blog post, which you can check out here. There’s nothing more frustrating than completely committing yourself to a nutrition and exercise regime, only to see slow results and/or be unknowingly sabotaging your efforts.

Leptin is a hormone produced by fat cells that helps regulate appetite and energy balance by signaling the brain to reduce food intake when energy stores are sufficient. Leptin communicates to your brain about fat storage/utilization, is controlled largely by light. We know this based on current research on the leptin-melanocortin pathway. Getting sufficient natural sunlight during the day and honoring darkness at night (blocking blue light through screens whenever possible) will help this leptin signaling pathway. (24)

Leptin resistance is often linked to insulin resistance. Whlie more studies are needed to confirm these effects in humans, animal studies and preliminary human trials indicate that sulforaphane is a potential therapeutic compound for improving leptin sensitivity. 25

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