Prolonging Your Playspan: How To Maintain Muscles In Your Later Years

Surely you know what lifespan is: the length of time a person is alive. And healthspan? The number of healthy years you have during your lifespan that are free of disability and chronic disease. But how much attention are you paying to your “playspan,” that is, your time to be physically active and partake in whatever you enjoy? To maintain and prolong your playspan, one thing is clear: you need strength and muscles to power you through physical activities. Understanding the interaction between aging and muscle mass is thus important to encourage you to be as physically active and strong as you can be. New research has underscored the connection between muscle maintenance and aging, so grab a free weight and let’s take a look at some of this new evidence.

First is an intriguing new study available in bioRxiv and deeply reported in The Atlantic. The research explored the concept of “muscle memory,” which we typically associate with prior exercise priming your muscles to respond robustly when you engage in additional exercise. However, this new research suggests that your muscles also “remember” muscle atrophy, whether from inactivity, illness, or some other aspect of aging. Therefore, as muscles go unused, that makes it that much harder when you try again to use them. Weak muscles become entrenched, so recovery of muscle strength is lower and takes longer. It appears that our muscles respond in the future by the way they’ve been used (or not)  in the past. However, all is not lost, and pushing ahead with exercise appears crucial. Another new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) reports that exercise is critical to muscle repair and maintenance as you get older. Apparently, aging muscles allow a gene- DEAF1- to drive protein imbalance in the muscles and therefore lead to muscle decline. But exercise suppresses this gene so that muscles can clean up damaged proteins and repair themselves. While this study was conducted in fruit flies and mice, it provides strong support for the value of exercise in overcoming muscle weakness as you get older, and may even lead to the development of medications that can mimic the benefits of exercise for muscles. For more on this study, pick up that kettlebell and click here. And for an overview of ways to strengthen your muscles, take a look at previous agebuzz posts on strength training here.

One additional new study reports that muscle loss can be fought at older ages through a multi-pronged approach involving both strength and balance training, along with adequate protein intake. According to this research, published in the Journal of Nutrition, Health and Aging, which analyzed the results of 96 randomized clinical trials addressing muscle loss and aging, the best results for maintaining and supporting muscle health involve a combination of exercise, protein intake, and balance training. So all is not lost when it comes to preserving and maintaining your muscles and strength, even as you reach your later years. For more on this study, schedule that session with a trainer and take a look here.

Finally, do you need one more good reason to preserve and maintain your muscles and strength beyond prolonging your playspan? New evidence has emerged supporting the benefit of muscle maintenance to lower your dementia risk as you age. Scientists from China, publishing in The Journal of Psychiatric Research, found a correlation between physical frailty and weakness and the risk of a dementia diagnosis. In this analysis of data from over 6000 participants at least 50 years of age at the start, and followed on average for 9 years, those in the lowest tier of upper and lower body strength were the most likely to have a higher risk of dementia. As one researcher stated, “For every incremental decrease in strength, the estimated risk of dementia rose.” You can read about this study and its implications here.