3 Big Reasons to Gain Muscle in Your 50s, 60s, and 70s

3 Big Reasons to Gain Muscle Mass in Your 50s, 60s, and 70s

Gaining muscle is one of the most important things an older adults in their 50s, 60s, or 70s can do to improve their overall health. Muscle is not just for bodybuilders and professional athletes - we all need a good amount of muscle to live a long and healthy life. You don’t need to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger to reap the benefits of adding muscle. Even a small addition of 4-6 pounds of pure muscle mass can make a big impact on strength, blood sugar regulation, joint pain reduction, mobility, balance, and all around quality of life. Building more muscle mass is almost always a good thing, and it can help you live longer, too. Here are three important reasons to concentrate on gaining muscle at 50 and beyond.

Muscle Mass Increases Strength Levels

The first reason to gain muscle mass in your 50s and beyond is related to strength. Larger muscles tend to be stronger than smaller muscles. Muscle mass and strength are not the same thing, and you can gain strength without gaining muscle. However, increased muscle mass almost always leads to increased strength. So the more muscle you gain, the stronger your body will remain. A group of scientists at Tufts University in Boston studied thousands of seniors in the 1980s and 1990s, searching for the primary factors that lead to a long, healthy life. In their book Biomarkers: The Ten Determinants of Aging You Can Control, those researchers, led by William Evans, found that strength and muscle mass were #1 and #2 of the top ten factors of aging. Muscle and strength were better determinants of aging that cholesterol levels, blood pressure, blood sugar, body fat percentage, basal metabolism, and bone density, among others. Seniors who had the highest levels of muscle mass and strength tended to live the longest, healthiest lives. In summary, it is good to have a lot of muscle because muscle mass increases longevity.

Muscles Are Sinks for Blood Sugar

The second reason to focus on accumulating muscle mass once you hit 50 years of age is that muscle cells act like sponges for sugar in the blood, reducing blood sugar control. Because of all the work that muscles are required to do - such as lifting weights, walking, maintaining posture, etc. - they need lots of energy. And the main source of energy for muscle mass is glucose, or sugar. So as you gain more muscle, less and less sugar from the foods that you eat will end up as blood sugar or stored as body fat tissue. Muscle, therefore, is especially important for people with prediabetes, Type I diabetes, and Type II diabetes.

Can lifting weights lower blood sugar? Absolutely! For example, one of my clients in his mid 60s saw a drop of over 20 points on his morning blood glucose levels after just a few months of weight training with me at Strength School. The weight lifting stimulated his muscles, enabling his body to burn more of the carbohydrates he ate as fuel for his muscle cells, rather than storing it as body fat.

Strong Muscles Lead to Strong, Stable Joints

The third big reason to work hard on adding muscle mass as you age deals with the health and integrity of your joints. The larger joints of the body, such as the knees, hips, elbows, and shoulders, naturally weaken as we age. However, the age-related decline in joint stability and strength is preventable and even reversible by making the muscles around the joint larger and stronger.

For example, many people suffer from knee pain, which is commonly related to an imbalance in the strength of the knee extensors, the quadriceps muscles, and the knee flexors, the hamstring muscles. The quadriceps are usually more powerful than the hamstrings; once the quadriceps become too strong in relation to the hamstrings, the knee joint will take on too much pressure in both day-to-day life and more physical activities such as jogging, walking up and down steps, etc.

As the knee continues to suffer from excess pressure over time, the cartilage can wear thin and lead to substantial pain, or perhaps the need for a knee surgery or replacement. In such a situation, increasing the size and strength of the hamstring muscles can create more balance between the quadriceps and hamstrings, stabilizing the knee joint and leading to less damaging pressures on the knee over time. The same holds true for other major joints in the body.

How to Gain Muscle Mass in Your 50s, 60s, and 70s

Gaining muscle mass can be done at any age - there is no point at which muscle is no longer attainable. As we age, gaining and holding onto muscle can become more difficult, but it is always possible. For example, I worked with an 82 year-old man several years ago who had back pain. To decrease his pain, we did a lot of work for his glutes; after a few months of exercising at Strength School, the man’s wife told me how she could see his butt getting bigger. The average age of my clients is now 63 - and the ones who work hard continue to improve their strength and muscle mass month-by-month, year-by-year.

The best and most efficient way to add muscle is through resistance training - working out with dumbbells, barbells, resistance bands, cable machines, kettlebells, and other pieces of gym equipment. Most muscles only grow larger and stronger when they are stimulated with extra weight beyond your own bodyweight. That’s why walking is not typically sufficient enough to add muscle mass - you’re always using the same amount of weight (your bodyweight). Bodyweight training, such as push ups, crunches, and pull ups, is also a great form of exercise - but often it will not be enough to gain a lot of muscle mass throughout the whole body.