Prevent Muscle Strength Losses

Posted on 19. Oct, 2009 by Guy Edwards in Exercise, Strength & Conditioning, Nutrition & Lifestyle

As you age, you lose muscle size and strength much faster than you lose endurance or coordination. Researchers at the University of Nottingham in England show that a major cause of loss of muscle is that aging prevents muscles from responding to insulin and that exercising helps to slow this loss of muscle size and strength (The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, September 2009).

Insulin drives amino acids into muscles to help them recover from exercise and maintain their size. Researchers traced radioactive amino acids and showed that insulin drives the amino acids into muscles much more effectively in 25-year-olds than in 60-year-olds. They also showed that the blood flow in younger people’s legs is much greater and supplies far more nutrients and hormones. However, three exercise sessions per week over 20 weeks markedly increased blood flow in the legs of the older subjects, enough to reverse muscle wasting.

People of all ages can use this information to help themselves become stronger. Athletes in all sports train by stressing and recovering. They take a hard workout, damage their muscles, feel sore the next morning, and then take easy workouts until the muscles heal and the soreness goes away. The athlete who can recover the fastest can do the most intense workouts and gain the most strength.

Eating a carbohydrate and protein meal within half an hour after finishing a workout raises insulin levels, increases amino acid absorption into muscle and hastens recovery (Journal of Applied Physiology, May 2009). The carbohydrates cause a rise in blood sugar that causes the pancreas to release insulin. Insulin drives the protein building blocks (amino acids) in the meal into muscle cells to hasten healing from intense workouts. Muscles are extraordinarily sensitive to insulin during exercise and for up to a half hour after finishing exercise, so the fastest way to recover is to eat protein- and carbohydrate-rich foods at the end of your workout or within half an hour after you finish.

Here’s how you can use this information on insulin sensitivity. Work hard and fast for about 30-40 mins on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. This depends on your fitness levels, but resistance training such squats, presses, lunges are a good example or a few brisk laps of a local field running or on a bike if you prefer. On our recovery days, workout at a more gentle intensity so as not to stress the body. Soon after exercise eat a meal such as fish, shrimp, vegetables and other sources of protein and carbohydrates. This causes insulin to drive amino acids rapidly into our muscles and help them recover faster. Walking after we eat helps us to avoid a rise in blood sugar that damages cells. You can use either plant or animal sources of protein; combinations of both give all of the essential amino acids necessary for cell growth.

Tags: age related muscle loss, eating after exercise, prevent muscle loss