Maintaining Strength Over Time

Author: Mark Cameron

“Everybody wants to be a bodybuilder, but nobody wants to lift no heavy-ass weights” – Ronnie Coleman

Lifting weights has an incredible capacity to allow people to get the body strong, get big, stay active, improve performance, but the basement of what we need to do to allow that to happen is sometimes overestimated. When we move from junior high and high school and transition into early adulthood, we tend to gravitate to a less active lifestyle (Kwan et al., 2012). This decrease of about 24% in activity levels can be from all sorts of factors including decreased organized sports, changing cities, changing interests, time constraints, and a plethora of other super important adult tasks (ie. don’t want to, need to watch Netflix, etc.). When we look at the minimum requirements of movement of 150 minutes of activity per week (“Ain’t nothin’ but a peanut” – Ronnie Coleman), only 49% of Canadian adults are getting that moderate to high intensity in their week (Statistics Canada 2021). That is about 30 minutes/day Monday-Friday (no homework for the weekend, woo!). 

I never want to be the scare tactic guy as I like using the carrot, not the stick, but let’s talk about the bad news first:

1. With decreased activity sarcopenia is going to come racing. As early as the age of 30, we notice muscle decreases of 3-5%/decade. The more we age, generally the faster this comes. Now is this because our body no longer has the ability to build? That seems very unlikely as we are seeing that we can build strength well into our later decades of life (See December 16, 2024 blog post). The reasoning is more likely because we simply stop training our bodies! Like we’ve said before, move it or lose it buster!
2. Bone density goes hand in hand with that decrease in muscle strength. Bone density typically increases until around age 25, then stabilizes until around age 50, after that point bone loss accelerates, especially for women during menopause (this opens up a whole other blog post where we can dive into this!). Bone density is measured using a T-score and Z-score, with T-scores comparing bone density to young adults and Z-scores comparing it to age-matched individuals. Age, sex, genetics, underlying conditions, and required medications are all things that are impossible to control but affect bone density. Lifestyle is the one thing that we do have control over but can create huge changes in how our bone density performs. Activities that put stress on bones stimulate extra deposits of calcium and can push those bone-forming cells into action. The tugging and pushing on bone that occur during strength and power training provide the stress. The result is stronger, denser bones and a happier, healthier you. Even certain aerobic exercises can create this same stimulation but come in and chat with us or send us a message if you want more info on this, because major caveats come along with this especially if you are already flirting with osteoporosis. 
3. Cognitive function is another thing that can take a hit if we have a tough time finding the daylight (or moonlight, whatever floats your powerboat) to get that exercise in. We are finding more and more that resistance training may help protect the brain from age-related degeneration, particularly in areas crucial for memory and learning, like the hippocampus (Nicola et al., 2024). 

Now the good news! If we can strength train then we can really put a stopper in that age related bone loss. Our brain may even be protected, and last but certainly not least, more muscle = less degeneration of muscle = stronger = feeling like you can rule the world (“YEAH BUDDY!” – Ronnie Coleman). The importance of continuing or starting resistance training to age gracefully is one of those no-brainers (literally, we want to protect that brain) that we want to think about as early as early gets when we jump into adulthood! If you want to jump in and get those muscles moving, we can help you out wherever you might be in your journey!

So get moving and reach out if you have any concerns!

1. Matthew Y. Kwan, John Cairney, Guy E. Faulkner, Eleanor E. Pullenayegum. Physical Activity and Other Health-Risk Behaviors During the Transition Into Early Adulthood. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 2012; 42 (1): 14 DOI: 10.1016/j.amepre.2011.08.026
2. Statistics Canada. (2021). Canadian Health Measures Survey, Cycle 6 [2018 and 2019], custom tabulation. Retrieved from https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/catalogue/82-003-X201900800001
3. Volpi E, Nazemi R, Fujita S. Muscle tissue changes with aging. Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care. 2004 Jul;7(4):405-10. doi: 10.1097/01.mco.0000134362.76653.b2. PMID: 15192443; PMCID: PMC2804956.
4. Louisa Nicola, Stephanie Jyet Quan Loo, Gabrielle Lyon, Josh Turknett, Thomas R. Wood,Does resistance training in older adults lead to structural brain changes associated with a lower risk of Alzheimer’s dementia? A narrative review,Ageing Research Reviews, Volume 98,2024,102356,ISSN 1568-1637,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arr.2024.102356.