Between the ages of 30 and 70, adults typically lose at least 20 percent of their muscle tissue.
The slow process of erosion has recently been named sarcopenia, Greek for "vanishing flesh." Though sarcopenia is not an inevitable consequence of aging, everyone is at risk.
For those over age 30, the good news is that sarcopenia can be reduced and even reversed by weight lifting. Research reported in The Annals of Internal Medicine shows that muscle mass peaks around age 30 and begins to decline slowly thereafter. Men and women appear to lose the same percentage of muscle.
Research also shows that older adults who have been lifting weights for 15 to 20 years or doing resistance training, are at least as strong as inactive 20-year-olds.
Resistance training is any type of exercise performed in one place while standing, sitting, or lying down. It includes leg lifts, arm curls, and abdominal crunches. Such movements can be performed using free-weights, weight machines, or by working against gravity.
The goal is to challenge the targeted muscles by performing at least three sets of eight to twelve repetitions, and to gradually increase the amount of weight used.
In addition to slowing muscle loss, the training increases the rate at which the body burns calories, increases bone density, decreases the risk of diabetes, and increases HDL, the "good" cholesterol.
