Keep Your Strength And Retain Muscle Mass As You Age. Part 4
Everyone pretty much knows that muscle mass is made or lost in the kitchen. To reiterate, for the purpose of this article, the outliers are not addressed. There’s advanced age lifters that do not eat sensibly or count macros and have zero problems. I am not one of those.
As we age, it makes sense to not carry around too much extra body mass. Everyone knows the guy in his 50’s (or older) that is obese and can’t walk up a set of stairs without huffing and puffing. As I stated in part 1 of this critically acclaimed series there’s a tipping point where as your onboard support systems can’t fully provide your body with what it needs. Our bodies, as an organism, including the organs (support systems) just wear out. BUT all is not lost! There’s some things that we can do to mitigate the inevitable and put it off as long as possible.
I propose a “middle ground”. This is extremely individualistic and can vary widely person to person. Example: @TBU and myself are the same age and he can eat pizza and drink some beers within reason. I have to schedule a pizza and can have zero beers. He’s in a good place with everything and so am I. @herrubermensch is another example of an advanced age lifter that has retained a reasonable amount of muscle mass without sacrificing health. Both @TBU and @herrubermensch are big men that are about as healthy as they can be. I’m sure they’ve lost some muscle mass over the years but there is a compromise. How many 60 year old, 280 pound living IFBB pros are there?
It is an unrealistic goal to maintain the muscle mass you had in your 30’s as you approach 60. The middle ground I speak of is to balance your health with as much muscle mass as you can. Individually, you’ll know what that is if you’ve been going to the doctors and getting blood labs like you’re supposed to. This may mean shaving off a few pounds…start with fat loss first. Makes sense…right? Restrict your calories a little here and there and you can easily lose a couple of pounds of bf. A couple of pounds of fat will be that much less your body as to carry around and your support systems will have maintain.
Stay tuned for more.
@UGMain
Everyone pretty much knows that muscle mass is made or lost in the kitchen. To reiterate, for the purpose of this article, the outliers are not addressed. There’s advanced age lifters that do not eat sensibly or count macros and have zero problems. I am not one of those.
As we age, it makes sense to not carry around too much extra body mass. Everyone knows the guy in his 50’s (or older) that is obese and can’t walk up a set of stairs without huffing and puffing. As I stated in part 1 of this critically acclaimed series there’s a tipping point where as your onboard support systems can’t fully provide your body with what it needs. Our bodies, as an organism, including the organs (support systems) just wear out. BUT all is not lost! There’s some things that we can do to mitigate the inevitable and put it off as long as possible.
I propose a “middle ground”. This is extremely individualistic and can vary widely person to person. Example: @TBU and myself are the same age and he can eat pizza and drink some beers within reason. I have to schedule a pizza and can have zero beers. He’s in a good place with everything and so am I. @herrubermensch is another example of an advanced age lifter that has retained a reasonable amount of muscle mass without sacrificing health. Both @TBU and @herrubermensch are big men that are about as healthy as they can be. I’m sure they’ve lost some muscle mass over the years but there is a compromise. How many 60 year old, 280 pound living IFBB pros are there?
It is an unrealistic goal to maintain the muscle mass you had in your 30’s as you approach 60. The middle ground I speak of is to balance your health with as much muscle mass as you can. Individually, you’ll know what that is if you’ve been going to the doctors and getting blood labs like you’re supposed to. This may mean shaving off a few pounds…start with fat loss first. Makes sense…right? Restrict your calories a little here and there and you can easily lose a couple of pounds of bf. A couple of pounds of fat will be that much less your body as to carry around and your support systems will have maintain.
Stay tuned for more.
@UGMain
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