We assume that muscle loss is a normal part of aging, and to an extent some muscle loss can be expected as we get older, but aging might not be as harmful to your muscle health as another factor. Many medical experts say that inactivity is a bigger driver of muscle loss than the natural aging process. We take a closer look at that claim in today’s blog.
Stay Active To Maintain Muscle Health
Inactivity can lead to muscle loss faster than many people realize. In fact, one study took a closer look at how limb immobilization affected muscle strength and size. One study found that with two weeks of limb immobilization:
- Leg muscles shrunk 10%
- Leg power shrunk 25%
Perhaps most notably, this decline was seen in young, healthy men. Researchers say the dip is typically greater in older adults, and the work needed to restore lost strength is even greater.
Researchers say that the study shows that it’s less about natural aging leading to muscle loss, it’s inactivity that drives this muscle loss. As long as you stay active as you age, you can grow or maintain healthy muscle mass. It’s when we slow down by choice or when an accident or elective surgery forces us to be more inactive than we’d like to be that drives muscle loss. These inactive periods can lead to muscle loss, which can beckon more muscle loss if we can’t break out of the cycle of inactivity. Even when we return to activity, you’re not going to restore all that lost muscle with just one run or one session in the gym. It’s going to take more concentrated effort, and if we stop strengthening before we’ve reached our previous muscle level, we find ourselves facing a consistent muscle decline.
One expert described muscle size and strength in terms of floors and ceilings. As we get older, our ceiling, or our peak muscle size, ends up declining a bit. With regular exercise, you can keep a pretty solid muscle floor, even if that ceiling declines a bit. However, inactivity ends up lowering your floor. As the floor drops out beneath you, it’s hard to build it back up, and that ceiling ends up lowering too as the floor dips. Aging doesn’t drop your floor, but inactivity will.
This is one of the main reasons why we push for early activity and early physical therapy for our patients. The sooner we get back to activity, the sooner we can put an end to muscle loss tied to inactivity. We’re not rushing you back to movement and activity to make you uncomfortable during your rehab, we’re recommending it so that you can remain strong and active for years to come!
No matter your age, we challenge you to be a little more active in the coming weeks and months. Build back some lost muscle strength, especially if you haven’t been as active as you’d like to be. Raise your muscle floor and work to keep it elevated. Age is just a number, but inactivity can really leave you feeling old.
~ Dr. Silverman