Looking back over my 76 years I’ve never been a sporty athletic person, I’ve always been into motorcycle sport, enjoying trials riding and spectating. At 76 I find my muscle mass is declining and I need to arrest this decline. I’ve read about the natural decline of muscle mass with advancing years and I wonder if this can be arrested or slowed. I don’t expect to aspire to be a poster model, but I’d like to maintain a level of fitness that can keep me active for years to come. I have no health problems other than mild arthritis, so I wonder if anyone else has had this awakening in their senior years and if they’ve managed to achieve regeneration of aging muscles and how they did it.
@DrMarkH will tell you all about this!
personally i can’t hold any weights so I use resistance bands and simple a excercise routine. Lots of simple workouts on youtube, and particulate focus on your glutes
1 Like
@DrMarkH may know about this from his posts aboit his own exploits outdoors ?
EDIT just seen you thought the same, jj
2 Likes
My initial thoughts are that advice from a Dietician and a Physiotherapist would be best. Perhaps your doctor can give you a referral.
1 Like
Exactly what I am going to ask my doctor when I see him on Tuesday because I am in a similar position having lost weight (almost 20kgs) since my heart attack in May and 2 weeks ago I turned the corner at 64 kgs putting on 1 kg per week since, but I want the recovery to be muscle not flab so I will be interested in what you discover and achieve @Jofang .
1 Like
To increase muscle mass, you have to work out with weights or some other form of resistance. If you go to a fitness centre, they will give you a programme. The other thing you need to do is increase your protein intake. As you get older, your body is less efficient at processing protein. I work out once a week, which is really not enough, you need to do it twice a week, but I believe my muscles are as strong as they’ve ever been, judging by how much weight I use. It also increases bone density.
1 Like
Due to septicaemia I lost about 15 - 20 kg, mainly muscle mass. Physio, excercises (recommend dumbells for your arms) and also high protein drinks such as Delical.
If you’ve never worked out with weights , it’s probably advisable to have a few initial sessions in a gym. However, it’s also useful to know that many of the exercises one does on a machine in the gym can be replicated at home with free weights. The latter are also better than machines because although you might not be able to lift as much with the latter, your exercise will be more balanced and you have more control over what you lift
I’m 73 and at several points in my life I’ve had gym memberships, but in recent years I’ve built up quite a lot of muscle through a varied forms of regular exercise at home and through walking.
Home exercise has 20 minute routines five days a week with an 8kg kettle bell that was about €10 from Aldi. They’re usually on sale in January at the store and I hope to shortly get a 10kg one for a similar price. These exercises are combined with stretches and the yoga pose known as the ‘tree’.
Twice a week I also do an hour with sets of dumbbells that I’ve built up over the years, working all the leg muscles mainly with varieties of dips and squats, but also the tree These are followed by exercises on a stomach board (vide grenier €10) with other dumbbells, working on the upper body. We also do at least two 10+ km walks a week. I’ve been walking local trails for over ten years and have noticed how much easier the climbs have become since I started working out with weights and building up the leg muscles. Also carrying several kilos of shopping up the thirty odd steps to our house is no longer a strain.
So yes, never too late to start and you can surprise yourself with what you can achieve. Incidentally I have arthritis in one hand, but it doesn’t seem to stop me gripping weights. If like Jane Jones, you find this difficult, weighted wrist bands are an alternative, but they will be lighter than dumb/ kettle bells.
In an ideal world, I’d also like to do one session a week of power lifting, but for that you really need a gym, a good range of weights and an assistant. This form of exercise is becoming increasing recognised as being particularly beneficial for over eighties.
10 Likes
Excellent, informative post, thank you.
1 Like
25 years ago I got a Border Collie. "Right. This dog was born to run. I’d better dig out the trainers and we’ll lick round Kensington Gdns.. "
After the first run, my rt ankle swelled up like a balloon. Next day I couldn’t get my shoe on. A very bad injury 15 years earlier came back to haunt me. I still feel this injury, done on my 22 nd b/d, to this day [76 y.o.]. I never got it looked at. Stupid boy.
At age 16 I had a menisectomy, rt knee, after a bad cycle crash. That also gives me severe gyp if I do 2-3 kms walk now.
So I have a rowing machine. No impact, a ‘global’ work-out, as my M.T. describes it.
Reading the above, I’d better blow the dust off it …
2 Likes
I’ll second that. Informative and encouraging. I have a set of dumbbells somewhere that I should find and dust off. Thanks @DrMarkH for the upbeat post.
1 Like
There are weighted wrist/ankle straps you can use to make doing general daily stuff into a workout.
Thanks to all those who’ve liked my above post, Since posting it, I’ve reflected and thought I ought to add the following two bits of advice.
Firstly, many commercial gyms want you to sign up for a year. Their argument is that it’s a greater incentive to maintain the gym going habit. While I’m sure this is true, nevertheless many people don’t keep it up and the gyms make more profit. However in the UK at least there are many local authority gyms, which are usually much cheaper and may not have the flashiest equipment, but still have everything that’s essential, and only charge per session or per week. Don’t know if similar gyms are also in France, but may be worth exploring before committing yourself to a possibly much larger outlay.
My second reflective point concerns the Tree yoga exercise, which at first glance may look dauntingly difficult or impossible to achieve. However, the position in my illustration is one that a person works towards, gradually mastering balance. Yoga is not competitive!
i) One begins by standing at right angles to a wall touching it with the finger tips of one hand to steady yourself. If you feel confident, you can be more ambitious, but either way you’ll be getting a lot of strengthening
ii) Secondly, the sole of the raised one foot can be pressed low down against the other calf, or if you’re more confident, the knee. It doesn’t have to be as high as in the illustration. Each person’s body is different and yoga isn’t competitive, so you start with what works best for you.
Lastly, but very important, you have to fix and hold your gaze on something in front of you. I currently use a tiny drawing pin hole in the wall. As long as my focus remains on that hole, I will maintain my balance. By contrast, my wife, who has been doing yoga for forty years or so, just looks out the window while performing a several minutes long routine of stretches while remaining perfectly balanced. She’s very graceful to watch, but one will find immediate benefits with even the most basic and much shorter version of this pose. Your whole leg from foot to glutes will be working hard to keep you balanced - there’ll be lots of small muscles working all together.
3 Likes
I would say it is essential. You can do a lot of harm by using the wrong technique. Otherwise I agree with everything you wrote.
As I said before, to build muscle you must also increase your intake of protein, which your muscles need, and which is less well assimilated as you grow older.
Just about everywhere has public gyms or health sessions. And you can get help to make these sorts of things accessible, three people in my Pilates group got it on prescription.
1 Like
The company Basic Fit have a great number of gyms throughout France and other European countries. I elected to go for the option to be able to use any gyms in France and it’s 24.99€ every 4 weeks which I personally find to be very good value. I think the Europe wide option is 29.99€, and I think using just your local gym is 19.99€, but check.
On the point of easing into excercise, only this evening I had a call with a friend who just tore his bicep tendon clean off the bone after straining with heavy weights. Operation followed by alot of physio 
so do be careful if it’s a new venture!
1 Like
Never mind the mind over matter, just listen to what your body’s telling you!
I certainly don’t disagree, what I wrote was simply an example of over-polite English understatement.
Not always so easy if your pushing limits unfortunately, and such injuries aren’t gradual but sudden, as he discovered. Very fit, excercises every day and knows what he’s doing, but just found a weakness.
I’m not sure that’s something we should be doing with weights at our age.
My personal preference is Les Mills Body Pump (light weights quite quickly) on alternating days, with a run or spin session in between, depending on the weather.