Lab Notes · 5 min read
Most people think muscle loss is something that happens to them later. It starts earlier than that. This Lab Note covers when it starts, why strength goes faster than the muscle, and what the research says about getting it back.
The loss of muscle with age is called sarcopenia. Estimates put it at 3 to 8% of muscle mass per decade after 30, and the rate climbs after 60.
Volpi, Nazemi & Fujita, Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care 2004;7(4):405–410
That is why this gym is built for 30 and up. The decline starts in your thirties, so that is when building against it starts paying.
The loss of strength with age has its own name. It is called dynapenia. When researchers measured the same older adults year after year, their strength fell several times faster than their muscle mass. The muscle they kept produced less force than it used to.
Goodpaster et al., Journals of Gerontology A 2006;61(10):1059–1064
That matters because strength is what gets you out of a chair, up the stairs and back on your feet when you trip. It is also why we measure strength directly, on an instrument.
In 1990, researchers put ten frail nursing-home residents with an average age of 90 on eight weeks of heavy training. Their strength nearly tripled, and their thigh muscle grew. The oldest was 96.
Fiatarone et al., JAMA 1990;263(22):3029–3034
A review of 25 controlled trials in people aged 60 to 90 found the largest strength gains came from heavy loads, around 70 to 80% of maximum.
Borde, Hortobágyi & Granacher, Sports Medicine 2015;45(12):1693–1720
That is the catch. Heavy enough is different for every person, and it changes from one day to the next with sleep, stress and everything else going on. People are poor judges of it, and they tend to pick weights that are too light.
The whole gym runs on an AI-based strength measurement system. Artificial intelligence reads exactly what level of effort you are putting in on every repetition, and it makes sure you are in the right strength-building and muscle-building zone at all times. No junk reps.
So the load you are lifting is heavy enough to build, every session, at whatever age you start. The rest of the research on aging is on The Research page.
Twenty-five minutes. No charge. You walk out with your numbers.
Request Your Longevity Analysis