Sarcopenia: A new term for middle age adults to learn and avoid

What is Scarcopenia?

Sarcopenia is age-related loss of muscle mass. You can think of it as analogous to osteoporosis (age-related loss of bone). While sarcopenia is somewhat of an obscure term, the world's aging population is certain to make this a significant issue. After age 40, adults lose a quarter to a third of a pound of muscle a year and gain that much body fat.

Why is Sarcopenia such a threat to my health?

Loss of muscle mass is of a problem because loss of muscle mass means loss of strength, which ultimately means premature disability and loss of independence. Furthermore, muscle mass is one of the most metabolically active tissues (calorie burners) in your body. According to experts, its loss is the single most important factor in the gradual accumulation of excess body fat.

How can you fight Sarcopenia?

Sarcopenia is accelerated with a lack of physical exercise, especially the lack of overload to your muscles (i.e., weight bearing activities). An additional factor is inadequate energy or protein intake--meaning many popular diets may actually promote sarcopenia. Middle age is a particularly sensitive time for proper nutrition and exercise. It's important that the exercise regimen include both cardio and weights.

Resistance Training Basics

If you are not familiar with weight training the best suggestion is to join a gym and let the personnel there set up a proper training program for you. Here are some guidelines to let you know what to expect:

Complete 8 to 10 exercises for all the major muscle groups (e.g., pectorals, latissimus dorsi, deltoids, abdominals, gluteals, quadriceps and hamstrings).

Perform in a repetition zone of 10 to 15 repetitions.

At least 1 set per major muscle group.

Resistance training should be preformed up to 2x per week, separating workout sessions with at least a period of 48 hours.

But my bathroom scale says that I'm healthy!

People who weigh themselves every day and try to eat properly are not immune to sarcopenia since a basic bathroom scale cannot differentiate between fat and lean muscle mass. It's critical that everyone include some form of weight training in their overall fitness regimen and be forewarned that as you trade fat for lean muscle mass (an extremely positive development) your scale may not show much progress. But as noted above, the lean muscle mass is a consumer of calories and it's only through replacing fat with muscle mass will use see a long-term and sustainable management of body weight.

Additional resource: Book on the specific exercise needs of adults in middle age.