Last post, we discussed a little bit of what happens to our bodies as we age, with the promise that we would be sharing some more information with you.
In today’s post, we are going to share some more specifics regarding what happens to our body parts as we age in relation to balance, strength, power, flexibility, and avoiding falls. Please remember that this is summary information and is not designed to be an exhaustive explanation.
Most importantly, we are going to attempt to provide this explanation in layman’s terms as much as possible rather than using the technical medical terminology.
What are Muscles?
While this may seem like an elementary question and even rather silly, I think that a basic understanding of muscle composition is important.
Muscles are made up of water, proteins, and minerals. The protein portion makes up a small muscle fibers that are held together by a strong connective tissue. These muscle fibers are then bound together to create the muscle. The muscle is encased by connective tissue keep it operating as one unit.
Blood vessels in the muscles bring oxygen and other nutrients to nourish them and remove waste products that occur from cellular activity within the muscles.
Nerve endings in the muscle create electrochemical impulses to contract the muscle, while other nerves within the muscles and connecting tendons provide feedback to the brain, nervous system, and muscles themselves. These feedback nerves detect changes in the length of a muscle, or how quickly it shortens or lengthens or when it is contracted. This is essential when balancing, walking, running, or simply even standing up from a seated position.
Muscles connect to bone through a heavy connective tissue known as a tendon. These connections allow us to bend, sit, stand, walk, and jump.
How Muscles Work
Skeletal muscles have the ability to create force through various types of contractions. These contractions can exert force by the muscle without moving the joint, contracting a muscle to pull, or lengthening a muscle to release or lower gradually.
When we are born, we typically have three types of muscle fibers: types I, IIa, and IIb. Type I are slow twitch fibers, allowing us to do activities for long periods of time and are referred as endurance fibers. Type IIb are fast twitch fibers, allowing us to produce more force and perform heavy workloads, but fatigue quickly. Type IIa are a mix between the two.
How Muscles Change as We Age
One phenomenon that occurs with aging is the conversion of fast twitch muscle fibers to slow twitch muscle fibers.
This change to slow twitch fibers means we cannot do the heavy physical work that we may have done in our 20’s and 30’s, but we can perform physical activities for longer periods of time. The rate at which muscles convert from fast twitch to slow twitch may be determined by our genetic make-up, disease, and our lifestyle. If we remain physically active, perform resistance exercises that require quick strong contractions, and eat a balanced diet, we can slow down the aging process.
I think that it is important to note that two factors in particular, smoking and physical inactivity, have been shown to accelerate the conversion process. While the effects of smoking are well documented elsewhere, let’s quickly take a look at how physical inactivity can affect us.
Physical Inactivity Can Be Deadly
When we become sedentary instead of active, the muscles undergo a shrinking or atrophy.
Muscles and bones need activity, challenge, and resistance to maintain size, strength, and density. An unhealthy condition that may occur with aging is a loss of skeletal muscle mass and function, resulting in physical disability, impaired quality of life, and increased mortality. This condition is directly related to bone loss and greater the risk for falls and fractures.
In a nutshell, there is a relationship between the loss of muscle and a loss of bone density. The first results in a greater risk of falls while the second results in a greater risk of injuries from those falls. All in all, this creates a “perfect storm” – and we are caught right in the middle of it!
So What Can We Do?
We really have two choices, don’t we? We can sit back and allow nature to take its course – doing nothing, or we can actively work to slow-down and even reverse these processes. We know what will happen if we stay on first road. But just by the fact that you are reading this today, I know that this option is not what you want to do, that this is not ok for you and those you love.
So I ask you to join me in doing what we can, by engaging in activities that are proven to increase balance, strength, power, and flexibility. Stay tuned for more information as we explore this process together.
