muscle mass and age

neeb

I've often read that muscle mass declines with age, and the impression I've ended up with from the admittedly scattered and dubiously sourced information I've been exposed to on the subject is that after a certain age it becomes difficult or impossible to actually increase muscle mass, only perhaps to slow its inevitable decline...

Is this true, and if so, does it apply universally, e.g. to short/medium term fluctuations as well as long term trends?

E.g., I assume it would be very difficult for someone in their 60s who has always had undeveloped muscles to greatly increase their muscle mass through hard training inthe way that someone in their 20s could. However, what would happen if an older individual rapidly lost muscle mass through, for example, an enforced period of inactivity - would they be able to regain it again on resuming activity? Or does muscle mass fluctuation increasingly operate through a "one way valve" the older you get?

I'm thinking about this in relation to strategies for maintaining muscle mass with ageing. It would be alarming if, for example, hard endurance training without adequate nutrition in one's 50s could lead to catabolic processes that reduced muscle mass without the prospect of being able to regain it again in the future...

Alex_Simmons/RST

Use it or lose it. And eat well and rest.

Mostly it's simply a matter of the older we are the tendency is to train less (for a variety of reasons).

While I usually take items published in the JSCR with a skeptical eye (as they typically favour doing "strength and conditioning" for just about everything), there was this recent item:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20375740

This meta analysis on the impacts of resistance training in aging adults suggests one certainly can gain lean muscle mass when older, but does not address the question of comparison to when younger:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20543750

A few example studies:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8598419
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7493209
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16339329

oldwelshman

neeb wrote:

I've often read that muscle mass declines with age, and the impression I've ended up with from the admittedly scattered and dubiously sourced information I've been exposed to on the subject is that after a certain age it becomes difficult or impossible to actually increase muscle mass, only perhaps to slow its inevitable decline...

Is this true, and if so, does it apply universally, e.g. to short/medium term fluctuations as well as long term trends?

E.g., I assume it would be very difficult for someone in their 60s who has always had undeveloped muscles to greatly increase their muscle mass through hard training inthe way that someone in their 20s could. However, what would happen if an older individual rapidly lost muscle mass through, for example, an enforced period of inactivity - would they be able to regain it again on resuming activity? Or does muscle mass fluctuation increasingly operate through a "one way valve" the older you get?

I'm thinking about this in relation to strategies for maintaining muscle mass with ageing. It would be alarming if, for example, hard endurance training without adequate nutrition in one's 50s could lead to catabolic processes that reduced muscle mass without the prospect of being able to regain it again in the future...

Not sure about musclemass, but I do know with age that your fast twicth fibres will decrease, this is why sprinters get slower with age this becomes more maked from 40 for sure.

McBain_v1

There seem to be plenty of sixty year old body builders competing in "Masters" class events. I also seem to recall an interview with a bloke who started bodybuilding when he turned sixty and now, about three years later - is ruddy massive! Must have had access to some high-grade human growth hormone, but it shows that it can be done. Oh, and he diet was mega strict as well.

neeb

Thanks for the replies - the studies highlighted by Alex above are quite encouraging, looks like you can potentially gain strength and muscle at any age.

I sometimes wonder about the dividing line between resistance/strength training and the sort of conditioning you get from cycling. Surely if you cycle aggressively (sprinting up short hills etc) you will be getting some resistance training from cycling even without specific strength exercises. I've also read about the greater decrease in fast twitch fibres with age.

Seems to me that the important thing might be just to keep cycling and keep doing it aggressively, i.e. plenty of short fast rides as well as longer ones, plenty of short sprints etc.

CoachFergie

I had a young rider who made the transition from road to track (Teams Pursuit) who put on 5 kg of lower body lean mass from cycling alone in a 5 month period as the intensity of his training increased to match the higher demands of the event.