How to Gain Muscle in Old Age - Part III

It is possible to gain muscle into your fifties. I know from personal experiences. While sarcopenia is likely to occur as we age beyond our thirties, it is certainly possible to gain muscle in old age. The key is to be proactive in exercises and nutrition strategies that promote muscle growth and maintenance. 

What is sarcopenia?
Sarcopenia is a process by which someone experiences a general loss of muscle strength and mass. One risk factor happens to be something that we are all susceptible to experiencing: aging. While no two people age the same, we all age. We can all be proactive in slowing down the aging process through specific nutrition and exercise strategies. 

Since 2015, I have had six body fat scans. The scan reports break down the results by body region. The scans also show your percentile rankings according to your age. Usually, I can notice significant improvements in growth and strength over time, but the scan reports are more detailed and informative. I have learned one surprising thing from my scan results: there is a difference between muscle mass and muscle strength.

Targeting Large Muscle Groups for Growth
In 2015, I decided to gain the most muscle I could. I was 45, and I was already five-years in and had not done much to gain muscle mass or strength in the first five years of my 40's. The foundation of my training regimen revolved around doing high-intensity cardio six days per week. High-intensity cardio is one type of exercise that you can do that helps with maintaining muscle mass. I did six-minute morning workouts, six days per week. There are four movements, repeated three times, with a 10-second rest between each exercise. 

The resistance training part of my exercise regimen included a second workout of the day. Each resistance workout was no more than 20-30 minutes. I did resistance training workouts five days per week. I devoted one day per week to a body part: legs, shoulder, back, arms, and chest. 

Exercise Consistency is Far More Important than Exercise Intensity
I could adhere to this routine because I was exercising, at most, for 26 minutes per day. Before my 26-minute daily routine, I was typically exercising once per week on Saturday for about two hours. In comparison, the once-per-week workout yielded poor results. While I had no problems making sure I worked out every Saturday, I am sure that only exercising once per week was a bad idea. As my body scan results have proved, the two-a-day exercises of high-intensity cardio and resistance training did a lot toward helping me building and maintain muscle mass. In my case, consistency was far more important than intensity.

Maintaining and Gaining Muscle Mass (Arms)
One month before my fortieth birthday, I woke up, and half of my body was numb. I walked with a limp. I lost more than 50 percent of the feeling on the left side of my body. I knew that resistance training would be a way to prevent muscle from atrophying and weakness.

During the first five years, I realized that my nervous system played a vital role in how my muscles responded to exercise. My anxiety levels play a large role in how fluidly I can walk. Have you ever lifted weights that were too heavy and experienced shakiness? Have you ever been in a public speaking situation and been nervous? Well, for me, the muscles on the left side of my body responded similarly with nearly every movement. 

I knew there was some muscle imbalance between my left and right sides. I felt a body fat scan would help me get a better understanding of my body composition.

My results were not what I expected. I had more muscle mass in my left arm than my right arm. I had more muscle mass on my right leg than my left leg. The difference in my arms was pretty significant. I am right-hand dominant. My left arm has more muscle but is weaker. Interesting, right?

 I knew that high-intensity cardio is good for maintaining muscle. I also knew that time under tension is a vital resistance training metric. So I. modified my high-intensity cardio routine to include active rests that consisted of ten-seconds of planks between each exercise. Here is a typical iHeartGains HIIT Cardio Routine I followed:

• 20 seconds of jumping jacks 10-second plank
• 20 seconds of roman twists 10-second plank
• 20 seconds of ab-bicycles 10-second plank
• 20 seconds of pogos 10-second plank
• repeat this series two more times

I do these exercise fasted and still experience magnificent gains.

I began the iHeartGains Muscle Symmetry Gains HIIT Cardio workouts after my first body fat scan. I got good results in 2016. In 2017 I slacked off a bit, and my results show this. I got married in 2018. Leading up to my 2018 scan, I made sure that I did my arm-muscle symmetry workouts at least six days per week with remarkable results. 

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