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Your Muscles Need More Than Protein To Stay Strong As You Get Older
You can hit your protein goals and lift weights regularly, yet still notice you're less steady on your feet or slower to catch your balance.
Muscle loss is one reason strength declines with age, but it may not tell the whole story.
A new review of age-related muscle loss1 argues that staying strong also depends on something we tend to overlook: how well your brain and nerves communicate with your muscles.
Drawing on existing research rather than new participant data, the authors explore that sarcopenia should be understood as a problem involving the entire motor system, including the brain, spinal cord, and nerves that control movement.
Why muscle size doesn't tell the whole story
Two people can have similar amounts of muscle but very different levels of strength and mobility.
One might climb stairs with ease, while the other struggles to maintain their balance. Muscle mass alone doesn't explain the difference.
Your brain and nerves tell your muscles when and how to contract.
With age, nerve cells involved in movement can change, communication between nerves and muscles may become less reliable, and proprioception (your sense of where your body is in space) can decline.
These changes can affect balance, reaction time, and the ability to produce force, even without substantial muscle loss.
This may help explain why treatments that increase muscle mass don't always produce comparable improvements in strength or mobility.
Exercise can improve physical performance even when muscle mass changes little, partly because it challenges the nervous system and helps the brain and muscles coordinate movement.
How to build strength that carries over into everyday life
Staying strong means more than building muscle. You also need the balance and coordination to climb stairs, carry groceries, and recover your footing if you stumble.
The authors suggest looking beyond muscle mass when thinking about healthy movement. Here's how to put that into practice:
- Prioritize resistance training: Aim to lift weights two to three times per week to maintain muscle and improve your ability to use it effectively.
- Eat enough protein: Protein provides the building blocks your body needs to maintain and repair muscle. Pairing adequate intake with strength training supports muscle health as you age.
- Challenge your balance and coordination: Add single-leg stands near a sturdy support, controlled changes of direction, or dancing to your routine. These activities ask your brain and muscles to coordinate movement in different ways.
The review makes the case for training the whole motor system, although it doesn't establish that any single activity can prevent age-related weakness.
RELATED READ: This Is The Best Creatine To Gain Muscle & Lose Fat
The takeaway
Think of strength as teamwork between your muscles, brain, and nerves.
Keep lifting and eating enough protein, but don't skip the balance work. Your future self will thank you when a stumble is just a stumble, not a fall.
