“It´s not the accumulation of chronological age, it´s the accumulation of years spent making poor lifestyle choices versus years spent making wonderful, healthy fit choices.”.

Coach Mike, Strength By Fitness.

Study setup number 1.

Ten lean and healthy young men aged around 22 years of age. And an average BMI of 23.4 went toe to toe with ten elderly men aged roughly 70 years of age. The older groups BMI came out as 22.7.

Both groups performed unilateral resistance exercises with one leg, while the other did not perform any exercise, this was then followed by a feed session that included essential amino acids.

You train, adapt, recover, and progress to what you do, and how you do it. No matter your age.

Postworkout, measured peak plasma levels of EAA and leucine ended up similar between both groups in this study. Muscle EAA and leucine peaked roughly 60 min post-exercise, with a higher concentration in the leg that exercised.

Once again, however, there were no differences between the young and old groups. And that is, of course, the interesting bit. Both young and old people responded in a similar fashion to strength training & a higher protein intake.

Speaking of protein. Muscle protein synthesis increased, as expected, in both the rested and exercised leg muscles with no real difference between the two age groups.

Diving into this study, I can find some differences between the two groups, however. 

Phosphorylation displayed some temporary post-exercise differences between the two age groups. But this ties back to what I said earlier in this article, and it reflects something I have been preaching to our clients for the past decade.

Some things change, but it´s the same for everyone, so do not focus your energy on that. Instead, accept the many things that have nothing to do with the way you age and everything to do with your ongoing habits. 

Or to borrow the scientist’s own conclusion in this study.

“Conclusion.
Lean and healthy old men do not manifest anabolic resistance as evidenced by potent increases in muscle protein synthesis and mTORC1 signaling following EAA intake and exercise”.

What does this mean for you? To paraphrase myself from the many conversations and articles I have written and published during the last 10 to 15 years.

Lift good enough weights, with a big enough effort, often enough every week of your life. Eat, nutritionally complete, high-protein foods and plenty of whole plant-based foods and you will age as well as is humanly possible to do.

Simple as that folks.

No, you do not need to buy EAA products, EAA is just whole protein that´s been processed and stripped of non-essential amino acid content. There is nothing wrong with taking EAA, but eat enough whole protein from food and protein supplements and EAA provides nothing beneficial in comparison.

Study number two. Sedentary people that do not lift weights, will mostly lose the strong and explosive type 2 muscle fibers.

You have plenty of recent articles and podcasts from Strength By Fitness on the topic of old age and the stark decline in type II fibers in people who do not strength train with a big enough load, often enough in an explosive way, or at all. 

So there is no need for me to rehash all that.

But I included this short part about this particular study in this article because it ties so incredibly well together with the entire premise of anabolic resistance in older sedentary people.

You lose what you do not do.

Something this study too demonstrates incredibly clearly and beautifully.

I am saying this because once again we have one older and one younger group of lean and healthy fit men. Roughly 22 years of age and 69 years of age for the older group.

The outcome? 

Older people displayed a relative increase in type 1 muscle fibers. This makes sense because it means that the older the nonresistance training group got the less their bodies held on to the stronger, more powerful, and explosive type II muscle fibers.

We could also see how older muscles contained roughly 32 % smaller and deformed type II myofibres. But it doesn’t stop there, those poorly aged muscles also had about 29% fewer capillaries and almost 40% fewer satellite cells surrounding their type II fibers.

All bad news.

But is this proof that you can do nothing? 

No, not at all. It´s proof of the complete opposite because what these two studies show us is that in order to enjoy a healthier, fitter, more capable old age, you have to maintain strength training with good enough load, and you have to lift that weight in an explosive way, and you need to do it often enough on a weekly basis, all while meeting your need for recovery.

The Strength By Fitness Way to Healthy Fit Old Age.

This is why Strength By Fitness in general advises our older clients to lift bigger weights and do slightly less volume per exercise and workout session, and in total per week. 

They are advised to do this in combination with eating enough nutritionally complete, high-satiety foods with a high-protein intake of around 1.6 to 2.0 grams of protein per kilo of body weight, if fit ( or target weight if the client is obese when they start working with us ).

This allows our clients to increase strength and muscle mass even at an advanced age while maintaining higher daily energy levels, and enjoying the marvel that is good, effortless recovery.

Now, when we put these two studies together, the outcome is pretty obvious, right?

Do nothing, and you will age in a bad way, that does make you weaker, more frail, less mobile, less capable, and more unhealthy.

But if instead, you maintain good enough strength training and you eat healthy foods rich in protein, and fiber you will mitigate most, but not all, of the age-related decline we see in sedentary old people. 

This includes anabolic resistance to strength training, it includes the massive decline in type 2 muscle fibers, strength, and mobility, and it even includes things such as heart health and brain matter, cognitive capacity, dementia, endurance, walk speed, cancer risk, fall risk, and bone health.

Strength train on a weekly basis. Consume high-protein foods on a daily basis, walk once per day, and reward yourself with a far healthier second half of your life.

Cited study.

1. Anabolic sensitivity in older fit people vs young and fit people.
Anabolic Sensitivity in Healthy, Lean, Older Men Is Associated With Higher Expression of Amino Acid Sensors and mTORC1 Activators Compared to Young — Horwath — Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle — Wiley Online Library

2. Age-related decline in type II skeletal muscle fiber unless you strength train good enough.
Aging leads to selective type II myofibre deterioration and denervation independent of reinnervative capacity in human skeletal muscle — Horwath — Experimental Physiology — Wiley Online Library

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