Strong foundations: Reframing Muscle as the Core of Longevity
The benefits of strength training for health & longevity
The health and wellness industry is growing and growing, it is expected to grow to be a $9 trillion industry by 2028 (Statista) and people’s awareness around their health and wellness is at an all-time high. While it’s great that awareness is increasing and there is increasing offerings to help improve overall health & longevity, such as hyperbaric chambers, sauna’s, IV Drips etc. I still think there can be times when strength training and creating appropriate overload to the musculoskeletal system is overlooked or not necessarily seen as a longevity tool.
Structured and periodised strength training can have a great long-term impact from a physical, mental and physiological perspective.
Some of the benefits of strength training are listed below:
- Preserves and builds Skeletal Muscle Mass and Bone Density alongside functional strength
Strength training applies stress to the muscle, tendons, ligaments and bone. Which means overloaded appropriately, these tissues get stronger or at least don’t decline. From age 30 and onwards people can potentially lose 3-8% of muscle mass per decade without any form of intervention. This can lead to conditions such as sarcopenia (muscles loss) or osteoporosis (bone density decreasing) which can lead to falls and bone breaks, which have a high correlation with mortality, Consistent strength training can offset things such as sarcopenia and osteoporosis and even improve muscle mass and bone density, leading to less frailty as we age and even potentially higher outputs.
- Improves Insulin Sensitivity
With the potential growth, preservation and usage of muscles tissue from strength training, we can improve insulin sensitivity (which is the body’s ability to deal with/respond to insulin), as muscle is the biggest glucose sink in the body, so it can help manage blood sugar levels as muscle cells will take glucose in as stored glycogen and use it as energy for exercise. So the more muscle tissue we have and the more we train, the higher the potential to be more insulin sensitive there is.
- Reduced rick to chronic disease and mortality
Whether due to direct or indirect reasons, research has been showing that strength training is associated with lower risk to cardiovascular diseases, cancers and mortality. There will be man y variables as to why, for example cause and correlation are not always the same, so there could be less mortality because there are less falls and breaks which means less surgeries and less fragility etc. it could be habits formed around strength training like better sleep and nutrition lead to lower possibility of cognitive decline and diseases. It could also be the direct physiological effects such as the impact on blood sugar levels etc. But what we do know is that science is showing there is an association with strength training and lower mortality and chronic disease.
There are many more benefits such as the impact on mood and also inflammation within the body which we can give a deep dive into in the future. But for those looking to expand their knowledge on this more from someone who knows a ton more about this then I do, then I’d recommend Dr Gabrielle Lyons book “Forever Strong”. It gives you a great breakdown of the importance of building muscle tissues through strength training and nutrition and the science behind it in a very digestible way.
People say ‘movement is medicine’ which I believe, muscle creates movement, so therefore muscle is medicine too!