Whether it’s climbing stairs, carrying groceries, or maintaining independence, muscle strength plays a critical role in healthy aging.
“Maintaining enough muscle mass and muscle strength allows an older individual to live independently for longer,” says Bryant’s Jason Sawyer, Ph.D., associate professor and program coordinator of Bryant’s Exercise and Movement Science program whose research focuses on human performance.
He explains that our ability to build muscle becomes more difficult as we get older. Before age 30, men's testosterone and women’s estrogen levels are high enough to significantly support muscle hypertrophy (a.k.a. muscle growth). After that point, the body responds less and less to exercise. The good news? Our response never reaches zero, notes Sawyer, nodding to research where 80- and 90-year-olds were able to increase their muscle mass.
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“In an ideal situation, people would put on some muscle mass in their 20s and then maintain it during their 30s, 40s, and 50s,” he says, adding that this shouldn’t dissuade people around retirement age or older from making gains in the gym.
In celebration of National Muscle Health Month, Sawyer provides suggestions for how individuals can begin their muscle building journey:
Workout options for building muscle
To stimulate muscle growth, you need to cause stress to the body. This can be achieved through weight training, body weight training, or resistance training.
“If you want to gain muscle, you're going to do three to four sets of an exercise somewhere around eight to twelve repetitions, and with a moderate weight,” Sawyer says, adding that individuals can find recommended guidelines through the National Strength and Conditioning Association and the American College of Sports Medicine. “It should be moderately heavy while keeping it in that rep range. You’re going to do this a minimum of two times per week and hit all the major muscle groups.”
For sedentary individuals who may not be used to working out, exercise microdosing — which Sawyer conducted a case study to look at psychological benefits — is a great option to begin the transition of building more muscle. This form of resistance training calls for short bursts of exercise three times a day, three days a week. Sawyer suggests timing these 10-minute workouts around breakfast, lunch, and dinner and incorporating exercises like bodyweight squats, push-ups, or jumping jacks.
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Weight machines are also helpful options for beginners as the fixed plane of motion may make it easier and safer for those learning how to maintain proper technique. Sawyer emphasizes the importance of using lighter weights when learning a new movement to ensure correct technique and reduce the chances of strain or injury.
From there, the big three exercises for muscle building are the bench press (focus area: upper body), deadlift (focus area: lower body), and squat (focus area: lower body).
“These are core lifts — meaning that they should make up the core of our program because they use so much muscle mass,” Sawyer says, adding that seeking assistance from fitness professionals can help individuals learn safe technique and adhere to their exercise regimen.
Prioritizing rest and recovery
Stressing the muscle results in microscopic tears to the muscles' cellular protein content, which means you need to provide the body with enough fuel to rebuild that muscle once you’ve finished working out. To do this, you’ll want to make sure you’re taking in enough calories and protein to provide the building blocks for that muscle to grow; you can then fit in carbohydrates and fat intake around that.
Sawyer explains that muscles grow during the recovery period, and the typical recommendation is to wait 24 hours between working the same muscle group; this is an especially important guideline for beginners or older individuals.
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“Beginners are going to experience a significant delayed onset of muscle soreness. Once you're an experienced lifter, you're not going to have the same soreness or damage because your muscle is stronger,” Sawyer says.
He adds that individuals may become so sore that they can't get the weekly volume they need to drive muscle growth.
“You also have to be sleeping enough because the growth cascade can be interrupted by lack of sleep,” he says.