The Importance of Muscle for Longevity

Mar 30

The importance of our muscular system goes beyond aesthetics: it’s vital to everyday living, especially as we age. Building muscle helps protect bones and joints, promotes better balance, improves metabolism, decreases the risk of injury, benefits hormones, and may even improve cognitive function.

Strength training isn’t just about muscle

Bones and joints: Improving musculoskeletal health means increased muscle mass, directly correlating to increasing bone density and reducing the risk of osteoporosis.

Better balance: Strengthening major and smaller muscle groups helps provide better joint flexibility and postural control. It also builds a stronger body awareness, allowing muscles to have faster reaction time when stability becomes challenged.

Improved metabolism: Muscles absorb glucose and increase insulin sensitivity, making them crucial for managing balanced blood sugar. Strength training also raises resting metabolic rate (RMR) to allow for fat burning–even at rest.

A previous study that measured the association of resistance training with cardiovascular health in women also found that women had lower fasting glucose when they did resistance training. A lower fasting glucose tends to indicate you are less insulin resistant and able to regulate blood sugar better!

To read more about blood sugar, insulin, and glucose, read my previous blog, The Importance of Balanced Blood Sugar.

Decreased risk of injury: Strength training boosts neuromuscular coordination while targeting bones of the hips, spine, and wrists, which are susceptible to injury or fracture.

Hormone health: As blood sugar sensitivity plays a role in PCOS and other hormonal imbalances, building muscle is foundational to hormone health. Strength training benefits cortisol regulation and supports estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone balance.

Read more about PCOS and drivers of hormonal imbalances in my previous blog, PCOS: Diagnosis, Causes, and Ways to Combat it Naturally.

Improve cognitive function and boost mood: Strength training reduces inflammation in the brain while providing protection; therefore, it greatly reduces cognitive impairments. It enhances working memory, attention control, and cognitive flexibility, among others.

Engaging in regular exercise and activity improves your mental health and boosts your mood. It reduces your body’s levels of stress hormones, adrenaline, and cortisol while stimulating the production of endorphins (natural mood elevators).

As a previous study has demonstrated, with many in agreement, there are beneficial effects that resistance training, in particular, has on the neuropathology of elderly adults with Alzheimer’s Disease.

Strength training for women’s health

There have been misconceptions that have lingered around strength training and protein intake, especially for women. In fact, a study reported that only 1 in 5 women in the U.S. engage in regular resistance training.

It becomes more important for women as they age to strengthen their joints in order to protect against the risk of injury and disease. A 2019 study found that osteoporosis, a disease that weakens bones and increases the risk of fractures, is more prevalent in women than men. Other conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis, are also more commonly diagnosed in women.

To read more about strength training for women, read my previous blog post, The Benefits of Strength Training for Women.

Complete protein vs incomplete

To be classified as a complete protein, foods must contain all nine essential amino acids (out of the 20 amino acids): histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine. The remaining 11 are considered nonessential, which our bodies can produce on their own, even if we do not get them from food.

Foods that are considered complete proteins:

Meat
Fish
Dairy
Eggs
Soy protein, such as tofu, edamame, and tempeh

Leucine: Amino Acid for Muscle Building

Amino acids are the building blocks of protein. Out of the nine essentials, leucine plays a special role in building muscle through increasing the rate of muscle protein synthesis, adjusting pathways that trigger muscle hypertrophy, recovering from workouts, and stimulating the release of insulin. Leucine is also known to counteract age-related muscle mass.

Foods high in Leucine:

Swiss cheese
Yellowtail fish
Back beans
Dark meat chicken
Roasted turkey
Pumpkin seeds
Roasted peanuts
Tofu
Cottage cheese

For these reasons and more, strength training is a non-negotiable pillar in my weekly exercise routine! Remember, it’s never too late to start strength, resistance, or functional training for muscle growth or maintenance.