This exercise has a huge effect on our health and longevity, but many of us ignore it

In the pursuit of fitness, we might turn to some great activewear, a pool membership or a daily walk — all good and important stuff.

But many of us forget about building strength — despite the fact that, as we age, retaining muscle has the power to transform our lives.

“It’s really vital,” David Scott, an exercise scientist at Deakin University, tells ABC RN’s Life Matters.

Strength training lowers your risk of heart attack and other heart disease, stroke and cancer.

It also impacts your ability to lead a healthy life as an older person — something that’s not well understood, Dr Scott says.

“We need to change the narrative … that it’s somewhat inevitable that we’re going to get to a point where we’re not able to take good care of ourselves and … where we don’t have a level of independence,” he says.

“It’s really important for people to understand that you can … avoid getting to that point.”

Here’s how.

First, what do muscles do for us?

“Muscle has gotten a bad rap,” says Gabrielle Lyon, a functional medicine practitioner and author based in the US.

She’s referring to skeletal muscle — the muscle we use to move our bones — as opposed to, say, the cardiac muscle in our hearts or the muscle in our digestive systems.

“When you think about muscle, you typically think about guys grunting in the weight room or being jacked and with a skinny tank top and a tan. But skeletal muscle is so much more than that,” says Dr Lyon, the author of Forever Strong: A New Science-Based Strategy for Aging Well.

“In fact, being physically fit and having good athletic performance is a by-product of having healthy skeletal muscle.

“[It] probably has the biggest impact on our health and longevity as we age.”

The main function of skeletal muscle is to help us move around. But it’s also a really important site for glucose disposal, Dr Scott says.

By storing glucose in our muscles, we don’t have as much sugar floating around in our blood, which helps maintain healthy blood sugar levels.

And without that balance, the risk of metabolic illness, such as diabetes, can rise.

Our muscles as we age

Sarcopenia, the process of losing muscle mass and strength with ageing, generally begins in our 30s and 40s and speeds up in our 60s, 70s and 80s, Dr Scott explains.

That’s when it can present some serious challenges as we go about our daily lives — managing a house or a garden, for example. Sarcopenia has also been linked to cognitive decline.

“Eventually we can get to a point where we lose our independence and need support from a carer or potentially to enter aged care. It increases our risk of falls and fractures. And these are major public health issues for our ageing population,” Dr Scott says.

But, though there’s a decline in what our muscles are capable of as we age, there’s plenty we can still do to maintain a healthy, strong body.

“It is not about being bigger. It’s truly about being able to be functional,” Dr Scott says.

“We’re being active to become better at life, to be able to move through life in a way that keeps us ultimately out of nursing homes, that prevents falls, that allows us to get groceries and put them away and carry them back [home] and put our suitcase overhead.

“That’s why we’re actually doing these things.”

How to build muscle

We should be including strength training in our exercise routines at least two days a week, for about 30 minutes to an hour each time, Dr Scott says.

He suggests trying to do three sets of six to 12 repetitions of each strength-building exercise. And there are plenty of different ways to do them.

“Sometimes there’s a perception that we need to go to the gym to do this type of training. But you can do it at home just using your own body weight.”

Body weight exercises include squats, movements like the bird dog or dead bug (look them up — they’re easier than they sound), or a sit-to-stand exercise where you sit in your chair and rise up without using your arms, as quickly as possible.

You don’t need to carve out a block of time in your day. Small amounts of exercise — for example, a few 10–15-minute blocks — at various points in a day is “absolutely” effective for strength training, Dr Scott says.

And if you’re using weights, he recommends starting by lifting about 40 per cent of the maximum weight you can lift for each exercise. Then as you improve, you can gradually increase it to about 80 per cent.

Resisting exercise stress and pressure

Ella Mason, a gym coach and owner of Pony Club Gym in Melbourne’s north, says people are often held back from exercise because they think that unless they’re doing three or more sessions a week, there’s no point.

“But [doing] anything once a week is more than doing nothing … Any movement is good, or any routine is good,” Mx Mason says.

“It’s better to aim for a routine that’s doable, so you’re more likely to maintain it over a lifetime, which is more beneficial than stopping and starting.

“But also, it’s okay to take a break as well … You’ve got to go with where your body’s at because life is in flux and energy is in flux as well.”

Mx Mason says there are misguided ideas floating around about “sporty people and non-sporty people”, or those who can perform certain moves, and those who can’t.

“That’s a load of rubbish,” they say.

“Our bodies are literally made to move. And I think having the confidence and support to do that is really the only issue.”