SARCOPENIA: WHAT IS IT, AND HOW YOU MIGHT PREVENT IT?
Sarcopenia is the degenerative loss of skeletal muscle mass, quality, and strength associated with aging. The rate of muscle loss is dependent on exercise level, co-morbidities, nutrition and other factors. Sarcopenia can lead to reduction in functional status and cause significant disability.
The above is the official definition of the term by Wikipedia. While the above definition is scary enough, an even more chilling reference follows:
Sarcopenia is a precursor and cause to the frailty syndrome!
I’ve been in fitness all my life and have never heard of the frailty syndrome! I didn’t know it was a thing!
Frailty is a condition which can be categorized as a syndrome of latter life in which physical and physiological decline contribute to vulnerabilities and negative health outcomes. Frail older adults suffer compromised metabolic and physical systems which are less able to adapt to stressors such as acute illnesses of many origins.
These vulnerabilities are many faceted, the most serious being a depressed immune ability. These compromised systems also result in the many geriatric syndromes typical of older adults such as falls, fractures, delirium, incontinence, and many others.
So, in essence, there are two distinct events that everyone will have to deal with and that GoingOn30 concerns itself with. The first is Sarcopenia itself described above and that results in loss of muscle mass with age. The second is the frailty syndrome, that condition that finds its genesis in the progressive advance of Sarcopenia as a function of age.
The myriad studies about Sarcopenia basically say the same things, the most important of which are the following:
- Sarcopenia is progressive muscle loss with age
- Sarcopenia is widely accepted to begin around age 30
- Sarcopenia and its degenerative effects are influenced by the amount of muscle mass at onset
- Sarcopenia’s effects can be mitigated by lifestyle habits
- Sarcopenia can be mitigated, perhaps even reversed
This progressive degeneration of the human organism, its mitigation, and its possible reversal, is the cornerstone of Longevity and quality of Life. It is the unique proposition I’ve formulated for this website!
THIS IS THE VERY ESSENCE OF GOING ON 30’S RAISON D’ETRE!
There are no fancy obscure and convoluted scientific studies on my website to endlessly debate the merits of, or to validate one point of view versus another.
No, indeed, I am the guinee pig, I am the rhesus monkey, I am the live human organism (not a bunch of scientifically bred rats and mice), that is being experimented on daily.
The experiments combatting Sarcopenia and attaining Longevity and quality of Life are none other than what fills my life on a daily basis.
This is the sum total of what I do on a daily basis:
How I train
What I eat
How much I sleep
Fitness self-care techniques I use
Health habits
Etc, etc, etc.
There are dozens upon dozens of mitigating techniques to stay ahead of the Sarcopenic curve.
Now and over the coming decades, you can access the habits that will help to deal with advancing age.
I interject this observation, because the intention is to define SARCOPENIA as THE primary and elemental condition to manage and master if Longevity and quality of life are to define your future!
Yes, it’s that critical! Master this and you will stack the odds in your favor to live in physical bliss and abundance until that fateful day that none of us can escape!
As I have attained a certain age, through not fault of my own, I feel qualified to advance some observations I have noted through the decades leading to this date, which happens to be November 6th, 2019. Whenever you read this article, the date can be an anchor for you.
While Sarcopenia is generally accepted to begin at 30, I think that date is quite arbitrary and is different for everyone, both in severity and manifestation.
In my situation, I never noticed it until quite a few years later, much closer to 40 actually.
This is not to say that the condition was not brewing underneath, it was just not of a noticeable degree until then.
Why did I not notice? I don’t quite know for sure, but I have theories.
I’ve been practicing sports all my life from early childhood
I was a mover for decades so carried a lot of muscle on my frame
I have an unusual propensity to tolerate pain
I’ve always been very competitive
I’ve always had the Alpha mindset
HOW AND WHEN I FIRST NOTICED SARCOPENIA
Getting involved with Triathlons coming out of my military years, I started Triathlon training at the tender age of 28. In January of 1981, at age 29, I was at the starting line with 324 other Triathletes in Kona bay, Hawaii, for only the 3rd installment of the Ironman Triathlon.
In those early years of the 1980s, I was accustomed to getting in shape for competition season, then stopping training during the winter holidays, roughly starting with Thanksgiving, through Christmas, and maybe through January of the new year.
It was a prevailing thought back then, and clearly it was wrong.
Regardless, this yo-yo pattern of getting in and out of shape was not a hardship on me.
As a matter of fact, it allowed for the vagaries of college life, and life in general, which much too often got in the way.
It was in 1991 however (age 41), gearing up to train for Ironman New Zealand, that I noticed it seemed quite harder, and took longer, to reach the type of racing shape I was accustomed to in the past.
I didn’t pay much attention to this, though the effects were undeniable.
As the years passed by, I noticed this phenomenon to be predictable and increasing in severity.
Each year I needed to put more energy and time to get in racing shape. It also seemed that I needed more time to recuperate from training.
It is not that I couldn’t engage in the same training volume and intensity, it was a different process to attain race shape as well as deal with the after effects.
In 1999, I went back to New Zealand for a second installment of the race, and while I turned in the fastest time of all my Ironman competitions, I feel it was the most difficult to get in shape for.
Perhaps this is due to the fact that I finally took the event more seriously and trained more diligently than any other race before. I trained longer in preparation, I trained more scientifically, I arrived onsite one week before to familiarize myself with the course.
Whatever the reasons for my success, the undeniable feeling is that I spent a lot more energy and time to reach that level of ability. It was a great race to remember!
As noted here, June 30th 2002 was my last Triathlon. This was the end of 22 years of competition, the close of a huge passionate chapter of my life.
The race was a bomb, I chocked and sputtered!
I would like to think that certain outside conditions, which will remain nameless, are the result of my dismal showing and my decision to retire; but in fact at now 46, I really felt the lack of ability to race at the level of intensity I had in the 1980s.
CONCLUSION
No one can escape Sarcopenia, just as no one can escape getting older. It’s a mortal thing, we are no Legolas, Elronds or Arwends!
However, the onset of Sarcopenia is likely an individual event dictated by specific circumstances.
Fortunately, there are an extensive set of behaviors that will impact this degenerative slide in a positive fashion.
In my case, I happened to partake in all these positive sets of behaviors, not because I wanted to impact Sarcopenia, but because they were my passion. Unbeknownst to me, these would minimize the effects of Sarocopenia in my life. The following are what characterized my life:
I was Athletic from the time I could crawl
I was on the Track and Swim teams in High School
I had manual labor jobs all through my school years which filled my frame with strength and musculature
I partook in physically challenging activities through my college years, such as Scuba, Mountaineering, sailing, skiing, etc.
In Army 82nd Airborne, I experienced the limits of physical endurance
My Triathlon training and racing career lasted 22 years
HOW YOU CAN STACK THE DECK IN YOUR FAVOR
You don’t have to do what I did to stack the deck in your favor and nip Sarcopenia in the butt!
No, just simply engaging in progressive resistance exercises will have an impact on Sarcopenia’s grip.
Lifting weights, of course, comes to mind. But there are other activities that will help as well.
Body weight exercises such as push ups, planks, pull ups, sit ups, lunges, squats, and plyometric exercises of all kinds will yield many benefits at any age.
There are many activities that create great strength and overall musculature. A prime example are the following activities that can be found here. [bondi videos, muscle beach].
Unknowingly, I did it because my love was training, racing, Triathlons, and pushing the envelope. How I have lived my life the first 6 decades resulted in this. [Castaic]
You can do it because you know why it is beneficial to do so. Just chose your method.
I don’t know where you are in your life as you read this; but the critical factor to understand is that the earlier you start to pack on and retain muscle mass, the better your chances are to minimize the effects of Sarcopenia in your older years when the ongoing process really makes itself known.
I’m not talking about Sarcopenia’s effects at 30 or 40; I’m talking about when the Gorilla jumps on your back at 50, 60, 70 years of age and beyond!
It’s a lifelong pursuit, it’s a way of life.
You won’t wake up after 30 or 40 years of sitting on the couch and decide to significantly impact Sarcopenia!
It has already taken its toll, and you can’t undo what has already been sown. You can make a stand going forward [it will take a lot of dedication and courage], but the best time to start has come and gone, and you can’t get it back.
I want to leave you with a saying that’s entirely applicable to this subject:
‘The best time to plant a tree to bear fruit is 20 years ago,
the next best time is now’!