Strong muscles make for robust aging

Hearing aids at 66 and cataract surgery at 70 didn’t make me fret about aging. I was still able to do everything I’d always done.

Knee and back pain, on the other hand, restricts my activity. Osteoarthritis, the most common cause of joint pain as people age, has caught up with me. For the first time I’m starting to feel my age.

 

Volunteering at the Anti-Cruelty Society, I needed help standing up when I took a cat out of a low cage. My lower back hurt enough after a 4½-hour drive to my sister’s lake house to keep me from playing cornhole. 

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“My parents lived well into their 90s, so I may have 20 years left, but I don’t know if I want them if I’m going to be limited in what I can do,” I complained to the osteopath who was injecting a steroid into my right knee. 

I made another pessimistic comment to a friend: “Aging pains are only going to get worse.”

My friend responded with a quip — “We Baby Boomers thought we’d never grow old” — but the doctor delivered a serious message: Life doesn’t have to be downhill the rest of the way. Feeling good, however, is going to require more effort than it used to. 

Strong muscles are the key, she said. Not only do they keep us able to function, they also relieve pain from conditions like arthritis. When strong muscles support the body, there’s less pressure on joints and bones. 

Seniors have to work harder to maintain muscle mass. Our bodies start losing muscle at age 30 and lose it faster after 60. By our 80s, we may have lost 30 percent of our muscle mass, and that lessens mobility and puts us at risk for falls and injuries. 

The walking I do consistently is a good cardio activity, but it should be supplemented by targeted muscle-strengthing exercises. I should have listened to that message decades ago, but it’s not too late.

The osteopath suggested physical therapy, but I want first to try an exercise program on my own. She gave me a printout with back exercises to do every other day. The physical therapist I saw last summer gave me knee exercises, which I haven’t been doing often enough.

The exercise routine for back and knees takes less than a half-hour. Surely a retiree can fit it in every other day. Scheduling a time, ideally in the morning before the day gets busy, should ensure that I do it. 

There’s another part to the muscle issue that I’ve been reading about: diet. Protein helps maintain muscle. Seniors need to increase our protein intake as our bodies become less efficient at processing protein, according to a recent book published by AARP, The Whole Body Reset. It recommends that women consume 25 grams of protein and men 30 grams at each meal — breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Upping my protein intake may be as simple as adding chia seeds to my morning oatmeal and legumes to my evening salad.

I can go on moaning about what’s happening to my body, or I can do a few things to counteract it. The changes I’m looking at aren’t overwhelming, and if they help as expected, I will feel better. It should be a relief to discover that aging doesn’t have to be a one-way street after all.