Do you want to live a long, healthy life? What a question, of course, you do! Well, one of the keys to living longer may lie in something you might not expect – your muscles! Strong, healthy muscles can help boost your longevity and reduce the risk of chronic diseases.
As you age, it is common to lose muscle mass, which can contribute to a wide range of health problems, such as reduced mobility, balance, and flexibility.
The good news is that you can take simple steps to maintain and build muscle mass so that you can enjoy a higher quality of life and add precious years to your lifespan.
Benefits of Building Muscle Mass and Improving Longevity
Let us take a look at how healthy muscle mass can improve your longevity.
Prevents Sarcopenia (Muscle Loss)
It is natural to gradually lose muscle mass as you age, but you may also suffer from more extreme conditions, such as sarcopenia, or muscle loss. This is common among the elderly, where you can lose function, mobility, and independence because of the gradual loss of muscle mass. Sarcopenia can also take years off your life.
Muscle mass is important for your body’s stability, particularly for the hips and shoulders. Losing stability could make you more prone to falls, and if you also have low bone density, falls can lead to fractures. What is worse, is some breaks, such as a broken hip, can increase mortality risk, particularly among senior-aged people.
Sarcopenia can be prevented, and it is also possible to reverse it through exercise, such as resistance and strength training. So do not wait until you are older. You can start at any age!
The younger you start the better, because prevention is always easier than trying to reverse the adverse effects of muscle loss.
Reduces Risk of Chronic Diseases
Muscle mass plays an important role in reducing the risk of chronic diseases, which are a leading cause of death. For example, the heart is a muscle and if you maintain healthy muscles, your heart will have a better chance of remaining healthy too. The most effective way to avoid muscle atrophy is to engage in resistance training to build muscles, which in turn provides many wanted benefits.
Resistance training such as strength training can help lower the risk of chronic inflammation, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Increasing muscle mass can improve insulin sensitivity to help maintain normal blood sugar levels. This is important in reducing the risk of developing metabolic health issues such as type 2 diabetes.
Keeps You Functioning Optimally Into Your Senior Years
Most people would say that if they can reach their senior years and be living independently, able to maintain their body and mental functions, and still able to do what they want, they would be happy. Maintaining a healthy muscle mass can help you get there.
Healthy muscle mass can help you function well into your later years by improving your bone health, sense of balance, and flexibility. That way, you can avoid devastating bone breaks, keep yourself from falling, and avoid asking family members to take care of you, or worse, having to send you into a nursing home.
Healthy muscle mass allows you to maintain your movement, as your skeletal muscles that are attached to your bones, tendons, and ligaments, are still healthy and able to move freely. Healthy muscle mass can also prevent osteoarthritis, which has been attributed to low muscle mass.
Helps Avoid Depression and Live Happier
Building muscle mass can have a very positive impact on your emotional health by reducing the risk of developing emotional health problems such as anxiety and depression. This is because exercising your muscles helps to reduce stress and sleep well, both of which help you live longer!
Strength training can also boost your mood and immune system, as well as increase your self-esteem. Plus, if your emotional health is good, you will live a happier life, and happy people tend to live longer.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, muscle mass can improve your longevity. If your muscle mass is optimal, you can reduce the risks of developing many chronic diseases, which are among the leading causes of death.
You can prevent muscle loss and maintain your function in later years. Regular strength training, which is important for building and maintaining muscle mass, contributes to healthy aging and maintaining a high quality of life. If you have good muscle strength, you will function at a much higher level for longer!
