The Anti-Aging Tool No One is Talking About
Did you know after age 30, you lose 3-5% of your lean mass every year? 😔 That’s a lot! This means that unless you are training and fueling your body properly with strength training and 30-40 grams of protein with every meal, your body composition is changing fairly drastically with each year that passes.
As we age we tend to lose more type two muscle fibers. Type two muscle fibers are important because they help with activities that require strength and power. These are the fibers that help you to perform quick, explosive movements such as running with your kids or grandkids, catching your fall if you trip, hitting your golf or tennis ball with force, or jumping out of the way of a bicycle.
Not stimulating these muscle fibers can cause a dormancy of satellite cells. These cells are a type of stem cell located outside of a muscle fiber and they play an important role in muscle regeneration, growth and repair. Proper stimulation of these cells through resistance training can help with these anti-aging benefits:
Lowers the risk of developing neurodegenerative disease
Increases DNA damage response leading to better cell cleanup
Improves mitochondrial health which may visibly improve signs of aging and and help stall the aging process
To stimulate type two muscle fibers, you need to prioritize strength training and get close to muscle failure which means work a muscle until you can barely do anymore reps. An easy way to do this in class? Increase your spring tension! Add a white spring to make any exercise more challenging….you’ll bring your muscles to fatigue faster and this is how you get stronger.
At The Pilates Place, we highly recommend following the American College of Sports Medicine recommendations of strength training a minimum of 2x a week and doing 150 minutes of moderate intensity cardio for your heart health weekly. This simply means to attend reformer classes 2-3x a week and go for those daily brisk walks!