Dear Health Conscious Reader,
How would you feel if three pounds of your muscle disappeared every decade?
That’s par for the course. But it’s not something I want.
Yet, if you’re not getting enough of the right type of exercise, your muscles shrink as you age.
If this happens long enough, you wind up with a medical condition called sarcopenia. Sarcopenia simply means a deficiency of muscle. This occurs gradually. In fact, you may not even notice it, because your weight may not change as fat is replacing your muscle.
However, by the time you reach your 40s or 50s, it starts catching up with you. You may notice some excess belly fat. Perhaps your thighs or rear end seem to start growing larger. And somewhere along the way, you might realize it’s not so easy to heft those heavy objects any more.
As time goes on, that build-up of excess fat begins to accelerate muscle breakdown even further. And it could result in “sarcopenic obesity.” That’s what happens when your fat keeps growing while lean muscle declines.
But that’s not the worst of it. A recent study shows that people with sarcopenia have significantly lower cardiovascular fitness. Plus, they are more likely to have physical limitations than those with normal muscles.1
Just as importantly, sarcopenia causes weakness. This leads to falls that so many elders experience. In fact, sarcopenia has as much to do with fractures as brittle bones do.
But by adding one single element to your daily life, you can alter your genetic blueprint, improve your health and reverse the age of your muscles. I’ll show you just how easy it is to do this.
In a groundbreaking study, researchers took muscle samples from young adults and older adults. The older group was placed in an exercise program. They performed resistance-type exercises three times per week.
Here’s what happened …
Before exercise training, the older adults were 59 percent weaker than the younger adults. But after just six months of exercise, the older individuals were able to improve muscle strength by approximately 50 percent.
But here’s something even more remarkable: After exercise training, their muscle tissue was re-energized from a cellular level. In fact, most of the genes that express aging were reversed back to younger levels!2
This study gives us new insight into the role of exercise and muscle in the aging process. And it’s vitally important, because strong muscles …
- Support your bones
- Reduce osteoarthritis
- Aid in sexual health
- Improve thyroid hormone production
- Maintain adrenal production
- Control metabolic rate
- Stimulate human growth hormone
- Prevent chronic aches and pains
Building Muscle Keeps You Young
There’s no doubt about it. The most powerful tool for building muscle is exercise. The right exercise can reverse just about every symptom of aging. In fact, each of the following symptoms can be reversed through a specific exercise.
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Symptom of Aging
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Benefit of Exercise
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| Increased susceptibility to disease | Improves immune system function |
| Loss of muscle and increased body fat | Aids in loss of fat and builds muscle |
| Increased risk of a cardiac event (heart attack, stroke) | Lowers blood pressure, improves circulation, lowers cholesterol |
| Slowing of mental function and alertness | Improves reaction times and mental clarity |
| Depression | Relieves stress, improves self-esteem and outlook |
| Immobility and susceptibility to falls | Improves balance and coordination |
| Insomnia | Improves quality of sleep |
Resource: Klatz, R. Hormones of Youth 1999
The most efficient way to increase your health, strength and muscle is through resistance training. For this type of exercise, I like good old-fashioned calisthenics. They help you build lean muscle for the functional strength you need to perform day-to-day tasks.
You see, in real life, your muscles have to handle your own body weight. This makes calisthenics the perfect exercise for building functional strength. They mimic real movements to help you build strength and balance. And you can do them in short bursts of 10 minutes or less.
Calisthenics can…
- Build core muscle groups which are essential for good balance, coordination and functional strength.
- Increase your cardiovascular fitness and heart health.
- Fuel your metabolism, add lean muscle and help you melt fat more efficiently.
- Boost your endurance and stamina to prepare you for more challenging exercises.
- Shore up bone density for protection against breaks and fractures.
- Improve posture and back health by powering up muscles in your upper and lower torso.
That’s why calisthenics are a big part of my PACE program. In addition to the other elements of PACE, they help you build whole body health. And you don’t need to go to the gym to get started. Plus, even if you’re out of shape to start with, you can begin with a challenge that’s within your reach.
Here are a few of my favorite calisthenics exercises you can use to build muscle and strength in different parts of your body:
Squats – for your thighs and buttocks: Stand with feet shoulder-width apart. Squat as far as possible, bringing your arms forward parallel to the floor. Return to standing position.
Leg Levers – for your back and abs: Lie on your back, legs six inches off the ground. Lift legs another foot higher, return to starting position.
Push-ups – for your chest and arms: Start face down on floor, palms against floor under shoulders, toes curled up against floor. Push up with arms keeping a straight line from head through toes. Lower to within a few inches of floor and repeat. This exercise is great for your entire upper body.
If you don’t have the strength for a full push-up, here’s a modified version that will help you get started:
Modified Push-ups: Face a solid wall with your feet approximately three feet away from the wall. With your arms straight out and hands palm-forward, fall forward toward the wall and catch yourself with your hands. Then, bend your arms at the elbows and use them to push yourself backwards into a standing position.
To get all of my favorite workouts to help you build strength, revitalize your health and reverse the age of your muscles, check this out. You’ll love it, because PACE contains all the components that can change your gene expression and re-energize your muscle tissue from the cellular level … just like the people in the study. And it only takes 12-minutes a day, three times a week.
Just click here to get started now.
To Your Good Health,
Al Sears, MD
1 Chien, M.Y., Kuo, H.K., Wu, Y.T, “Sarcopenia, cardiopulmonary fitness, and physical disability in community-dwelling elderly people,” Phys. Ther. Sept. 2010; 90(9):1277-87
2 Melov, S., Tarnopolsky, M.A., Beckman, K., et al, “Resistance exercise reverses aging in human skeletal muscle,” PLoS ONE. 2007;2:e465
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