Strength Training Question

[Weak Willed]

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that they gave some 80 and 90 year old nuns some exercises to do and they were able to increase their strength by 10% pretty quickly.

I've been told that how much muscle you can put on and how long it will take is a pretty individual thing.

But....... does anyone have any idea what a realistic expectation would be for how much stronger someone can get.

Someone like me. 58 years old and completely untrained.

Also does how fit I was 40 years ago have anything to do with what my potential is now?

Finally someone told me that in the same way that a fat cell never disappears when you lose weight, it only shrinks. Similarly a muscle cell never goes away either, it only shrinks.
Is that true?

[CAW]

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that they gave some 80 and 90 year old nuns some exercises to do and they were able to increase their strength by 10% pretty quickly.

I've been told that how much muscle you can put on and how long it will take is a pretty individual thing.

But....... does anyone have any idea what a realistic expectation would be for how much stronger someone can get.

Someone like me. 58 years old and completely untrained.

Also does how fit I was 40 years ago have anything to do with what my potential is now?

Finally someone told me that in the same way that a fat cell never disappears when you lose weight, it only shrinks. Similarly a muscle cell never goes away either, it only shrinks.
Is that true?

I only know that to be true thanks to The Nature of Things with David Suzuki. Well, the fat cell part, anyway. I assume the muscle cell would be similar.

Personally -- and as you mentioned, each individual has different results -- I find that when I go back to rigorous/regular strength training it does not take long for my body to get back to where I left off. Kinda like a muscle-memory kinda thing. For instance, I may get to the point where I can bench -- and I'm pulling out an arbitrary number for example's sake -- say, 125lbs regularly then I "take a break" from strength training (or fall off the wagon) for a while...when I come back to it, I may have to restart bench pressing 85-90 lbs, but I can work my way back to 125 quicker than it took me to get there the first time. Even while doing it safely and only increasing my weights when it is no longer a challenge to complete the sets of reps. I may make it to the point of bench pressing 150 lbs before falling off the wagon again....and the next time I come back to it I might be able to start at 100lbs instead of 85.

But YMMV.

[Weak Willed]

Well that's encouraging.

I was under the impression that one's ability to gain muscle had something to do with a hormone that we have in abundance as teenagers, but less and less of of as we age. And that our strength decreases by something like 10% every decade after the age of 20. Especially If we don't keep using our muscles.

[Jwolf]

The ability to gain muscle is also related to hormones.

But you can definitely gain strength through an appropriate program. The other benefit is you can also help slow age-related bone loss. That is just as important as muscle.

[Jwolf]

Also I'm not sure that muscle cells are the same as fat cells- I think we do actually lose some muscle tissue with muscle atrophy. But there are different types of muscle tissue (just as there are different types of fat tissue) so it's not all that simple

Alex Hutchinson's column from todays G&M is quite timely:

http://m.theglobeandmail.com/life/healt ... ice=mobile

[Weak Willed]

Thanks Jen the article in the Globe and Mail was very interesting.

[Spirit Unleashed]

Yes you can get some great muscles in your 50s:



On as little as 5 or 10 minutes a day! In the first picture, the larger right arm is the one I broke about a year before the picture, so I had to start from scratch with that one. But my right side is stronger.

or this 70 something lady:

[Weak Willed]

That's very Impressive.
How much time do you spend Strength Training in a week?

[Spirit Unleashed]

That's very Impressive.
How much time do you spend Strength Training in a week?

read what I said above.....no more than 30 min a week. But I plan to try and up that as Boston Tortoise is my role model.

[Jwolf]

That's very Impressive.
How much time do you spend Strength Training in a week?

read what I said above.....no more than 30 min a week. But I plan to try and up that as Boston Tortoise is my role model.

I've been taking a class a couple days/week to get me into the strength training habit, and it goes through a routine of about 40 minutes of strength combined with some cardio stuff. But when I go on my own I do about 10-15 minutes.

[Spirit Unleashed]

right, my trx upper body takes about 4 minutes (and I really think this has put the definition into my arms). A free weight workout takes about 12-19, but that is mixed with some sit-ups and leg stuff. Not every day.

My bar bell is 55 lbs. I don't think I'd press much more than that ever. But on machines you can try more. All my stuff is light; just various dumb bells, 6 to 15 lbs.

[Weak Willed]

I contacted The Aging Muscle Diagnostic Lab at McGill offering to be a Guinea Pig for them in hopes of getting some more information on the subject.

They said they would contact me next week.

Can you think of any questions I should ask them?