Maintaining muscle mass as you age is an integral part of staying healthy and independent. Stuart Phillips, Ph.D., a professor of kinesiology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, where he is also the director of the Physical Activity Center of Excellence, is an expert in this area and recently spoke with Rhonda Patrick, Ph.D., about how to use resistance exercise and protein intake to build muscle.
Once you reach your 40s, you may lose about 1% of muscle mass per year, which corresponds to a 1% to 3% drop in strength.
1 Loss of muscle mass is associated with a downward decline in health, including an increased risk of premature death, while engaging in muscle-strengthening exercises for just 30 to 60 minutes per week is enough to lower your risk of death.
2However, it is important to understand that this is just the common observation and not a rule set in stone. I started aggressive resistance training and increasing my protein intake to 1.3 grams/kilogram in my 60s and at the age of 67 was able to increase about 25 pounds of muscle mass. So much so that I was able to ten reps of 600 pounds on a leg press (see below).
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