[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/betterbones.com\/exercise\/sarcopenia-risk\/#Article","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/betterbones.com\/exercise\/sarcopenia-risk\/","headline":"Muscle loss with aging \u2014 are you at risk for sarcopenia?","name":"Muscle loss with aging \u2014 are you at risk for sarcopenia?","description":"Print PDF eBook Facebook Twitter Gmail LinkedIn Pinterest Have you noticed jars are harder to open, walking upstairs is more tiring and you can\u2019t throw a baseball as far as you used to? These are signs of normal age-related muscle loss. After age 30, most people lose as much as 3\u20138% muscle mass per decade, […]","datePublished":"2018-11-17","dateModified":"2026-04-22","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/betterbones.com\/author\/brownbetterbonesgmail-com\/#Person","name":"Dr. Susan E. Brown, PhD","url":"https:\/\/betterbones.com\/author\/brownbetterbonesgmail-com\/","identifier":72,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8e08d87bd45250c6616e1752933a6576aba077f335d97ee337a0cde5e435cbd3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8e08d87bd45250c6616e1752933a6576aba077f335d97ee337a0cde5e435cbd3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Center for Better Bones","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/betterbones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Better-Bones-AMP.png","url":"https:\/\/betterbones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Better-Bones-AMP.png","width":150,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/betterbones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/sarcopenia-BB-Blog-3-20.jpg","url":"https:\/\/betterbones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/sarcopenia-BB-Blog-3-20.jpg","height":1109,"width":2120},"url":"https:\/\/betterbones.com\/exercise\/sarcopenia-risk\/","video":{"@context":"http:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"VideoObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=leK3CQ7723I#VideoObject","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=leK3CQ7723I","name":"Should you strength train for osteoporosis?","description":"Can you build bone with exercise? Dr. Brown discusses the increasingly important role of exercise in building bone!\n\u2192 Want to learn everything you need to manage & reverse your osteoporosis\/osteopenia naturally in one inspiring weekend with Dr. Brown? Join our bone health retreat & workshop! Learn more here: https:\/\/shop.betterbones.com\/pages\/love-your-bones-love-your-life-virtual-retreat\n\n\u2192 If you are interested in working with Dr. Brown to develop a personalized natural bone health program, read more about consultations here: https:\/\/www.betterbones.com\/consultations\/help-osteoporosis-osteopenia-fracture-healing-bone-health-concerns\/\n\n\u2192 Would you like your questions answered by Dr. Brown?  Comment below and she may address them in a future video!\n\nCheck out our website! \u2192 http:\/\/ www.betterbones.com\n\nWant to connect with Better Bones on social media?\nLike on Facebook \u2192 http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/betterbonesbetterbody\n\u200bFollow on Twitter \u2192 http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/drsusanbrown\n\u200bFollow our Instagram \u2192 http:\/\/www.instagram.com\/betterbonesbetterbody\n\u200bCheck out our Pinterest \u2192 http:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/betterbonesbetterbody\n\n#osteoporosis #osteopenia #bonemass #bonehealth #weightandbonemass #womenshealth #drsusanbrown #betterbonesbetterbody #preventosteoporosis\nExercise for bone health: patreon.com\/betterbones\n\nTranscription:\nhello everyone this is dr. Susan brown\nat the Center for better bones today I'm\ngonna take a couple minutes and talk\nabout strength training in fact this is\nthe topic that Gina discussed in the\nexercise evolution Channel this week so\nI'm gonna amplify a little on this as we\nage we lose a lot of muscle and you can\nsee you can see this chart how the\nprocess happens there's a thing called\nsarcopenia that's loss of muscle I wrote\na blog on it recently a very nice vlog\nyou're gonna see you go from sarcopenia\nlosing muscle to losing strength have\nany of you noticed it's like harder to\nopen those jars harder to do the things\nyou used to do a loss of power and then\neventually frailty and disability I've\nseen many people who were incapacitated\nnot because they broke their bones and\nthey were even hunched over but it\nwasn't because of fractures it was\nbecause of muscle weakness so it's\nreally important that we want to keep\nour muscles strong lifelong and I'm\ngoing to tell you one really big secret\nthat there's such a close link between\nmuscle size and strength and bone that\nthe Koreans are now maybe even bypassing\nbone density tests and looking at muscle\nsize I personally believe that's a great\nindex of strength is the muscle strength\nthe power in the muscle size so who's at\nrisk for sarcopenia for loss of muscle\nmass well actually it's interesting in a\nsense everyone is at risk because as we\ngo from 35 to 85 the average woman is\ngoing to lose 45 percent of her muscle\nmass that would take many people into\nsarcopenia and 45 percent of her bone\nmass so for everyone with age it's it is\na question of maintaining enough muscle\nmass to be really strong and do\neverything you want to do there's some\nvery interesting fun tests to see how\nmuch muscle strength you have one is\nthis called sit and stand test where you\nactually sit in the chair and you jump\nup and you see how many times you can\nsit and come up in a minute we had some\nfun in the office doing this\nwe got the 50 times and that was pretty\ngood\nI hear there's some athletes that can\nget the 75 somebody even rumoured a hum\n100 but I don't know so you might sit\ndown at home get a little stopwatch to\nsee how many times you can sit and stand\nwithin one minute it's a great aerobic\nexercise but it also measures the\nstrength of the legs another great way\nto measure strength are these little\nhand meters in fact these are used in\nresearch to see the strength of the\nmuscle of the arm and actually the\nstrength of the wrist the strength of\nthe hand grip is a good predictor of\nother body strengths I was at a party\nrecently I sent this around we all\nmeasured ourselves and I didn't come up\nas good as I should so I have to work\nmore on this but if you the measurement\nof the grip strength is a very important\nmeasure that reflects spinal density and\ntotal body strength used in many studies\nwe've linked people I think on the\nbetter bone shop you can find some links\nto get these meters on Amazon if you\nwant and of course then there's these\nreally simple strengtheners you know\nthese strips strengtheners it's a great\nidea when you're sitting around just\nreading or relaxing to work on building\nthose muscles so there's several ways to\ntest you might have fun with a sit and\nstand test or get yourself one of these\ngrip meters it's such an important\nquestion this question of losing muscle\nmass because people become often often\nthey can't get up I know I knew a woman\nwho was 85 she could not get up she\ncouldn't stand up by herself now her\nbones were ok but she couldn't stand up\nbecause of muscle weakness you don't\nwant to end up like that so you want to\nbe really careful to do an","thumbnailUrl":["https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/leK3CQ7723I\/default.jpg","https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/leK3CQ7723I\/mqdefault.jpg","https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/leK3CQ7723I\/hqdefault.jpg","https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/leK3CQ7723I\/sddefault.jpg","https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/leK3CQ7723I\/maxresdefault.jpg"],"uploadDate":"2019-01-25T17:39:38+00:00","duration":"PT8M10S","embedUrl":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/leK3CQ7723I","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCm6Zry9uGdrZpm05sQLIxMw#Organization","url":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCm6Zry9uGdrZpm05sQLIxMw","name":"Dr. Susan E. Brown","description":"Dr. Susan E. Brown, PhD, is a medical anthropologist, a New York State Certified Nutritionist, and the author of Better Bones, Better Body -- the first comprehensive look at natural bone health. Dr. Brown specializes in osteoporosis, osteopenia, bone health regeneration, and auto-immune disease. She is also famous for her natural approach to bone health; check out her Better Bones programs and products.","logo":{"url":"https:\/\/yt3.ggpht.com\/ytc\/AIdro_m0l08uY9k8RO1FbN8-VsYIOa8fiq9BtocNNM_k3xw7a7s=s800-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj","width":800,"height":800,"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=leK3CQ7723I#VideoObject_publisher_logo_ImageObject"}},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=leK3CQ7723I#VideoObject_potentialAction","target":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=leK3CQ7723I&t={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"},"interactionStatistic":[[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=leK3CQ7723I#VideoObject_interactionStatistic_WatchAction","interactionType":{"@type":"WatchAction"},"userInteractionCount":17033}],{"@type":"InteractionCounter","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=leK3CQ7723I#VideoObject_interactionStatistic_LikeAction","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":413}]},"about":["Exercise"],"wordCount":667,"keywords":["muscle loss","sarcopenia"],"articleBody":" Print PDF eBook\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFacebook\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTwitter\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGmail\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLinkedIn\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPinterest\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHave you noticed jars are harder to open, walking upstairs is more tiring and you can\u2019t throw a baseball as far as you used to? These are signs of normal age-related muscle loss.After age 30, most people lose as much as 3\u20138% muscle mass per decade, and this loss accelerates around age 50 for both men and women. By age 80, most women have lost, on average, 50% of the strength in their back muscles, while men have lost 64%. This normal rate of aging muscle loss is strikingly similar to normal aging bone loss, which can cost up to half of the peak bone mass.And just as with bone, excessive loss of muscle mass and strength is not a normal aspect of aging. Excessive muscle wasting is a pathological disorder known as sarcopenia, a condition that leads to physical disability, poor quality of life and even death.Table of ContentsToggle     3 Minutes ReadThe muscle loss cascade of sarcopeniaAre you at\u00a0risk for sarcopenia?How to maintain \u2014 and build \u2014 muscle as you ageThe muscle loss cascade of sarcopeniaOne 84-year-old woman came to me with substantial kyphosis (bending of the upper spine) and height loss. Yet when we looked at her bone density, she didn\u2019t have any spinal fractures, which is the usual cause of kyphosis. Instead, she had extreme sarcopenia and it was her lack of muscle strength \u2014 not bone weakness \u2014 that disabled her to the extent that she could no longer rise from a bed or even a chair unaided. The flowchart below shows how this can happen.The risk of disability is 1.5 to 4.6 times higher in older persons with sarcopenia than in older persons with normal muscle; declining muscle mass is also associated with metabolic abnormalities, obesity, diabetes, hormone decline, reduced cognitive functioning and cardiovascular disease.Are you at\u00a0risk for sarcopenia?Many factors contribute to the eventual development of sarcopenia manifested as an excessive loss of muscles mass, muscle strength and muscle function. Some authorities estimate that up to 30% of the US population over 60, and 50% of those over 80, could be classified as sarcopenic due to an excessive loss of muscle mass, strength and function. To identify sarcopenia, doctors often use a simple screening questionnaire.How to maintain \u2014 and build \u2014 muscle as you ageWhile sarcopenia indicates an extreme of muscle loss, I bet most of us have experienced a lesser degree of declining muscle strength and wondered what to do about it. Indeed, just as with bone, there\u2019s a great deal you can do to maintain and rebuild muscle as you age \u2014 and doing so is a great way to support your bone health too!Preserving muscle mass and strength as we age is crucial for overall health and well-being. The strategies for maintaining this vital aspect of our health closely align with the principles of the Better Bones, Better Body\u00ae Program, which is also designed for enhancing bone strength. This program emphasizes the importance of obtaining all 20 key bone-building nutrients as a foundation for health. To support muscle growth, consider integrating the following into your lifestyle:Lifestyle Adjustments: Small changes in your daily routine can have a significant impact. Prioritize movement and stay active throughout the day.Physical Activity Enhancements: Incorporate strength training exercises into your routine. Adding a weighted vest or belt can significantly increase the intensity of your workouts, providing greater resistance and encouraging muscle growth.Nutritional Modifications: Focus on a diet rich in proteins, vitamins, and minerals that support muscle repair and growth. Ensure you\u2019re getting a balanced intake of nutrients essential for both muscle and bone health.For personalized guidance and more in-depth strategies, explore my Better Bones, Better Body Program and check out the new \u201cExercise Evolution\u201d channel. Both resources offer comprehensive approaches to maintaining your skeletal and muscular health throughout your life. Remember, our muscles, much like our bones, are designed to last a lifetime, but achieving this requires our active participation and dedication. "},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Exercise","item":"https:\/\/betterbones.com\/exercise\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Muscle loss with aging \u2014 are you at risk for sarcopenia?","item":"https:\/\/betterbones.com\/exercise\/sarcopenia-risk\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]