How Do We Lose Muscle and How Can We Keep It?
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Maintaining and building muscle is important for several reasons. The top reasons being:
- Muscles burns fat
- More muscle mass increases your metabolism
- Muscles can improve your overall appearance.
Causes of Muscle Loss
We begin to experience muscle loss after puberty. Therefore, if you don’t continue to build and maintain muscle, the more you will lose. Age is also a factor in muscle loss. As we get older we lose muscle. If you think performing constant cardio will help maintain muscle — think again. Steady state cardio can actually lead to muscle loss.
How to Build and Maintain Muscle
- Start weight training
- Use interval training to prevent muscle loss
- Use body weight exercises
- Eat healthier
I don’t feel it is ever too late to begin building muscle. Since we begin to lose muscle mass as we age, lifting weights can benefit us at any age from teens to senior citizens. It also doesn’t require a bunch of weight machines either. Dumbbells and a bench can be enough for most people to get the job done as long as they’re consistent.
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I totally concur on the importance of building and maintaining muscle mass. I also wanted to comment that sometimes, for beginners, weight bearing exercises, performed using only their own bodywieght, could be challenging enough at first.