How to Keep Muscle as You Age

Intro and Episode Setup 0:00

All right, welcome to episode three of Sibling RX. We're totally experts. Totally, totally. It's like we're pros already. Yeah. And we are going to go on tour next week, right? Yeah, for sure. So what are we talking about today? Well, who are you? Oh, sorry. I'm Dr. Yas. Dr Roddy. Good to have you guys back. the importance of muscle health for longevity, lifespan, all those things. Oh, yeah. So episode one that we shot, my kids watched it and I got comments like only two people liked it. And this is so cringe.

I can't even watch it more than five minutes. Cringe. Really good feedback. Awesome. Good feedback, so hopefully we're upping the expectations a little bit more. There's nothing like teenage girls to give their opinions. Yeah. I think their eyes almost rolled out of their heads. I got to show my kids. So we're talking about muscle health, muscle importance of muscle building and sustaining. Obviously as we age, that is more and more important because our hormones start to decline and change. And unfortunately, a lot of people, you know, it hurts to move, right?

They, they, as in practice for many, many years as chiropractors, we would hear patients saying, I love to work out, but it hurts to workout. I can't lift weights or hurt. So that's why they would come and see us. Right. And that. Really why you lose muscle as you age is because you stop using it.

Why Muscle Matters for Aging 1:34

If you don't use it, you use. It so as we age, things start to hurt, we move less and that what happens. But it's the people that you see those 90 year olds that are stretching or doing Tai Chi and doing all these things. And they're walking everywhere and they can because they stay active. They're moving. There they never stopped. So muscle is really important because not only does it help you age in a more health, healthful way, I guess, if that's a word, but it actually helps. You know, muscle, they are calling it the organ of longevity.

In the United States, we have, I think, a 60% obesity rate at this point, compared to other countries like Japan only has a 4% opacity rate. Which I feel like it's been like that ever since we were born. Yeah, yeah, it really has. It was never like, oh, 10 years ago, no. They have linked it to the last 20 years, actually 24 years since 2000, with the increase of chemical companies taking over the food industry. It's caused severe ultra processed foods, which cause more obesity. So the issue we're having in the United States is we have the most amount of gyms than any other country, and we are the fattest than other countries.

And also, before I forget, disease care, that's big business. Oh, huge. I mean, not to sound unethically immoral, but there's a lot of chronic disease that is a massive, business for pharmaceutical companies and all that stuff. It sounds inhumane because it is, but people still have choices, right? They don't have to succumb to living a certain way and then just ending up to be a statistic, you know? Right. Well, that's a whole nother episode, for sure. So muscle health is huge. Obviously, again, I keep bringing it back, but we have so many years of patient care.

And there's not much we didn't see when people would come in with back pain, hip pain knee pain. Whatever that is. condition the best, meaning the people that were the fittest recovered faster. They do. Obviously, right? They're not going to, it didn't matter what their age was. We could have 65, 70 year olds who were fit, you know, doesn't mean they're benching 500 pounds, but they just stayed active. And if the guy threw his back out or hurt, had sciatic pain or had a disc issue, he or she would bounce back a lot quicker than somebody that was in their thirties that sat on their couch playing games all day long.

So muscle is huge in that. It's very big. And when, when I talk to people about fitness, aging, longevity, you know, all the rest of it, They say, well, what's your goal? Why do you lift weights so much? why do focus so on muscle and eating protein? And I said, because I don't want to fall when I'm 80 years old and break a hip.

Muscle, Hormones, and Bone Health 4:41

And, I want be able to catch myself. I wanna be totally autonomous when i'm older. i don' want someone to take care of me. So I will be one of those people that won't take. Right. Yes, so I already know that. Thank you. That's muscles really the only way to ensure that you're going to be able to walk up, walk, up the stairs when you were 90 and not hurt yourself or walk down and. Balance proprioception. You know, uh, that's the biggest fear for people when they're older is fear of falling. Right.

And especially, you know a lot of elderly people, unfortunately they end up. Maybe they were widowed and they live by themselves and then they don't have that muscle strength. God forbid they fall and hit their head and that happens more and more than people know. fractured hips when you're older, that's a tough surgery to recover from. A lot of people don't recover well from that or they even, you know, there's, a very, very high chance of not making it past three years of a hip fracture. people can maintain a lifestyle where they're putting emphasis on muscle health and doing things to ensure muscle, health, like nutrition with protein intake and all the different things.

I mean, there's so much new stuff, right? Creatine has become such a new craze now all of a sudden, but it's been around forever, right? Everybody's talking about creatine, taking creatinine for muscle health and muscle, but yet you still have those people that have a gym membership and they go five days a week and then go to the gym and get on that StairMaster or they walk in the treadmill and pack up their bags and go home and feel like they're working out. It's still something, at least they are doing something but they aren't helping their muscle by doing just that.

No, they're actually burning their muscle. Yeah, the burning and wasting away. They're wasting their muscles. So muscle is actually, do you know? Well, you, I know, what an endocrine system is, but muscle's actually an Endocrin organ, right? Because the endocrine system produces all your hormones and your muscle was actually one of those organs that produces hormones. Not only does it make you stronger as you age, Um, or during the aging process, but actually helps promote healthy hormone levels.

So the more muscle you have, the less testosterone you're going to drop as you age, even though it's an inevitable thing, right? You know, a better estrogen progesterone levels you'll have, even though it's inevitable that you need to supplement with those things as you go through menopause. But having more muscle as a woman going through Menopausal, you have less bone mass loss because you're constantly adding tension to those, um, to the bones with resistance training, which helps build the bone.

Do you remember way long ago when we first started our practice and we were doing bone density screenings all the time, the DEXA scan or I think, and it was, I don't know why we stopped doing that, but we would test people's bone And the wrist. And sprouts, and the office. We would take this big old machine and do it anywhere. Yeah, we would check their bone density as a screening, right? It's not like what you would get done at an imaging center, a little bit more thorough. But it was still a good screening tool to kind of let them know, are they in that osteopenia phase, where it's early bone loss, or are the full-blown osteoporosis?

Right. Osteopenias or osteoperosis, obviously thinning of the bones, which makes people more susceptible for fractures and things like that. A lot of it's because of lack of muscle strength and, of course, diet. If they have a bad diet, their bone density is also going to be compromised and things like that. But yeah, it is everything. You said something about hormones as we get older. know, if we don't do the things to get our testosterone, for example, from men and women at a high level, then you're not going to be able to lift as much, right?

You're actually have that strength to, to put that muscle intention for that most of the growth or the motivation. Yeah. Or the I do because you're like, I'm tired. I don't feel like crap. But that's why I think both of us are big advocates of hormone supplementation, whatever that is for you and whatever is safe ways for that particular person. It's going to give you that strength to then go do that stuff and build that muscle mass. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. But yeah, so I always, I mean, still have friends that all they do is cardio, you know, and, as women, it's really hard to change that mindset of, You know what?

I only have 30 minutes. Let me go lift weights instead of get on that treadmill or the stairs or whatever.

Training, Recovery, and Workout Structure 9:39

I know when I, when have a limited amount of time, make sure I just do a full body workout, get it done and then I leave. My cardio is like walking nowadays, you know, I don't really do much cardio. What was that band thing we did the other day at the conference? What's that called? It was called the... I was trying to look it up and I couldn't remember. It's a blood restrictive... something. And it was so cool. It was like this resistance. There was almost like a blood pressure cuff and leg. Yeah, it like resisted, constricted your circulation.

Then as it constricting, you would do the resistance band curls and it would fatigue your muscles. I was sore on Saturday. Did we come back Saturday? Were you sore? I'm so sore Saturday, so weird. Well, I mean, that makes sense. Katsu. Yeah. Obviously at the gym, I hear people all the time. People are never happy. They complain about the workouts all of the times, which is what it is. I just kind of stay out of it. But people are like, this wasn't enough cardio, or why are we doing so much strength?

And it's funny because in a gym like that, if you come, five days a week, you're going to get a little bit of everything, right? It's kind of programmed that way. But, but some people just want to do cardio. They just wanna, I, my heart rate didn't go up at all today. Well, your heartbreak can go with a lifting session too. Not just, doing the stairs, stair master, and whatnot. I mean, kudos to people that are still going into the gym, at least they're doing something, But they are not getting the benefits if they aren't doing, the muscle work and the strength building and putting the good nutrients in their body with protein and, that they should get.

Longevity, obviously we talked about a little bit as people get older. It's so important. And maintaining your muscle mass as you age. I mean, past the age of 30, you lose 3%. Yeah. A year. That's a lot. Yeah, it's 3% of muscle mass. 3%. And then in 30, you still have, your hormones are still hopefully okay. And imagine, we get in your 40s and then 50s, and that's even more. Well, yeah, for men and women as hormones shift, that loss goes up even higher. Then more importantly in women, the bone mineral mass is really bad.

Bone density is so important. I think that as people get older, they remember some of the screening things that they have to do from like a colonoscopy and for women a mammogram and things like that. Uh, bone density, especially if you're at a risk or you have the genetic predisposition to be you know, osteoporotic, you have to do those things to find out where you're at. Even simple labs, people just forget to to annually to kind of find how is your body functioning? I know we're going to talk about labs and some of that other stuff down the road because there's so much out there that people can do and then come for their own home because People just don't like going to doctors, unfortunately, even though we think it's important and whatnot.

But there's still options for those people that don' want to get up and drive to wherever they're going, to go see their doctor. More and more things are being out there where we can send kits to people's homes and they can do their blood work or we could do a whole profile and just different things that we're working on that were excited to share with our listeners down the road. What else on muscle? with body composition. It's so important to shift your mindset to think towards more towards, okay, what's my body fat percentage?

You're saying it's better for people to measure their body, fat, percentage versus their weight. Yes, because someone who might be my same weight might have a completely different body competition, but we may weigh the same. and you might have a higher or lower body fat percentage. And I know obviously the average scale at home doesn't do that for people. There are scales that you can get, but there's places you go. Everywhere there are in-body scans and just figure out where your baseline is and do it every 90 days or whatnot.

And the more lean muscle mass you build on your frame, the higher your resting metabolic rate will go. So that means that when you eat something, whether it's a high carb meal or you burn it, it because muscle acts as like a glycogen sink and it just absorbs everything. And that's why when see people that are really lean, And you're like, how do they eat like that? Like, I can't believe you just ate like a whole pizza and dude looks like. But there's some people that are just born that way, right?

Because they naturally have a higher muscle composition. Yeah. So that is definitely, uh, cause that's obviously is deflating for some. That are killing it at the gym. It looks. Like that. There's no way I'm here every day and I. Every day, I'm eating right, eating clean, doing all the things, and I still can't look like that person. Certain ethnicities naturally have higher muscle mass than others. But again, you can always build on it. Muscle is definitely memory. You can build muscle. Even if you get sick and you cannot lift weights for a couple of weeks, you can jump back into it.

Your body remembers. Same muscle memory we fought with or fought within in practice when people would have you know, neck pain or whatever, and we're working on getting mobility in their neck or their cervical spine, but also making sure we are working with the muscles as well, because if you don't work on the muscle, then nothing is going to work. Muscles have memory, so we have to help reverse that memory of the musles. So what's one thing you do on a regular basis to make sure you're activating your muscles?

lifting. And how often would you say you lift? Almost every day. Yeah. I mean, it's different levels, right? Like today's workout was all lower body. It was lower-body from regular rack squats to walking lunges to bicyclist squats and like even just doing hamstring curls, like on sliders on a turf, so activating the lower, and then it was a sprint in between. So just activating the lower body for 45 minutes, 50 minutes. Um, and then, you know, that was today. Yesterday was all upper body, similar stuff, but all of our body.

You know? So our producer just asked, um, is it better to do a full body workout or to break it up doing lower-body one day, upper- body one-day? Um. At our gym, we, break it up. I mean, we do everything. We'll do a full body workout. And then one day might be lower body. One day, might the upper body one. It might, be core cardio. That's it. Cause it's been a heavy lift day and this day will be more of a core, cardio day because your body just needs that time to recover. Yeah, I always say whatever it is that you can do to lift weights.

So if that means that week you do three full body workouts that week and that's all you can fit in, great. If you have the time that week to do a four day or a five day split, even better, whatever you can do to stay consistent,

Protein, Supplements, and Longevity Habits 17:00

because really it's just staying consistent and regularly putting that, that load on your muscles so that you. And even when people travel, right? Like I never do is vacationing. Um, I know that when we book hotels, always look at the gym before I look the rooms. I just want to see what the gyms look like. It never looks like the pictures. This wasn't the Jim image that I saw. Even if you don't, have a gym, take some resistance bands. But one thing that's really interesting that people don't talk about is when you talk About protein intake and maintaining muscle.

And everyone always talks about how much protein you should eat. Yes, you Should have ideally you They say 0.8 to a gram of- Your body weight. Yeah. I say it's just easier to do your ideal bodyweight. So if you want to weigh, as a female, 130 pounds and you weigh 150, just eat 130. But one thing people fail to talk about is the type of protein because- The source of the protein. Because there's nothing against vegetarians, but vegetarians think they can get enough protein And you can get enough protein if you're sourcing enough for the grams of protein, you could get it.

But there's one particular amino acid in animal-based protein that is not in any other protein. That is the building block of building muscle. And that's leucine. You can only get that in an animal based protein So that one thing that really important. If you cant do that because it's against your religion or whatever it might be, amino acid powders, they have leucine in it and supplement with it. And that's a great way to supplement your building blocks. Yeah, leuccine is huge for muscle growth.

That's a big one. Yeah, that's, yeah, a good point because there's people that are, like you said, vegetarian for religious reasons or cultural or whatever. That awesome. But you know, if you're going to try to optimize your health when it comes to muscle health, I should say, um, you need to make sure you are getting some of those things that you can't get in out of a vegetarian diet. Right. That is not a problem for me because I could never be a vegetarian. I don't know how people do it, but kudos to people that do.

Yeah, no, I couldn't. Like I feel like I'd be hungry all the time personally. You know, like, i don' like tofu. Well, so I like Tofu, But I Don't think it's a complete protein. So I, you know I'm not A vegetarian, You were for a while, right? In 1999. Okay. For six months. But it's fact that you were for a while. Yes, I was for awhile. Until 2024, right? No. I even did a three month vegan cleanse. That was even harder. P as a person who has a vegetarian friends and someone who did it myself for a while, you are hungrier all the time because you don't have enough protein in your diet to stay satisfied.

So protein actually activates your natural. Everyone talks about GLP ones and Ozambic and all that stuff. Protein actually activate your naturally GL P ones in our gut. Yeah. increases your satiety hormones. So, yeah, you are hungrier. You just are. I guess they just adapt, perhaps. They just adopt that their caloric intake is X amount, and it's been like that forever. And if they don't know any different, then they know no different. Right. Yeah. for longevity, obviously. I think all these things are important as people, like adolescents, trying to feed your kids and having your kid understand that.

That's another thing we didn't talk about, but as parents and, you know, having teenagers and trying teach them good nutrition, because unfortunately their peers are just living off of fast food and different things like that, and I I think kids should still enjoy and have fun be teenagers, but I as long as, you know, I it's important to plant those seeds in them now so they know that a balanced diet is really, really important. But then when they become in their twenties and thirties, they realize I need to have protein because I like to exercise and I that they've grown up in.

And then when they become 60s and plus, they realize, I need to keep my activity level. I saw my parents do it, so I want to do too. Right. and I see my parent's lifting weights in their 50s, and 60's, etc. Then it's the next generation of properly educated, and living longer. Yeah. I mean, I always tell my kids, eat your protein on your plate first. First thing. Don't get filled with other stuff. At least eat you protein. But I'll tell you, one of my favorite supplements right now, which I don't think we talked about this before, it's called urolithin A.

Have you heard of it? So urolythin is a compound that actually activates mTOR. And mtor is the muscle building protein muscle protein synthesis building part of physiology that actually builds the muscle. So they found that this compound actually mimics exercising, the effects of exercise on muscle without actually exercising. And there's a couple different brands that sell it, but it's really hot supplement right now. I love it. Well, we'll add that so people can go order that wherever they can do that.

So I think we are out of time. It was good information and third podcast in the book. I kind of feel a little bit more comfortable. Do you feel like we're more Yeah. Um, so that's good.

Wrap-Up and Disclaimer 22:58

You look a little bit more comfortable, but, um, don't forget, you know, like us, follow us subscribe, whatever, wherever you see us. Don't tell us we're cringe. Yes. And if you feel the need to rate us that helps. Does it really? Yeah Yeah, rating us helps, yeah. I didn't know that either when I heard that. Well, rate us independently, right? Don't rate together. And she won't see it anyway, so don't feel bad. No, I wear my glasses. That's right. Yeah. Where's the mic? All right, cool. Thanks for tuning in, and we will see you next time.

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