What to do when your muscles have gone to sleep
Did you know that you have the same number of muscle fibres at the age of 50 as you did at 21? Interestingly, as we age, the volume of muscle fibres don't change, but you might not feel as strong as you did when you were younger because the fibres have likely gone to sleep.
Why do muscles weaken?
There is a misconception that as we age our muscles shrink or deteriorate, but that's not the case. Muscles become weaker as we age due to several factors including inactivity, sedentary behaviours and the typical aging process fibres.
While muscles can appear smaller in males because of the impact of testosterone, they appear the same size in females regardless of aging.
If you are feeling weaker as you get older, the muscle fibres in your body have likely become dormant, but it's not too late to wake them up!
Why should we strengthen our muscles?
Fitness researcher and strength training consultant Wayne L. Westcott, PhD identifies numerous benefits to waking up our muscle fibres, including:
- Reducing pain (arthritis, back and joint)
- Reducing the risk of falls and fracture
- Reducing body fat, cardiovascular disease
- Reducing the risk of cancer
- Improving the survival rate of cancer patients
- Improving metabolism
- Slowing aging
- Improving blood flow conditions
- Improving mental health
- Improving the function of activities such as golf.
How to wake up sleeping muscles
Muscles need to be challenged to wake up, and not just in a small way. To get the physiological response to wake a muscle up and build its strength, we need to challenge the muscle to the point where it is fatigued. This means working the muscle right down to the last few movements where it’s really challenging and hard. At Kieser, if you can’t move the machine any further, that is where you have worked the last fibre of the muscle to fatigue and that’s what creates the response to make it stronger.
Science shows that within a 2-minute period, you need to reach fatigue to make the muscle stronger. That’s why at Kieser, we implement this science and train to fatigue in 120 seconds.
To listen to CEO Brett Long's (Kieser Australia) 3AW radio segments parts 1, 2 and 3 click here.
