1. Muscle loss with age is a real deal

Muscle loss becomes a reality when you hit 40 years old, where you can start to lose up to 8% per decade. 1,2 This loss translates to about 24% of your body’s muscle by 70 years old. The good news is muscle loss can be reversed.

2. Maintaining Muscles Goes Beyond Strength

Muscles play a key role in movement, including balance and posture, and the body’s metabolism.³

They can affect how tired or energised you feel, and can even impact things like your body’s oxygen consumption.⁴

The role of muscle includes more than you think – your heart is a muscle and needs muscle mass to pump strongly.⁵

Muscle mass also plays a key role in recovery from critical illness or severe trauma while muscle strength and function is central to the recovery process.³

Recent studies are also increasingly recognizing muscle as an organ with immune regulatory properties.⁶

That’s why it’s important to start thinking about the health of muscles, similar to how we look at things like bone health.

3. Get a grip

Studies have shown that physical intervention can prevent disability and functional decline of mobility, strength, balance and gait in ageing population.⁷ So take steps to keep your strength.

Exercise, especially resistance exercise has been proven to increase muscle mass and strength (in ageing population).⁷

4. Nourish your muscles

A balanced diet of vitamins, minerals and macro-nutritients – can benefit overall health and even help you live a longer, active life.

Ensure you are receiving muscle-preserving ingredients, such as protein and HMB, and address any deficiencies in your diet. This is especially important if you are hospitalised, ill or injured.

Amino Acids – the building blocks for protein – help rebuild your muscles. Older adults need 50% more protein comparing to younger ones.⁸

HMB, or β-Hydroxy-β-methylbutyrate, is a muscle preserving ingredient that has been used for many years by the fitness community. HMB works with protein to help protect and preserve muscles.^9,10

It has also been demonstrated to help maintain muscle mass and strength in older adults as they age or when ill – EVEN HELPING MINIMISE MUSCLE LOSS DURING BED REST.¹¹

5. Eat to build back up

You can lose lean body mass – made up mostly by muscles – up to 3x faster when you are sick or injured, making it harder to recover, so it’s important to stay well-nourished.¹²