It’s an inevitable fact of life: as we age, our bodies go through some changes, not least of which is a gradual loss of muscle mass.

But contrary to what you may believe, building muscle isn’t just for the young, nor do you have to accept dramatic muscle loss as inevitable. Here’s how older people can build lean body mass through a targeted combination of exercise and diet.

The Links Between Lean Muscle Mass and Aging

Many of the age-related changes you might notice (ie: weakness, less energy, more difficulty moving around) are due to sarcopenia. Sarcopenia is a decline in muscle mass and strength. While there are some medical conditions that can cause this loss, sarcopenia is most often associated with aging.

According to findings from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, muscles tend to grow from birth until they peak at around 30-35 years old. From there, our muscle mass tends to slowly decline. Once we hit 65 (for women) or 70 (for men), the decline becomes more rapid.

The loss of muscle mass might affect your aesthetics and your general fitness. However, sarcopenia is especially important to mitigate because your muscle strength is often directly related to your bone health. The more muscle you have, the more support your bones have, which is especially important when considering common bone conditions among older adults like osteoarthritis. In fact, sarcopenia is also often linked to issues like falls and increased risks of bone fractures.

Strategies For Building Lean Muscle at Any Age

The good news is that, though your body might tend towards a natural decline in muscle mass and function as you age, there are plenty of steps that you can take to slow down the regression. You can even build lean muscle mass in your older years with the right diet and exercise regimens.

Embrace strength training.

Resistance training is the most popular form of exercise for building muscle, and for good reason. When you do exercises under resistance (for example, weightlifting), your muscles are subject to significant amounts of stress and damage. When paired with the right diet and recovery processes, your immune system can begin to repair your muscles so that they grow back even bigger and stronger than they were before.

So strength training is one of the most effective habits to incorporate into your daily routine if you want to build lean body mass as an older adult. Studies have found that strength training can help older adults increase their muscle strength and mass, and some researchers recommend doing these workouts 3 or 4 times weekly.

A caveat here: if you’re new to strength training (or have not done it in a long time), it’s a good idea to work with a fitness professional like a personal trainer. These professionals can help guide you through your workout routines, perfecting your form and developing an effective workout schedule to help you build muscle while protecting you from potential injury.

Find more ways to move in general.

Outside of regular training workouts, it’s also important to keep moving in general to prevent further muscle loss.

Sedentariness is a huge contributor to sarcopenia. In fact, one study found that each hour of sedentary behavior per day was associated with 1.06 times higher odds for sarcopenia in older adults. So to slow down the decline in muscle size and function that is commonly seen in older adults, it’s a good idea to incorporate more activity throughout your day.

Walking is one of the best options here, especially if you aren’t sure where to start. Not only does it get you moving to support your cardiovascular health, but some studies have also found that it may help improve muscle strength, function, and physical performance in older adults with sarcopenia when paired with resistance training exercises. Because walking is also a relatively low-impact activity, it’s suitable for a wide range of fitness levels.

If you really want to up the ante, consider walking with weights. This can moderately increase the difficulty of your walks while also adding an element of strength training to your routine, which can help with targeting your lean muscle goals.

Make sure you’re eating enough.

Your diet is the other big piece of the puzzle for muscle growth. While doing resistance training starts the process, you can’t grow muscle without eating the right nutrients necessary to repair and rebuild.

Getting enough protein is especially important here. Protein is often referred to as the nutritional “building block” of your muscle tissue since it actually makes up its structure, so you’re going to need plenty of it to help your muscles recover from your strength training workouts.

Older people are especially likely to benefit from eating more protein. One study found that increasing daily protein intake by about 0.54 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day led to positive changes in skeletal muscle mass in older men (but not in women).

So how much protein should you be eating overall? The official recommendation is that you should be eating at least 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of your body weight to hold off muscle loss, while some studies have also indicated greater intakes of 1.0-1.6 g/kg of body weight may help promote muscle strength and size. However, the exact amount you should eat is highly individualized. Because everyone’s nutritional needs will vary based on their current health status and activity level, make sure to talk to your doctor or a registered dietitian for specific intake recommendations.

Use nutritional supplements if necessary.

Another big reason that older adults experience gradual muscle loss is that they tend to be at higher risk for nutrition insufficiencies. In certain cases, it might be helpful to add nutritional supplements to your diet to help bridge any nutritional gaps that aren’t being filled by food alone.

For example, leucine is an amino acid that is necessary for muscle growth, and researchers have found that leucine supplementation may help elderly people with sarcopenia put on muscle mass. Additionally, if you aren’t getting enough protein from your diet, protein supplementation may help you build muscle when paired with the right strength-training regimen.

Again, make sure to talk with your doctor before starting any supplements. They can help you identify any specific insufficiencies in your diet and help you come up with a targeted supplementation plan.

Conclusion

You don’t need to accept lower lean muscle mass despite your age. Elderly people are perfectly capable of building more muscle through diet and exercise, which can have a world of positive impacts on your health, independence, and overall vitality.