Approaches to Optimize Growth of Muscles in Response to Resistance Training in Old People

Muscle growth in response to resistance exercise is attenuated in older individuals, the result of much the same set of processes that lead to sarcopenia, the name given to the characteristic loss of muscle mass and strength that occurs with age. Resistance exercise is clearly still beneficial in later life, judging by the reduction in mortality risk that results, but can it be made more beneficial? Undoubtedly yes, given the appropriate technology to address the underlying root causes of degenerative aging, but all too few such technologies exist at the present time. The use of senolytic therapies to destroy harmful, inflammatory senescent cells is one of the few such technologies, and a plausible approach to improving muscle function in older people, but alas is not mentioned in this paper. The focus here is instead on established ways to tinker with the operation of metabolism in muscle tissue, with results on muscle growth in response to exercise that tend to be modest at best. The acute anabolic responses to feeding and exercise were found to be dampened in old subjects compared to their young counterparts, thus limiting their recovery and muscle growth. It has been hypothesized that the blunted increase in protein synthesis following acute muscle loading may influence the smaller gains in lean tissue following resistance exercise training in older adults. As such, supplementation of high-quality protein may improve anabolic response to a single bout of exercise...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs