As we grow older we suffer a decline in mental and physical fitness, which can be made worse by conditions like Alzheimer's disease. A new study, published in the open-access journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, shows that older people who routinely partake in physical exercise can reverse the signs of aging in the brain, and dancing has the most profound effect.
"Exercise has the beneficial effect of slowing down or even counteracting age-related decline in mental and physical capacity," says Dr Kathrin Rehfeld, lead author of the study, based at the German center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Magdeburg, Germany. "In this study, we show that two different types of physical exercise (dancing and endurance training) both increase the area of the brain that declines with age. In comparison, it was only dancing that lead to noticeable behavioral changes in terms of improved balance."
Elderly volunteers, with an average age of 68, were recruited to the study and assigned either an eighteen-month weekly course of learning dance routines, or endurance and flexibility training. Both groups showed an increase in the hippocampus region of the brain. This is important because this area can be prone to age-related decline and is affected by diseases like Alzheimer's. It also plays a key role in memory and learning, as well as keeping one's balance.
While previous research has shown that physical exercise can combat age-related brain decline, it is not known if one type of exercise can be better than another. To assess this, the exercise routines given to the volunteers differed. The traditional fitness training program conducted mainly repetitive exercises, such as cycling or Nordic walking, but the dance group were challenged with something new each week.
Dr Rehfeld explains, "We tried to provide our seniors in the dance group with constantly changing dance routines of different genres (Jazz, Square, Latin-American and Line Dance). Steps, arm-patterns, formations, speed and rhythms were changed every second week to keep them in a constant learning process. The most challenging aspect for them was to recall the routines under the pressure of time and without any cues from the instructor."
These extra challenges are thought to account for the noticeable difference in balance displayed by those participants in dancing group. Dr Rehfeld and her colleagues are building on this research to trial new fitness programs that have the potential of maximizing anti-aging effects on the brain.
"Right now, we are evaluating a new system called "Jymmin" (jamming and gymnastic). This is a sensor-based system which generates sounds (melodies, rhythm) based on physical activity. We know that dementia patients react strongly when listening to music. We want to combine the promising aspects of physical activity and active music making in a feasibility study with dementia patients."
Dr Rehfeld concludes with advice that could get us up out of our seats and dancing to our favorite beat.
"I believe that everybody would like to live an independent and healthy life, for as long as possible. Physical activity is one of the lifestyle factors that can contribute to this, counteracting several risk factors and slowing down age-related decline. I think dancing is a powerful tool to set new challenges for body and mind, especially in older age."
This study falls into a broader collection of research investigating the cognitive and neural effects of physical and cognitive activity across the lifespan.
Story Source:
Materials provided by Frontiers. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Journal Reference:
Kathrin Rehfeld, Patrick Müller, Norman Aye, Marlen Schmicker, Milos Dordevic, Jörn Kaufmann, Anita Hökelmann, Notger G. Müller. Dancing or Fitness Sport? The Effects of Two Training Programs on Hippocampal Plasticity and Balance Abilities in Healthy Seniors. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2017; 11 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2017.00305
Osteoporosis is a common problem, affecting an estimated 1 in 10 women worldwide at the age of 60.1 By the time a woman reaches the age of 80, she has a 2-in-5 chance of developing osteoporosis. In most people, sometime during your 30s your bone mass will start to gradually decline. For women, that bone loss can significantly speed up during the first decade of menopause.
Statistics suggest that, worldwide, 1 in 3 women and 1 in 5 men over the age of 50 will experience an osteoporosis-related bone fracture. In 2000, there were 9 million osteoporotic fractures, including 1.6 million hip fractures — a quarter of which occurred in men — which can lead to a significant decline in health and quality of life. Hip fractures can also be life-threatening. Twenty percent of those who break a hip die in the first 12 months following the fracture.
Statistics also reveal that osteoporosis is becoming more prevalent. In the decade between 1990 and 2000, the number of hip fractures increased by 25 percent worldwide.2 So, what can be done about this problem? It's important to realize that osteoporosis is preventable by "proper living," meaning eating right, getting nutritional movement and effective exercise.
Weight-bearing exercises are particularly important for the prevention of osteoporosis, which is characterized by porous and fragile bones. Unfortunately, drugs are typically the first-line remedy recommended by conventional doctors. This is tragic, considering these drugs do more harm than good.
The Case Against Osteoporosis Drugs
For example, oral bisphosphonate osteoporosis drugs such as Actonel, Boniva and Fosamax, are associated with a two-fold increased risk of esophageal cancer.3 Research also shows that, over time, these kinds of drugs will actually worsen your condition, because all you're doing is fooling your body into producing denser but weaker bone.
This may sound like an oxymoron, but here's how it works: Healthy bones maintain strength from a continual process of bone breakdown and bone rebuilding. Osteoclasts are cells that break down bone; osteoblasts are the cells that rebuild it. Healthy bone undergoes a dynamic process of cyclical removal of unhealthy bone and replacement with new bone. This is how they remain strong.
In osteoporosis, the net rate of bone resorption (breakdown) exceeds the rate of bone formation, which results in a decrease in bone mass. Bisphosphonates and similar drugs do not actually help your body build new bone. These drugs work by killing off your osteoclasts, which halts the normal bone repair process since you now lack the cells that break bone down.
The end result is increased bone density, but denser bone is not stronger! Eventually your bones become weaker and more prone to fracture. In women who have been taking a bisphosphonate-type drug for five or more years, their bones have literally lost the ability to regenerate and this is why many are still faced with more brittle bones and fractures.
Your Lifestyle Largely Determines Your Osteoporosis Risk
While diet certainly plays an important role, weight-bearing exercise is one of the most effective remedies against osteoporosis.4 For example, the walking lunge is a great exercise for building bone density in your hips, even without any additional weights. It is an absolutely extraordinary exercise and doesn't cost anything to do. You can use YouTube to find demonstrations of how to do it properly.
Balance-building exercises like yoga and Tai Chi are also recommended. As long as you have strong muscles, bones and steady balance, your risk of falling is minimized. Should you fall, your chances of actually breaking a bone are also dramatically reduced.
Needless to say, the earlier you start exercising, the better — provided you keep it up. Exercise is really a lifelong lifestyle component, not a temporary fix for any particular problem. That said, even if you're older, you can still improve your bone health. It's never too late to start exercising. It just gets a bit more challenging, since you're starting at a lower level of fitness with each passing year of inactivity. Below I'll offer some effective exercise alternatives that can be particularly helpful if your fitness level is low. As noted by Fight Aging:5
"The research materials … argue that the majority of people are not aware of the degree to which they are harming themselves, and that efforts should be taken to correct this … In our technological society of cheap calories, easy transportation, and replacements for physical labor, most people eat too much and exercise too little.
That becomes ever more pronounced over the years … This has a cost when it comes to health … Avoidable damage done to health over the long term is often referred to as secondary aging. It includes … accelerated loss of muscle resulting from lack of exercise. Near everyone in later life fails to exercise sufficiently, as demonstrated by study after study showing improvement in the muscle and health of even very old people following modest resistance exercise programs."
Exercise Naturally Builds Stronger Bones
Aside from walking lunges, high-impact exercises such as sprinting and jumping are also effective, as is weight training.6,7 In one 2014 study,8 women between the ages of 25 and 50 who performed a minimum of 10 "flea leaps" in a row, twice a day for four months, significantly increased the bone density in their hipbones.
An earlier study9 found hopping and weightlifting increased bone density in the spine by 2 percent. Weight training targeting both the upper body and legs was particularly effective. Keep in mind that you're not restricted to any particular type of exercise though. For example, you don't have to use weight gym equipment if you don't want to. Other examples of high-impact weight-bearing exercises recommended by the U.S. National Osteoporosis Foundation include:10
Dancing
High-impact aerobics
Hiking
Jumping rope
Climbing stairs
Playing tennis
Lower impact weight-bearing exercises, which are a safer alternative if you're frail include:
Low-impact aerobics
Stair-step machines
Fast walking
Similarly, in lieu of weights, you can use just your body weight, elastic exercise bands or functional movements such as raising and lowering your body onto your tippy toes. Three other exercise alternatives worth mentioning that can be particularly helpful if you're severely obese, old and frail, recovering from an injury or otherwise struggle with mobility, balance and low fitness are Whole Body Vibrational Training (WBVT), blood restriction training and the nitric oxide (NO) dump.
Whole Body Vibrational Training — An Excellent Choice for the Elderly
WBVT using a Power Plate is a safe, natural way to improve bone strength and density, thereby warding off osteoporosis. Best of all, it's gentle enough even for the disabled and elderly, who may not be able to engage in exercises like leaping, hopping, sprinting or weightlifting.
In one six-month-long study,11 WBVT was found to produce a significant increase in hip area bone density in postmenopausal women, while conventional training was only able to slow the rate of deterioration. Another more recent study12 found that postmenopausal women who used a vibration platform for five minutes, three times a week for six months, increased their lumbar spine bone density by 2 percent. The control group lost about 0.5 percent of theirs in that same timeframe.
Blood Restriction Training Also Minimizes Injury Risk
Another technique you can try — which is also excellent for the elderly, or athletes recovering from an injury — is blood flow restriction or Kaatsu training. I'll publish a full-length article on this in the near future but, in brief, it involves performing strength training exercises while restricting venous blood flow (but not arterial flow) to the extremity being worked.
A significant benefit of the method is that you can do strength exercises using just 30 to 50 percent of the weight you'd normally use while still reaping maximum benefits. It's said blood flow restriction training can stimulate muscle growth and strength in about half the time, using about one-third of the weight, compared to standard weight training.
In the video above, Dr. Jim Stray-Gundersen, a leading proponent and teacher of Kaatsu in the U.S., discusses the method and its benefits. The American College of Sports Medicine claims you need to lift a weight that is at least 70 percent of your single rep max (1RM) to produce muscle growth,13 but studies assessing low-intensity exercise in combination with blood flow restriction have shown you can go as low as 20 percent of 1RM and still reap the benefits.
For most, 20 percent of 1RM is lighter than a warmup, virtually guaranteeing you will not sustain any kind of injury. Indeed, blood flow restriction training is used to rehabilitate the old and infirm in Japan, allowing them to rebuild muscle and regain some of their lost mobility.
Nitric Oxide Dump — A Great Exercise for Aging Muscles
Another exceptionally safe way to improve your muscle strength and general fitness is the nitric oxide dump — a revision and, I think, significant improvement of my Peak Fitness program. Instead of doing 20 minutes' worth of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) on an exercise bike or elliptical machine, you can reap the same or better benefits doing four simple body movements that take just three minutes.
These exercises should ideally be done three times a day, and do not require weights of any kind. For a full demonstration, see the video above. Even though this exercise is only a few minutes, it will make you short of breath. Please be sure to breathe only through your nose, not your mouth. This is my new favorite high-intensity exercise and, unlike other high-intensity exercises, can be done every day unless you need to recover. Start with 10 repetitions of each movement and work your way up to 20 with the following:
10 deep squats, raising your arms parallel to the floor as you squat deeply, getting your butt back as far and as low as possible while still making sure your knees stay behind your toes
10 alternating perpendicular arm raises, stopping when your arms are the height of your shoulders
10 stationary jumping jack motions. You're not jumping; just moving your hands overhead, and touching hands on the upper and lower portions of the movement. Make sure your arms come up behind your head and not in front. This requires you to pinch your shoulder blades together
10 overhead shoulder presses, making sure to keep your chest out and shoulder blades pinched together
How the Nitric Oxide Dump Can Benefit Your Health
Do each set in rapid succession, without resting in between. When you're done, you'll have completed a total of 120 to 240 movements. Done three times a day, with at least two hours in between each session, you'll end up doing 360 to 920 movements a day. This exercise will:
Trigger the release of NO, a gas with antioxidant properties that protects your heart by relaxing your blood vessels and lowering your blood pressure, stimulates your brain, kills bacteria and even defends against tumor cells
Stimulate anabolic muscle building in addition to thinning your blood, making it less likely to clot and improving your immune function. NO is a potent bronchodilator and vasodilator, so it helps significantly increases your lungs' oxygen-absorbing capacity
Give you more exercise benefits in a shorter time. You get more benefits from this exercise than you would get from most things you do in a gym in an hour. And, if you do it three times a day, that means you may be getting three to 10 times the metabolic benefit you'd get by going to the gym. Not that going to the gym is unwise; it's just that your body needs exercise throughout the day
Stimulate mitochondrial function and health. Mitochondrial decline is closely linked to reduced cardiorespiratory fitness, and decreased resting mitochondrial ATP production may be involved in the development of insulin resistance with aging. By forcing your mitochondria to work harder, exercises such as this one will trigger your body to produce more mitochondria to keep up with the increased energy demand, and promote mitochondrial function and health
Older Adults Benefit From High-Intensity Exercise
While you must certainly start any exercise program at a level appropriate for your current condition, it would be a mistake to dismiss HIIT altogether. Recent animal research suggests HIIT can be safe and effective even in older populations, and may actually help reverse frailty. (As mentioned, the nitric oxide dump exercise is an excellent alternative to other HIIT programs.) As noted by study co-author Dr. Bruce Troen:14
"We know that being frail or being at risk for becoming frail puts people at increased risk of dying and comorbidity. These results show that it's possible that high-intensity interval training can help enhance quality of life and capacity to be healthy … Increased mitochondrial biomass allows you to utilize oxygen more efficiency [sic]. With HIIT, we saw both mitochondrial increase and an improvement in muscle quality and fiber size in these mice …
Those four mice who had exhibited the kinds of deficits that correlate to frailty in humans improved to a completely robust level. The HIIT actually reversed frailty in them. Because the performance measures for the mice are directly relevant to clinical parameters, we think this program of exercise is quite applicable to humans. We're laying a foundation so we can do this in people and so we can understand how to tailor it to individuals so they can successfully implement this.
Exercise stresses the system and the body can respond beneficially. We believe that the intensity of individualized HIIT provides a more significant but manageable stress so the body responds more robustly to these short, vigorous periods of exercise. In other words, you get more bang for your buck."
Other Important Lifestyle Factors That Help Protect Your Bone Health
Getting older doesn't automatically mean you'll get weak and frail. Your lifestyle plays a decisive role here, and exercises such as those discussed above are effective means by which you can prevent osteoporosis. That said, you'll also want to pay attention to your diet.
Processed foods produce biochemical and metabolic conditions in your body that decrease bone density over time, so avoiding processed foods is definitely an important part of the equation. Certain nutrient deficiencies can also contribute to weak and brittle bones. Among the most important are animal-based omega-3 fats, calcium, vitamins D and K2, along with magnesium. Following is a summary of some of the most important general guidelines for maintaining or increasing your bone strength:
•Avoid processed foods and soda, which can increase bone damage by depleting your bones of calcium. By ditching processed foods, you're also automatically eliminating a major source of refined sugars and processed fructose, which drive insulin resistance. It will also provide you with a more appropriate potassium-to-sodium ratio, which is important for maintaining bone mass.
•Increase your consumption of raw, fresh vegetables, ideally organic. If you find it difficult to eat the recommended amount of vegetables you need daily, you can try vegetable juicing.
•Optimize your vitamin D levels, ideally from appropriate sun exposure. Vitamin D builds your bone density by helping your body absorb calcium. If you use an oral supplement, make sure you're using vitamin D3 (not D2), and that you're also increasing your vitamin K2 intake.
Consider making your own fermented vegetables using a special vitamin K2-producing starter culture, or supplementing with vitamin K2 if you're not getting enough from food alone. Vitamin K2 serves as the biological "glue" that helps plug the calcium into your bone matrix. Also remember to balance your calcium and magnesium (1-to-1 ratio).
•Avoid sitting and incorporate as much nonexercise movement into each day as possible.
•Get regular exercise. Ideally, your fitness program should be comprehensive, providing the necessary weight-bearing activities for bone health while also improving your cardiovascular fitness and fat-burning capabilities with high-intensity exercises, along with gentle balance- and flexibility-boosting exercises such as yoga, Qigong and Tai Chi.
Although muscle loss is a natural effect associated with aging, it is not inevitable when you take steps to prevent the condition and strengthen your muscles. This type of muscle loss is called sarcopenia in medical circles. Sarcopenia will not occur consistently across age and gender, as it is linked to your dietary choices and exercise habits.
For instance, a healthy, active 60-year-old may have the muscle mass of a 30-year-old, while a sedentary middle-aged person, who primarily eats processed foods and struggles with insulin resistance may have the muscle quality of a 70-year-old.
Eating a diet rich in whole foods and staying active are key to preventing insulin resistance and maintaining muscle mass as you age. It is important to incorporate both nonexercise movement — walking, standing and avoiding sitting — as well as strength training in your daily routine to prevent as much age-related muscle loss as possible. This is essential for improving your mobility and reducing your risk of health conditions that significantly impact your quality of life.
Spreading Protein Throughout the Day Found to Reduce Sarcopenia
Recent research has confirmed previous studies demonstrating that an even distribution of protein over the day may help to maintain or grow muscle mass more effectively than including most of your protein intake at one meal.1 A Canadian study found that seniors who ate protein throughout the day maintained their muscles mass more efficiently, but it did not affect their mobility. The study tracked more than 1,700 men and women who were relatively healthy, over a period of three years.2
The participants were 67 to 84 years of age. During the study they provided the researchers information about the foods they ate and underwent yearly strength testing of their arms and legs, as well as testing for mobility. During the three-year study the researchers found all participants lost both strength and mobility. However, those who ate protein at each of their meals during the day retained better strength, although not greater mobility, than the people who ate their protein at just one meal.
This study was observational and thus could not define a cause and effect from the timing of protein intake. However, while the results could not draw definitive conclusions, it does confirm the results of past studies that demonstrate the timing of your consumption of protein has a significant impact on the development of muscle mass.3,4,5 This means timing may be as important as the amount of protein to best stimulate muscle protein synthesis.
In another study, researchers measured changes in protein synthesis in response to timing of protein intake between individuals who ate protein throughout the day and those who ate most of their daily protein at the evening meal.6 Those who consumed a moderate amount of protein at each meal experienced greater muscle protein synthesis than those who ate all of their protein at the evening meal.
During Protein Summit 2.0,7 nutrition experts discussed the role of protein in human health, finding the breakfasts of older adults are often dominated by carbohydrate foods. A discussion of protein requirement for older adults focused on optimizing the timing of protein intake and resulted in the following hypothesis based on previous research:8
"Habitually consuming 25 [to] 30 g[rams] protein at breakfast, lunch, and dinner provides sufficient protein to effectively and efficiently stimulate muscle protein anabolism and may delay the onset of sarcopenia, slow its progression, and/or reduce the magnitude of its functional consequences."
Age-Related Muscle Decline May Lead to Further Debilitation
From the time you're born until you're near age 30, your muscles continue to grow in strength and size. At some point between age 30 and 40 you start a gradual decline of muscle function and strength. This has an impact on your metabolic function, which helps explain why it's so much easier to lose weight when you're younger and easier to put on weight as you age.
People who are sedentary may lose up to 5 percent of their overall muscle mass every decade after age 30. 9 As you age, this loss also gradually increases in speed. This loss in muscle mass and strength is a large factor in frailty. Frailty is a clinical diagnosis in the elderly that increases your risk of falls, hospitalization, disability and mortality.10 It reduces your ability to cope with stressors and may be defined by meeting three of the following five factors:11
Low grip strength
Low energy
Slowed walking speed
Low physical activity
Unintentional weight loss
Loss of strength and muscle mass may lead to impaired balance, reduced endurance and poor walking ability. These physical factors lead to an increase in falls, broken bones, disability and lack of independence. Contributing factors to sarcopenia include hormonal changes, inflammation and decline in activity, neurological function and nutrition.12 Recent research found mitochondrial decline and changes in the angiotensin system in your skeletal muscle may also contribute to a reduction in muscle mass and strength.
The Cost of Sarcopenia Is High
The estimated direct health care cost in the U.S. in 2000 from sarcopenia was $18.5 billion, representing approximately 1.5 percent of the total health care costs that year (the latest numbers available).13 However, those are only direct care costs and do not include indirect costs such as loss of work, loss of productivity to the employer and costs to replace workers.
A loss of muscle mass may also be related to metabolic dysfunction, such as insulin resistance and diabetes, which increase health care costs even further. While age-related muscle loss contributes to a number of health conditions, there are no current public health campaigns aimed directly at reducing your risk. Preserving your independence and physical function not only improves your quality of life, but also saves you thousands of dollars in health care costs.
Unfortunately, muscle loss may herald the onset of weight gain, loss of physical energy, loss of cognitive ability and greater vulnerability to disease, in effect, accelerated aging.
Too Much of a Good Thing Can Backfire
Although protein is essential, your ability to process it declines with age. This occurs at the same time your body begins to lose more muscle mass, which increases your requirement for protein.
To date, Americans consume more meat, and thus protein, per person than any other country.14 Making matters worse, most eat meat from animals raised in concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). The meat from these animals is more prone to contamination with antibiotic resistant microbes and is nutritionally inferior to meat that is organically raised and grass fed.
Your body has an upper limit to the amount of protein you can actually integrate and use. This means that while it may be beneficial to spread out the protein you eat during the day, it is just as important to monitor the amount and quality of protein you eat. When you eat more protein that you can use, your body must process more nitrogen waste products, creating an environment that increases your risk of dehydration, placing an additional stress on your body.15
An excessive amount of protein may also stimulate your biochemical pathway called mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) that plays a significant role in the development of many cancers and in the regulation of the aging process.
Protein that isn't used by your body negatively affects the GCN2 pathway as well, which is also involved in aging. In other words, in your effort to slow the aging process and age-related muscle loss by eating protein at far greater amounts than your body can use, you may actually be speeding the process.
How Much Is Enough?
While it's important to get the correct amount of protein, there is not a current consensus of exactly how much is the right amount. Currently the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (which took over the task of developing dietary reference intakes [RDI] as of July 1, 2015, previously carried out by the Institute of Medicine) recommends men over the age of 19 get 56 grams of protein per day, and women over the age of 14 get 46 grams per day. These amounts apply for seniors over the age of 70 as well.16
Stuart Phillips, a professor of kinesiology at Canada's McMaster University, believes most people need up to 0.75 grams of protein per pound of total body weight, which is higher than the recommended RDI, in order to receive essential nutrients and amino acids found in animal-based proteins.17 However, disease and longevity researchers have a completely different recommendation. Valter Longo is a professor of biological science at the University of Southern California who has studied links between cancer and dietary intake.
Longo's research shows rates of cancer increase nearly 400 percent in people who eat 20 percent or more of their calories from protein when compared to people who limit their protein intake to 10 percent of their daily calories.
Along with a significantly greater risk of cancer, people who eat large amounts of protein per day also suffer from a much higher risk of mortality.18 Based on this research Longo recommends consuming no more than 0.37 grams of protein per pound of total bodyweight. This is nearly half the amount Phillips recommends.
However, as you age, the recommendations of these two scientists begin to converge as muscle wasting and loss of strength become important challenges faced by seniors. At this point the benefits of increasing protein intake to help lower your risk of death and disease rises above the potential risk of cancer.
General recommendations for the number of grams of protein per day that are based on age and gender don't appear to be specific enough. Compelling research suggests the key to good health is the precise measurement of protein in your diet. I prefer to use a formula that calculates your requirements based on your lean body mass, or muscle weight, only; not your total body weight. This is more relevant to your biological needs, irrespective of your overall weight, or your age and gender.
Protein Guidelines
The formula I use is 0.5 grams of protein for each pound of lean body mass or 1 gram per kilo (2.2 pounds) of lean body mass. If you are pregnant, exercising aggressively or competing athletically, you may increase this by 25 percent. Seniors may also need more. If you are older and clearly losing muscle mass, consider gradually increasing your intake along with strength training until you notice an improvement, to identify a more ideal protein level.
To determine your lean body mass, you'll first need to know your percent of body fat. There are several ways of measuring your body fat percentage:19
Body fat calipers: These may cost as little as $5. They may underestimate your current body fat by a couple percentage points but are surprisingly accurate for the cost.
Body fat calculator:20 These tools estimate your body fat using several measurements. However, they can overestimate your body fat percentage.
Body fat scales: These use an electric current through your body. They can be inaccurate as they are based on your degree of hydration.
The Bod Pod: This method uses air displacement. It's accurate, but may be expensive at your location.
To reach a relatively accurate number inexpensively you may try using body fat calipers and a body fat calculator online and averaging the two numbers. Once you have this number, subtract your percent body fat from 100 and multiply the resulting percentage by your current weight. For instance, if your percent body fat is 15 percent, then 100 minus 15 percent is 0.85; multiply this by your body weight and you'll have your lean body mass in pounds or kilos.
Using this example, if you weigh 175 pounds, 0.85 multiplied by 175 equals 148 pounds of lean body mass. Now, multiply 148 times 0.5 (grams of protein per pound of lean body weight) and you get 74 grams of protein per day.
Convert Your Protein Grams to Food
A substantial amount of protein is found in both animal- and plant-based food products. Meats, fish, dairy products, nuts, seeds and some vegetables21 contribute to your protein intake. Remember to purchase foods that are organically raised, without genetically modified ingredients, and make sure they are certified grass fed meats.
Also keep in mind that many nuts are high in both healthy fats and in protein. Macadamia, pecans and pine nuts are high in fat and low in protein, helping to curb your hunger quickly while not contributing greatly to your protein intake.
To determine your protein intake, calculate your individual requirements as described above and record what you eat each day for several days. To make the overall process easier, consider creating an account with Cronometer.com/Mercola. This is one of the most accurate nutrition trackers out there, and it's free to use.22
You're Never Too Old to Start Exercising — The Key to Building Strong Muscles
Even if you think you're too old to start a program of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) or resistance training, there is still hope to prevent further muscle loss and build more muscle. You may start at any age and make significant advances that improve the quality of your daily life.
Exercise, when coupled with optimal nutrition, is a potent strategy to not only prevent muscle loss but also build new muscle. In the video above (originally filmed in 2011), my mother, who recently passed away, demonstrates part of her routine and talks about the progress she experienced in her daily life.
If you haven't exercised before, or haven't been to a gym in years, consider consulting with a personal trainer who can help you with the proper form and technique that will reduce your potential for injury and increase your chances of success.23 Personal trainers can also help to spot if you lose your balance or when your muscles tire lifting weights.
Strength training is essential to maintaining your muscle mass and body strength. However, it's important to remember that you are working to gain greater strength than you already have and not training to become Mr. Universe.
By incorporating strength training you improve your balance and your ability to do daily living tasks, such as bringing in groceries, climbing stairs or getting in and out of the car. Strength training may also help balance your blood sugar, as well as help to relieve pain in your joints as improved strength helps support your joints.
Dorsiflexion is the action of raising the foot upwards towards the shin. It means the flexion of the foot in the dorsal, or upward, direction.
People use dorsiflexion when they walk. During the middle stages of weight bearing and just before pushing off the ground, the foot will reach its end range of dorsiflexion.
If there are problems with dorsiflexion, then the body will compensate naturally, which in turn can cause issues elsewhere.
Ankle injuries can affect dorsflexion movement, which can have a significant impact on general mobility.
For a movement to be considered dorsiflexion, the foot should be raised upward between 10 and 30 degrees.
Dorsiflexion uses the muscles in the front part (anterior) of the foot.
The tendons of the muscles that pass through the front of the foot and into the ankle joint include:
tibialis anterior
extensor hallucis longus
extensor digitorum longus
These tendons are located on the front of the leg and are supplied by the deep peroneal nerve. Damage to this nerve can stop a person from being able to raise their foot.
Plantar flexion is the opposite of dorsiflexion and involves moving the foot in a downward direction, toward the ground.
Plantar flexion occurs when the foot is moved downward between 20 and 50 degrees.
The muscles whose tendons cause plantar flexion are located on the back (posterior) and inside of the leg, and pass into the back of the foot via the ankle joint. These include:
tibialis posterior
flexor digitorum longus
gastrocnemius
soleus
Possible injuries
Whenever a person is standing upright, their foot is the only part of their body in contact with the ground.
This means that any interaction between the foot and the ground goes through the ankle and then the rest of the body in a kinetic chain.
As a result, problems in the foot and ankle can affect every other part of the body. Often, it is the knees that are affected first, then the hips and back, and eventually the shoulders and neck.
If someone cannot raise their foot upward or the movement is limited, then they may have poor dorsiflexion.
Causes
The possible causes of poor dorsiflexion include:
Ankle joint restriction: This is when the ankle joint itself is restricted. This can result from scar tissue in the joint or a tight joint capsule. A joint capsule is connective tissue filled with fluid that serves as a type of natural 'hinge' in the body.
Flexibility deficit: Dorsiflexion problems can occur when the muscles in the calf, known as the Gastroc/Soleus complex, are tight and cause restriction.
Genetics: Poor dorsiflexion can be linked to a person's genetics.
Ankle injury: If a sprain has not healed properly, a person may limit their movement to avoid pain. Doing this consistently will tighten the joint capsule and cause scar tissue, which limits dorsiflexion.
Other injuries: Damage to the lower body, and even the hip and back, can make a person modify the way they walk and affect their dorsiflexion.
Any dorsiflexion problems that occur can carry on up the body and cause injuries from the knee all the way to the shoulder. This domino effect can work in both directions.
Exercises for increased mobility
Lunges and squats are exercises that may help to improve dorsiflexion mobility.
If someone is worried about their ankle dorsiflexion, there is a simple technique to determine if they have normal movement. It is commonly known as the "knee to wall test."
This is when a person performs a lunge with their feet flat on the ground with one knee just touching a wall.
Using a tape measure to measure from the end of the big toe to the wall will give the degree of ankle dorsiflexion the person has managed, with each centimeter (cm) equating to approximately 3.6 degrees.
Anything over 12.5 cm is considered normal functioning dorsiflexion. Some people believe that the best way to test the range of motion of ankle dorsiflexion is when the foot and ankle are weight bearing.
Depending on the cause of limited ankle dorsiflexion, there are different exercises to help improve it.
Tight calves
A limited dorsiflexion caused by tight calves can be improved by stretching the calves. Helpful stretches include:
Gastrocnemius stretch: Keep the back leg straight with front knee forward until feeling a stretch. Hold for 20 seconds.
Soleus muscle stretch: Lean against a wall with the leg that needs stretching at the back. Bend the knee with heel on the ground until feeling a stretch. Hold for 20 seconds.
Stretching on a step: Place foot on a step and then lower heel down to the ground until a stretch is felt and hold for 20 seconds.
Joint restriction
Dorsiflexion problems caused by joint restriction can be reduced using exercises, including:
Squats and lunges: One of the easiest ways to improve dorsiflexion.
Training barefoot: Shoes can be restrictive, so if a person trains barefoot the ankle will dorsiflex naturally.
It is important to stretch properly as the wrong technique can make the exercise useless or could cause more problems.
Unless there is permanent damage to the ankle due to trauma, restriction and muscle tightness causing dorsiflexion problems can be improved over time through specific exercises.
Injuries
With any injury, it is important to ensure adequate recovery and rehabilitation time. Rushing back to activities too early can cause further problems.
Ankles are load bearing, so it is important to give them rest by minimizing walking and prolonged standing after an injury.
As most people cannot avoid walking or standing all the time, over-the-counter sole supports for shoes are one way to limit pain and prevent further problems.
