Muscle strength alarm? Jian Wenren makes a move! Muscle-nourishing exercises to prevent aging, prevent falls and protect the brain

The weather has been cold recently and no one likes to go out. They stay in the office or at home and become sedentary people. Over time, they become "weak muscle people" without realizing it! There are many side effects of insufficient muscle strength. In addition to being prone to falls, fractures, back pain, it can even damage the brain. It turns out that the lack of muscle mass is to blame! Physical therapist Jian Wenren will teach everyone how to do muscle-building exercises in the future, which can not only prevent sarcopenia, avoid osteoporosis and resist falls, but also prevent aging and protect the brain! (Video/Photography by Jiang Minjun)

Insufficient muscle strength will affect the endocrine system, respiratory system, digestive system, nervous system, etc.

Muscles play a very important role in the body. Some people think that rapid aging represents the impact of muscle loss. After people reach the age of 30, their muscles will slowly be lost at a rate of 1-2% per year, especially in the elderly after the age of 60, when the decline will be faster, and many elderly people will even develop sarcopenia. Cathay Hospital physiotherapist Jian Wenren said that in the past, when people mentioned sarcopenia, they would think of the elderly walking with a frail appearance. In fact, young people may also suffer from sarcopenia. Insufficient muscle strength affects health in all aspects, including the endocrine system, respiratory system, digestive system, nervous system, etc.

Nowadays, most people have the concept of "maintaining muscles to prevent aging". We often see many people going to the gym for training. In addition to the purpose of sculpting the body, the focus is on exercising muscle groups, which is also a preparation for "preparing for a rainy day". If we don't start paying attention to muscle training, we will see the common scenes in rehabilitation clinics now, including patients with muscle strains, back pain, and even falls and fractures undergoing rehabilitation. There are many benefits of muscle training, which can be summarized into the following five benefits:

★【5 benefits of muscle training】:

Benefit 1/ Reducing fat content helps lose weight: Moderately increasing the proportion of muscle will help improve metabolism, reduce fat production, and avoid the occurrence of obesity.

Benefit 2/Avoid pain and degeneration: Muscle strength training will help increase muscle strength in important parts of the body, protect and stabilize the body, and avoid pain.

Benefit 3/Reduce osteoporosis: Moderate muscle strength training helps to continuously stimulate the human skeleton, allowing the body to respond and increase bone density to adapt to long-term exercise.

Benefit 4/ Delaying aging: Looking old when walking and moving is a manifestation of lack of muscle strength. Through correct muscle training and strengthening muscle function, you can have a beautiful body shape.

Benefit 5/Lower blood lipids and cholesterol: Regular participation in strength training can help lower total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) in the blood.

Simply test your muscle strength: squat, stride length, step frequency, grip strength, etc.

How do you know if you have insufficient muscle strength? Is there any quick and easy way? Recently, the Millennium Love Health Foundation published a local Taiwanese research result on "sarcopenia", which mainly used calf circumference as a simple assessment of muscle mass. It was found that if the calf circumference of men over 50 years old is less than 34, or the calf circumference of women is less than 32 cm, it means that the muscle mass may be insufficient. The current diagnosis of sarcopenia requires testing of muscle strength (handgrip dynamometer), mobility (walking speed), and muscle mass (dual-energy X-ray body composition analysis).

Physical therapist Jian Wenren said that in fact, it is very simple to self-examine whether your muscle strength is sufficient. Pull-ups represent the biceps, push-ups represent the triceps, sit-ups represent the abdominal muscles, and horse stance represents the leg muscles. If you feel that you cannot do the above movements, it means that your muscle strength is insufficient.

In addition, you can also do squats or jump off the ground to test, as well as look at stride length, stride frequency, and grip strength. The so-called stride length refers to the distance you take in one step. The formula is: height-100=cm. This is normal. For example, if your height is 160cm, the normal stride length is 60cm. As for step frequency, the average person can walk about 120 steps per minute at the fastest, which is normal. Finally, you can look at the grip strength. According to the Institute of Labor Research, it is normal for boys to have a grip strength greater than 26 kg, and for girls to have a grip strength greater than 20 kg. If you are unable to open a can or young people riding a heavy motorcycle have difficulty gripping the handlebars, such as "weak as a kitten", or are unable to twist the grip bar, etc., it means that your grip strength is insufficient, which also means insufficient muscle strength.

Muscle-strengthening exercises include squats, leg raises, resistance bands and dumbbell exercises, all of which help build muscle. It is recommended to start with simple movements to strengthen muscles. Physical therapist Jian Wenren recommends doing the following 3 exercises every day to prevent or delay muscle loss:

★【Muscle-nourishing exercises】

＊Hand and foot meeting/training abdominal muscles and leg muscles

Sit on a chair, hook your feet, lift one foot high, then touch one foot with one hand, contract your abdominal muscles, and this can exercise your calves. Or touch your hands and feet and exercise at the same time.

＊ Sitting on pins and needles/training abdominal and back muscles:

Squat, and stand up when your buttocks lightly touch the chair. Do not sit down forcefully immediately, and keep your upper body upright.

＊Taishan Yangwei/Training abdominal muscles and back muscles:

Make fists and raise them to shoulder level, expand your chest and keep your upper body upright, then slowly turn left and right.

It is not advisable to do strength training immediately after eating or on an empty stomach

Reminder: When doing strength training, try to avoid doing it when you are on an empty stomach or when your stomach is bloated after eating. Because when you are doing muscle training, the main source of energy is carbohydrates. However, when you are hungry, there is not enough carbohydrates for both the brain and the body. If you still do muscle training at this time, the protein in the muscles will be used as an energy source, which will affect efficiency. As for right after eating, blood flow will be concentrated to the internal organs for digestion and absorption. If you do muscle training at this time, blood will flow to the muscles and affect digestion. It is recommended to wait 2 hours after a meal before doing strength training.

In addition to exercising to train muscles, the following nutritional supplements can also help stabilize bones and prevent muscle loss:

★【Nutritional supplements strengthen bones and prevent muscle loss】

Tip 1: Adequate protein. The elderly need 1 to 1.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day to meet their nutritional needs.

Taking a 65 kg elder as an example, the recommended distribution is: 20 grams for breakfast + 30 grams for lunch + 30 grams for dinner = about 80 grams per day.

Tip 2: Drink 2 cups of milk a day.

Tip 3: Adequate calcium intake.

Secret 4: Supplement sufficient leucine (meat, milk, and beans).

Tip 5: Get adequate sun exposure and take sufficient vitamin D.