3 ms·

This is the problem with cohort studies. If you just picked 100 people at random and followed them from age 40 to age 60, on average they'd all get physically w

This is the problem with cohort studies. If you just picked 100 people at random and followed them from age 40 to age 60, on average they'd all get physically weaker. But this is an observation, not an unavoidable trend; if you took any one of them and put them on an effective weightlifting and diet program (and they followed it), they could at least double their strength assuming they previously never lifted weights.

Tepix 5y ago
Here's the thing. An average 30 year old who is not doing sports will not lose muscle mass by itself. An average 50 year old will lose 1% per year or so. If you get older you have to work just to keep the status quo.
- logicchains 5y ago
  >An average 30 year old who is not doing sports will not lose muscle mass by itself. >An average 50 year old will lose 1% per year or so. Sure, but the average is what it is because most people barely exercise, especially when they're older. If everyone lived a much more active life with more strenuous exercise, the average would look completely different.
walnutclosefarm 5y ago
Actually, if you put them all on an effective weightlifting and diet program, they'd still decline. More slowly to be sure, but no amount of exercise and diet will eliminate the effects of age. Same is true of mental exercise. Animals, and mammals in particular, lack the cellular and metabolic level repair mechanisms that would make it possible for us to keep running at peak ability indefinitely. We have no organ level repair mechanisms at all, outside of, arguably, our livers. Time is coming for you.
- wtetzner 5y ago
  > Animals, and mammals in particular, lack the cellular and metabolic level repair mechanisms that would make it possible for us to keep running at peak ability indefinitely. Given some of the research on anti-aging, it's not clear that this is the case.
- wing-_-nuts 5y ago
  The question isn't 'will they decline' it's will they be better than they would otherwise be, and that is unequivocally yes.
- logicchains 5y ago
  >Actually, if you put them all on an effective weightlifting and diet program, they'd still decline The point is the baseline will increase. Someone who strength trains seriously could easily be at least twice as strong at age 40 as somebody without any training. Even if they unavoidably lose 50% of their strength over the next 20 years, that just means at age 60 they'll have the same strength level as a 40 year old who never strength trained (and twice the strength of a 60 year old who never trained, assuming it decays linearly).

Tepix 5y ago

Here's the thing. An average 30 year old who is not doing sports will not lose muscle mass by itself. An average 50 year old will lose 1% per year or so. If you get older you have to work just to keep the status quo.

logicchains 5y ago
>An average 30 year old who is not doing sports will not lose muscle mass by itself. >An average 50 year old will lose 1% per year or so. Sure, but the average is what it is because most people barely exercise, especially when they're older. If everyone lived a much more active life with more strenuous exercise, the average would look completely different.

walnutclosefarm 5y ago

Actually, if you put them all on an effective weightlifting and diet program, they'd still decline. More slowly to be sure, but no amount of exercise and diet will eliminate the effects of age. Same is true of mental exercise. Animals, and mammals in particular, lack the cellular and metabolic level repair mechanisms that would make it possible for us to keep running at peak ability indefinitely. We have no organ level repair mechanisms at all, outside of, arguably, our livers. Time is coming for you.

wtetzner 5y ago
> Animals, and mammals in particular, lack the cellular and metabolic level repair mechanisms that would make it possible for us to keep running at peak ability indefinitely. Given some of the research on anti-aging, it's not clear that this is the case.
wing-_-nuts 5y ago
The question isn't 'will they decline' it's will they be better than they would otherwise be, and that is unequivocally yes.
logicchains 5y ago
>Actually, if you put them all on an effective weightlifting and diet program, they'd still decline The point is the baseline will increase. Someone who strength trains seriously could easily be at least twice as strong at age 40 as somebody without any training. Even if they unavoidably lose 50% of their strength over the next 20 years, that just means at age 60 they'll have the same strength level as a 40 year old who never strength trained (and twice the strength of a 60 year old who never trained, assuming it decays linearly).