Are you aware that nearly 30% of muscle mass can be lost by the age of 70, leading to significant changes in body composition? In this enlightening episode of The Holly Perkins Health Podcast, I dive deep into the critical importance of muscle maintenance and growth for women over 40. As we age, the risk of sarcopenia—the age-related loss of muscle mass—becomes a pressing concern, and it's essential to understand how to combat this natural process effectively.
Are you aware that nearly 30% of muscle mass can be lost by the age of 70, leading to significant changes in body composition? In this enlightening episode of The Holly Perkins Health Podcast, I dive deep into the critical importance of muscle maintenance and growth for women over 40. As we age, the risk of sarcopenia—the age-related loss of muscle mass—becomes a pressing concern, and it's essential to understand how to combat this natural process effectively.
While strength training, protein intake, and creatine supplementation are often touted as the go-to solutions, I reveal that they may not be enough on their own to prevent muscle loss. I emphasize the necessity of progressive overload in strength training, which is vital for building muscle. Many women may not be lifting enough weight or tracking their progress effectively, which can hinder their body composition goals.
Moreover, I discuss the critical balance between protein and carbohydrates to optimize muscle recovery and prevent fatigue. It’s time to debunk the common misconceptions surrounding protein consumption! I urge you to discover your individual protein needs instead of relying on one-size-fits-all recommendations. After all, nutrition plays a pivotal role in women's health and wellness, especially during perimenopause and menopause.
But that's not all—did you know that creatine is not only beneficial for muscle growth but also supports overall health and cognitive function? Join me as I explore the multifaceted benefits of creatine and its role in enhancing your body composition and mental health.
This episode serves as a comprehensive guide for women navigating the complexities of muscle health. I provide actionable steps to help you maintain and build muscle effectively, ensuring a healthier, more active life as you age. Don’t let muscle loss dictate your journey; empower yourself with knowledge and strategies that truly work. Tune in to transform your approach to strength training, nutrition, and overall wellness!
If you're interested in womens health, this is the podcast for you.
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Speaker #0 You've probably heard that the best way to prevent muscle loss as you age, sarcopenia, is by strength training, taking creatine, and eating protein, right? Sadly, you could do all three of those things and still lose muscle each year. I've seen the DEXA scans to prove it, and that's because building muscle and preventing its loss is a bit more complicated. So. If you want to know exactly what it takes to keep the muscle you have or build more, keep listening. Hello and thank you for being here. If you are new, welcome. I'm Holly Perkins and I help women to improve their body composition to at least 70% lean mass so that you can reduce your risk of disease and stay in the game of life and out of the rocking chair for all of those amazing years ahead. And if you're here, you probably know that muscle is a big part of that. Sarcopenia is the muscle loss that happens as you age. You can't avoid it completely, but you can slow it down to a near halt if you do the right things. Losing muscle as you age is a big problem because muscle is a huge contributor to your metabolism. So without it, your metabolism... literally slows. Number two, muscle is your strength. Without muscle, going up and down the stairs is harder and more dangerous. Carrying groceries becomes an exhausting feat and your body loses its ability to hold itself upright in space no matter whether you're sitting, walking, running, or playing pickleball. And this means that joints lose their integrity, your posture slumps, and injuries. prevail. And number three, muscle is the literal antidote to fat. It's the magic pill. As muscle declines, body fat naturally and automatically increases. And in particular, the visceral adipose tissue, VAT, the kind of fat that's truly dangerous to your health, your longevity, and your quality of life. If you're feeling weaker, getting softer, or worried about keeping the muscle that you have so that you can age well, you've got to understand the science of keeping and building muscle. In this episode, you'll learn that lifting weight is not enough to prevent sarcopenia if you're not employing a critical strategy during each workout. You'll learn that daily protein intake is important for signaling muscle growth and maintenance, But... If you miss the carbohydrate bus, you'll still struggle to build muscle and you'll most likely have to battle hunger, cravings, and fatigue throughout the day and especially during your workouts. And number three, creatine might very well be the wonder supplement of the century, but it doesn't actually build muscle. It's part of your strategy when you've got the other pieces of the puzzle right. And when you get these programming elements right, you'll be fully optimized for keeping the muscle you have or building as much as your big heart desires. And you'll create the powerhouse body to carry you through life energized, empowered, and enjoying life with more energy than you know what to do with. So get this. Just yesterday, I saw a post on social media by... A very influential voice with a very large following who is someone that promotes healthy living and is someone who is fully aware of the importance of strength training in midlife. It was a bit of a manifesto because she had just found out from a body composition report that she had lost three pounds of muscle in the past year and she was shocked and she announced her determination to start eating more protein so that she could build muscle. And of course, I couldn't cheer her on more loudly. I think that that's an incredible message that many women need to hear. She also used the post to ask her followers for best advice because she's not a scientist or an expert in my space. She's really more of a lifestyle voice. And so, of course, I tripped over myself running to the comments. And what jumped out at me were the comments from my fellow colleagues who said things like take creatine and eat more protein. And I thought to myself, but that's not the solution. That's very misguided. Creatine doesn't build muscle and eating more protein isn't the direct solution either. And clearly the world is a bit confused on exactly what builds muscle. Over the past two years, I have been running DEXA reports on my clients so that I can get real accurate insights into all of the best protocols to help women actually build muscle in midlife. And what I've seen, honestly, after being in this industry for 30 years, was a bit shocking. Building muscle is actually very hard for women in midlife. And even when a woman is following my protocols, we still have to be super diligent to make sure that certain
pieces of the puzzle are in place and that she's actually doing it. You might be thinking you're eating a lot of protein, but if we don't actually audit and know that for certain, you don't really know where you are. And you might be lifting weights and working hard during those workouts, but if you're not truly overloading your muscles, you might not actually be building muscle. And that's because after 50, most women lose muscle shockingly easy, and you have to be determined, decided, and deliberate to actually build muscle. So here we are, my friend, and you'll keep losing muscle unless you do these three things. So let's get into what you can and can't do in your quest to get the muscle that you need to live your best life. The first misunderstanding is this. Strength training is the only thing that you can do to prevent muscle loss and fortify the muscles that you have. It's the only thing. Eating protein or taking creatine does not build muscle. It can slow sarcopenia a bit to reduce muscle wasting, and both have general benefits, but you will never actually improve. your muscle quality or build muscle without strength training. You can't, and it has to be progressive. Beyond that, you'll keep losing muscle unless you specifically ensure progressive overload of resistance in your workouts. You've heard me say the phrase progressive overload over and over. You'll hear other experts out there use that phrase, and that's because there's different. ways to progress and to progressively overload your system, your organs, and the musculoskeletal system. See, strength training as an activity does have benefits like improving insulin regulation, enhancing your body's ability to manage inflammation, triggering numerous biochemical benefits, and strength training as an activity boosts mood and resilience and confidence. All of those things are there if you're just lifting weights. As I've talked about before here, there is a difference between lifting weights and progressively overloading your muscles ability to generate force against an object. And while other experts will tell you that you can build muscle in lots of ways, as long as you progressively overload in terms of reps or metabolic stress like shortened rest phases or higher heart rates or by doing more or harder workouts in general. I've actually got a different message that's based on my experience in practice coaching women through their 40s, 50s, and 60s. This is a very specific demographic that has very unique needs. You'll keep losing muscle Unless you increase your ability to push and pull heavier weight loads over time, and you can actually document that. Because you might be thinking, I'm lifting heavier. But the question is... Are you? Because when I probe and audit my clients and their workouts, when people first come to me, I see on paper, they think they've been working harder, so they must be using heavier weight loads, right? But when you actually look at the numbers, a lot of times they're not. They're just doing more reps or more sets or resting shorter or just working out longer. Those things are not progressive overload of resistance. And this is very different from doing more, more reps. If you go from 10 to 15, that might mean you're stronger, but it doesn't mean that you're actually building muscle or doing more sets or even more frequent workouts. Some women think that four strength workouts per week is better than three. And so they come to me and say, I've been strength training three times a week, but I'm losing muscle. Should I start doing four workouts a week? and therefore they think that they'll build muscle. more because of this concept of more in general. Gosh, I just think we as a society and or maybe women in general, we think more of a good thing is better, right? More walking is better. More steps is better. More broccoli is better. More fiber is better. More protein is better. And that's actually really not true. If you've ever eaten too much fiber, you know it leads to constipation. And I'm finding that this more, more, more tends to lead to burnout and fatigue faster for women over 40. See, on paper, a person can build muscle with numerous protocols. We know this from research. And as always, I've linked some of that really interesting research in the show notes here. But the unique biological environment of women over 40 changes the landscape. And what works for men in their 30s Most often doesn't work for a woman in her 50s because the loss of estrogen causes systemic inflammation, which destroys muscle, and chronic fatigue, which makes
higher rep workouts exhausting. When you hear other expert voices out there mention research done on certain subjects, I really encourage you to look more closely at the sex of the expert promoting the research, male or female, and the sex of the subjects in the research. Because still to this day, the majority of our research is done on young collegiate men or male and female athletes in their 20s. That research doesn't hold true for a woman at 57. My most successful clients get the fastest and best results when they keep their reps under 10, maybe 12 at times, so that they can put all of their energy into using heavier weight loads. It takes a lot of vital life force energy to be able to move 10 more pounds on your squat. If you think about it, what's more likely as you're trying to improve your squat or your deadlift? Doing a set of eight or doing sets of 15? one, would you be more likely to use a heavier weight load on successfully? It's going to be easier to add 10 pounds to your squat when you only have to do eight reps. If you've got to do 30 reps, you are never going to add 10 pounds to your squat. And again, please hear me loud and clear. While the research says that a person can build muscle doing 30 reps, as a woman myself, who's in the trenches myself and with my clients, I can tell you that I have never been able to increase my weight loads when I'm doing 15 reps. Because that means one set of 15 reps takes twice as long time-wise as it does to do eight or 10 reps, and therefore fatigue accumulates. The muscle has to contract 15 times instead of 5 or 8 or 10. So you'll keep losing muscle unless you adjust all of your workouts to put you in a position to actually increase the weight loads that you're using. And this is most likely achieved by following a consistent program where you repeat the same exercises each week for at least 16 weeks and you document your weight loads at the end of the 16 weeks. You should be able to look at your piece of paper or your notebook or your digital notebook and see that your leg press has increased from 10 reps of 100 pounds to 10 reps of 160 pounds. That is what builds muscle best for women over 40. And before I move on, I want to say one more thing because you might hear this message and go add 20 or 30 pounds to your barbell deadlift. But what you've got to understand is technique is most important of all. If you haven't already, please read my first book, Lift to Get Lean, where I talk about the importance of technique because it's not enough to just start overloading your exercises. Your technique has to be perfect first, then you overload. Beautiful, exquisite technique. Okay, deal. Let's move on. The second misunderstanding is this. Eating protein is very important for protecting and building muscle, but only in the process of repair. So you have to give your muscles a reason to repair and to repair more frequently. Eating more and more protein can slow muscle loss with aging. but it won't actually build your muscles. Only progressive overload strength training can do that. And then backing up your workout routine with the right amount of protein is a winning combination. But there's more to the story. These days, the media loves to push protein, protein, protein. You can't open up the social medias without seeing somebody bragging about this recipe that's got 100 grams of protein in it. And in my experience, most women are actually still not getting this right. When women come to me for coaching, I see one of two things. Number one, they aren't eating enough protein. That does happen because if you don't actually track and log and every now and then do an audit and weigh and or measure the proteins that you're eating, you don't know where you are. Or number two, they are eating way too much. And certainly, you can see the problem is... under eating protein, but you might be thinking, but so what? Why is it a problem if I eat too much protein? Isn't more better? And there are some experts out there that will really tell you to overeat the protein because then at least you're going to max out and be guaranteed to get the minimum. And while eating too much ensures you're getting enough, it also means other things like. If you're over emphasizing protein, You're probably under-emphasizing carbs, and carbs are the other half of the muscle equation. If you over-prioritize protein and therefore don't get enough carbs during the day, you're going to struggle with fatigue, hunger, and food cravings. Your workouts will be underpowered, and your muscles won't have the fuel they
need to perform and rebuild. Carbs and protein are... best friends, like the bestest BFFs ever, and they are happiest when they are never separated. They work hand in hand and they must be eaten at the same time to truly optimize blood sugar regulation and provide muscles what they need to recover. When women come to me for coaching and they are eating too much protein, I often find that they are struggling with gas, bloating, constipation and just digestive issues in general, like feeling congested in their tummy. They are not getting leaner despite eating their body weight and protein each day. They are battling food cravings or sugar cravings late in the day, or they struggle with overeating at night because they can't quell hunger. And when you really sit down and calculate your protein needs each day, most women find they don't need nearly as much as they thought. and that getting the right amount is actually very easy. For example, a woman who weighs 165 pounds would need between 105 and 150 grams of protein each day if we calculate based on the ISSN's guidelines of 1.4 to 2.0 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. But yet out there in social media, you will hear very respectable. Very legitimate medical doctors and experts say, eat your body weight in protein. That would be 165 grams of protein per day. But when we calculate it based on the research, you don't need that much. At 165 pounds, eating between 105 and 150 grams of protein each day means You only need about 30 to 35 grams of protein across four to five eatings per day, and that is actually so easy to achieve for most people if you're open to eating a variety of protein sources. Of course, if you're vegan or vegetarian, it's a bit harder, but if you're willing to use protein powders, it's actually really, really easy. Most of the day, I hit my protein goals long before dinner. And one more thing to those of you that are lower in body weight. I have a lot of women that come to me that weigh 112 pounds or 118 or 125 pounds. When you hear experts out there tell you, you need to eat at least 150 grams of protein per day, that is so blind because it's not taking into consideration each woman's body size. And I find this so discriminatory. If you're over 200 pounds, you'll need more protein. If you are under 150 pounds, you need less protein. Run the other direction when someone says you need at least 100 grams of protein per day, because if you weigh 90 pounds, that's actually not true. Your protein should be reflective of your current body size, your goals, your age, your activity level, and the factors working against you. in terms of building muscle. And that is why the ISSN recommends a range of 1.2 to 2.0, because if you're older, if you are underweight, if you have never strength trained before, you're going to need more protein than someone who is younger, who already has some muscle, who has been strength training, and who isn't losing weight. But remember, focusing on getting enough protein doesn't mean that carbs should be overlooked or that they are less important. You still need to be strategic about them as well. You'll keep losing muscle unless you do this. Aim for 25 to 30% of your total daily calories coming from protein. For most women, that puts them right in the sweet spot to assess then if they need more or not. This gives you the protein you need. to repair muscles after. You've increased your weight load on your leg press. Again, the protein doesn't build muscle. The progressive overload in your strength workout does. And then you optimize muscle repair and growth by eating enough protein, not overeating protein. And when you balance your protein with the right amount of carbohydrates, you'll also regulate blood sugar, improve energy, Burn fat better and perform better during your strength workouts so that you can actually push and pull heavier weight loads more comfortably. And lastly, you'll keep losing muscle unless you do this third thing. Take creatine. But again, just like the first two things, taking creatine does not build muscle. Progressive resistance strength training. does. And while creatine has its own benefits beyond supporting muscle, taking it to build muscle is actually a losing battle in my opinion. I am thrilled to see that creatine is getting so much press because I've always believed it to be an incredibly effective supplement. And it's one that I've been using for at least 20 years now. These days, I take it every single day religiously. Creatine is one of the most well-researched supplements in the world, and its benefits
go far beyond muscle size or athletic performance, including creatine increases muscle strength and power. It enhances your muscles ability to produce ATP during short, intense bursts of activity, which is lifting weights. So you know those sets where the last three, four, or five reps are really intense and uncomfortable. That is a short, intense burst of activity. And this is where creatine really shines. Research consistently shows significant improvements in strength, power output, and training performance in both men and women. And it helps you lift heavier and perform more reps, leading to faster progress in lean muscle development. And so to me, creatine has these general health benefits, but I always take it before for my workout because it really does improve the quality of your workout and how well you can perform so that you can actually push and pull higher weight loads than you could if you hadn't taken it. Number two, creatine supports muscle growth and maintenance. And it does that by allowing greater training volume and intensity. Creatine indirectly supports muscle growth this way. It promotes cell volumization, meaning muscle cells hold on to more water, which may trigger muscle building pathways when you then go home and eat your protein after your good workout. Your muscle is better able to repair and rebuild and get stronger. And what's amazing, in women, studies show that creatine can actually help maintain muscle mass during a calorie deficit during the aging process and menopause. And lastly, creatine enhances brain function and cognition. We're hearing this more and more that it's got its own benefit, just like vitamin C or vitamin D, that stands alone outside of your workouts. The brain also relies on ATP for energy, just like your muscles. Supplementing with creatine has been shown to improve cognitive performance, especially under stress, fatigue, or sleep deprivation, which by the way, that's most women I know in their 50s and 60s. Early creatine research also indicates potential benefits for memory, mental clarity, and reaction time. And some studies suggest that it may have neuroprotective effects, possibly supporting your brain health during aging and after injury. Here's the deal. On days like this where I really have to use my brain a lot on a podcast episode, you know I do not miss my creatine. I take it immediately before. I have to perform with mental sharpness whether I'm working out or not. The truth is you'll keep losing muscle unless you do this. Take creatine for all the benefits. But most importantly, as part of your consistent progressive resistance strength workouts each week, it is a supplement that is meant to complement what you're doing in the gym. And I believe the best time to take it is 60 to 90 minutes before your workout or at any time on the days when you don't work out. So in summary. You will keep losing muscle unless you do these three things. And of course, it's not an exhaustive list. And I also don't want this to sound totally foreboding. But on some level, let this be the message that it is absolutely critical that you are on the defense, that you really are doing everything you can to at least preserve the muscle you have because you're going to need it in the years ahead. And if I can win this argument, I hope that we pack on five or 10 pounds of muscle on your frame because I promise you, your life will be so much better the more muscle you have. And if you're someone who has a tendency for analysis paralysis and you get overwhelmed by all of the things to do and not really knowing how or where to start, please know, as I always say, anything is better than nothing. So just get started. If you need some guidance, come over to my website and type in hollyperkins.com forward slash offer, O-F-F-E-R. You'll be able to put in your name, your email address, and download a totally free six-week strength and cardio program that I've written so that you can begin your strength training journey either at home or in the gym, and it is a great place to get started. hollyperkins.com forward slash offer. I hope you enjoyed this episode. And remember, if you want access to my four-week Strength Without Stress program for free, be sure to rate and review this episode right now, grab a screenshot of your written review, and then send it to me over at hollyperkins.com forward slash review, and you'll get immediate access to this program that's normally priced at $197. That's hollyperkins.com forward slash review, yours for free, simply by posting a review of my podcast now. And I
hope that you will stay tuned for another brand new episode on Tuesday of next week. Stay strong, my friend.