When we talk about health, we often focus on weight, blood pressure, or lab results. But there’s another factor that quietly shapes how we age, recover, and thrive – muscle.
Muscle isn’t just for athletes or bodybuilders. Skeletal muscle is a functional organ, essential for movement, balance, and stability. It’s also an endocrine organ, an internal health regulator that helps manage how many calories and fat we burn, balance blood sugar, and control inflammation.
Understanding this helps explain why low muscle mass is strongly linked to a higher risk of chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, obesity, Alzheimer’s disease, osteoarthritis, and even cancer and its recurrence.
Muscle mass also plays a vital role in recovery from illness and resilience during stress or trauma. During illness or injury, the body breaks down muscle protein to fuel healing and support immune function. People with greater muscle reserves tend to recover faster and more fully.
Effort is necessary to preserve and build muscle. We lose 1-2% of muscle per year after age 50 and 3% per year after age 60 unless we take steps to maintain it. This age-related decline, called sarcopenia, contributes to frailness, falls, and loss of independence. This decline can mean the difference between recovering from a fall or never walking again. And it’s not just a concern for kūpuna; early signs of frailty are increasingly seen in younger people, often due to inactivity, stress, or chronic illness.
Despite its importance, many people don’t participate in strength training, as they believe that cardio or aerobic exercise is enough. While aerobic activity benefits heart and lung health, resistance training goes further. It improves mitochondrial function, essential for converting nutrients into energy and cell repair. It builds bone density, helping prevent osteoporosis. It also helps lower inflammation, further reducing risk of disease.
The idea that you need heavy weights to build strength is a myth. Studies show that lighter weights lifted to near fatigue can build just as much strength as heavier loads. That makes strength training safe and effective for kūpuna, beginners, and those with limited mobility. It’s never too late to start, as even people in their 80s and 90s can build muscle and regain strength in just a few months of consistent effort.
Supporting this with both high-quality protein and complex carbohydrates is essential, as both are needed to effectively build and maintain muscle, along with fruits, vegetables, and healthy fats to support overall muscle health.
Muscle health can be tracked in simple ways. Grip strength, measured by squeezing a handheld device, is one of the best predictors of overall strength. Other tools include calf circumference, mobility tests, and basic strength questionnaires.
Many of our favorite hobbies and activities such as hula, paddling, diving, surfing, fishing, or farming naturally build strength and preserve health. Depending on the frequency and intensity, these may need to be supplemented with bodyweight exercises, resistance bands, or hand weights.
Muscle isn’t about how we look; it’s about how we live.
