When we think about building muscle, we might picture someone lifting heavy weights in a gym or trying to achieve a certain physique. Muscle is about much more than appearance.
Our muscles help us to move, maintain our balance, perform everyday activities, and to stay, physically independent. They also play an important role in how our bodies use energy and regulate blood sugar.
As we get older, maintaining muscle mass becomes increasingly important.
What Is Muscle Mass?
Muscle mass refers to the amount of muscle tissue in your body.
Skeletal muscle is the muscle we can consciously control. It allows us to walk, climb stairs, lift, carry, push and pull.
As we age, we can gradually lose muscle mass and strength. When this age-related decline becomes significant, it can be referred to as sarcopenia. However, getting older doesn’t mean that losing strength, is inevitable.
Research consistently shows that resistance exercise can help to maintain, and improve, muscular strength, including in older adults.
- Strong Muscles Help us to stay Functional
One of the greatest benefits of having healthy strong muscles, is surprisingly simple, they help us to do everyday things. Examples being, getting out of a chair, carrying shopping bags, climbing stairs, lifting objects, getting up from the floor, and walking, all require muscular strength.
Research involving older adults has found that resistance training can improve muscle strength and physical function, including measures such as walking ability and functional performance.
So, strength isn’t simply about lifting heavier weights; it’s about making everyday movement easier.
- Strength Can Help us to Maintain Mobility as We Age
Being able to move around confidently is an important part of maintaining independence.
Research into older adults has found associations between low muscle strength and poorer physical performance. Resistance exercise, on the other hand, can improve measures such as walking speed, chair-stand performance and mobility; and here’s something interesting:
Muscle size & Muscle strength aren’t exactly the same thing.
You can become stronger without dramatically increasing the size of your muscles. Resistance exercise, can still be valuable, even if you’re not interested in building large muscles.
For everyday life, functional strength may be much more important than muscle size alone.
- It’s Never Too Late to Build Strength
Muscle loss can become more noticeable as we get older, and significant muscle loss, can contribute to poorer physical function. Sarcopenia has also been associated with a greater risk of falls and fractures but there is encouraging news:
Our muscles remain responsive to exercise as we age.
Research has found that even very elderly adults, including people aged 80 and over, can improve muscle strength through resistance training. So, it’s never simply a case of:
‘I’m too old to build strength.’ – This is not true!
- Resistance Exercise can support our Bones
Our muscles and bones work together every time we move. Resistance exercise places a mechanical stimulus on the body, and research suggests that progressive resistance training, can improve muscle strength, and some measures of bone mineral density, in older adults.
This doesn’t mean resistance exercise can prevent every bone-related condition.
- Muscle help with Blood Sugar Regulation
Here’s a benefit of muscle that isn’t always talked about. Skeletal muscle is a major site for glucose disposal in the body. In simple terms, our muscles play an important role in helping our bodies to handle glucose from the bloodstream.
Research has described skeletal muscle as the principal tissue responsible for insulin-stimulated glucose disposal and explains how muscle contraction and exercise can influence insulin sensitivity.
Of course, having more muscle doesn’t automatically mean someone will have normal blood sugar levels. Nutrition, physical activity, genetics, body composition and many other factors all play a role.
- Muscle is Metabolically Active
Muscle tissue requires energy to maintain itself, and, to perform its many functions.
This is one reason why maintaining muscle, can be useful when we’re thinking about body composition and healthy ageing. However, it’s worth avoiding some of the exaggerated claims we sometimes see online about muscle ‘burning huge amounts of calories.’
Building muscle can contribute to energy expenditure, but increasing muscle mass isn’t a magic solution for weight loss.
A healthy approach combines regular movement, resistance exercise, appropriate nutrition, adequate sleep, and other, healthy lifestyle habits.
How do we Maintain or Build Muscle?
One of the most effective ways is through resistance exercise, and that doesn’t necessarily mean, joining a gym, or lifting very heavy weights.
Resistance can come from:
- Body-weight exercises
- Weights2Go Weighted Sports Bottles
- Dumbbells
- Resistance bands
- Kettlebells
- Weight machines
- Everyday objects
- Other forms of external resistance
The important principle is that your muscles are being challenged against resistance.
Research has demonstrated that resistance training can improve strength and physical function, including among older adults. You don’t have to be a bodybuilder to benefit.
Your goal might simply be to become stronger, more capable, and better able, to enjoy everyday life.
What About Combining Resistance Exercise with Walking?
Walking is an excellent form of physical activity, and it offers many health benefits. However, both walking and resistance exercise, challenge the body in different ways.
Walking primarily provides aerobic and weight-bearing activity, while resistance exercise specifically challenges muscles to produce force against resistance.
Combining different types of exercise can therefore provide a more rounded approach to fitness.
This is where the idea behind Weights2Go Weighted Sports Bottles first came from, during a hike in the Spanish Mountains.
Weights2Go bottles are designed to combine hydration with resistance exercise, allowing the bottles to be used as weighted exercise tools, while also serving, as sports drinking bottles – less to hold, and, they help to save time – it’s a Win Win!
Of course, Weights2Go bottles themselves, have not been clinically tested in a science lab, so we don’t claim that, our product has proven medical or health benefits; although we may be able to say this at some point in time, after lab testing.
What we can say is that the principle of resistance exercise is well supported by scientific research, including research showing improvements in muscle strength and physical function.
Muscle isn’t just about looking Strong
Perhaps the biggest misconception about muscle is that it’s primarily about appearance.
Yes, developing muscle can change the way our bodies look, but its importance goes much further.
Muscle helps us to move. Muscle helps us lift and carry. Muscle helps us maintain physical function.
Muscle contributes to glucose regulation. Muscle works together with our bones and joints.
Maintaining strength, can help us to remain physically capable, especially so, as we grow older.
So perhaps instead of asking:
“How much muscle do I have?” we should sometimes ask:
“What can my muscles help me to do?”
Being strong isn’t simply about lifting weights.
Being strong is about having the strength to live your life. 💪❤️
Disclaimer
The information provided in this article, and on this website, is for general educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended to replace medical advice, diagnosis or treatment from a qualified healthcare professional.
If you experience rapid or unexplained weight loss or weight gain, persistent abdominal swelling or bloating, significant changes in your bowel habits, abdominal pain, or any other symptoms that concern you, please speak to your doctor.
If you are new to exercise, have an existing medical condition, are taking medication, or are unsure whether a particular exercise, diet or weight-loss approach, is suitable for you, speak to your doctor or another appropriately qualified healthcare professional, before starting or changing, your exercise programme.
Research is continually evolving, and individual responses to diet, exercise, sleep and weight loss, can vary considerably.
Research & Further Reading
- Resistance Training Improves Quality of Life, Muscle Strength, and Functional Capacity in Older Adults — Kashi et al., 2023. A systematic review and meta-analysis of 21 studies involving 1,610 adults aged 60 and over.
- Effects of Resistance Training in Older Adults with Frailty and Sarcopenia — Talar et al., 2021. A systematic review of 25 studies involving more than 2,200 adults aged 65 and over.
- Resistance Training for Muscle Size and Strength in Very Elderly Adults — Grgic et al., 2020. A systematic review and meta-analysis examining resistance training in very elderly adults, including people aged 80 and over.
- Sarcopenia and Risk of Falls and Fractures in Older Adults — Yeung et al., 2019. A systematic review and meta-analysis examining the relationship between sarcopenia, falls and fractures.
- Progressive Resistance Training and Bone Mineral Density in Older Adults — O’Bryan et al., 2022. A systematic review and meta-analysis examining resistance training, muscle strength and bone mineral density.
- The Many Actions of Insulin in Skeletal Muscle — Sylow et al., 2021. Examines the important role skeletal muscle plays in insulin-stimulated glucose disposal and how exercise affects insulin sensitivity.
Optimal Resistance Training Prescriptions to Improve Muscle Strength, Physical Function, and Muscle Mass in Older Adults With Sarcopenia — Yan et al., 2025. A systematic review and meta-analysis of 24 randomised controlled trials involving 951 participants.