The Importance of Muscle Mass As We Age

As we age, maintaining muscle mass becomes increasingly important, especially for women. While many of us focus on the aesthetic aspects of muscle tone, the benefits of muscle go far beyond appearance. In fact, muscle plays a crucial role in various aspects of our health, including metabolic health and physical function, including pelvic floor function.

How 💪 MUSCLE 💪 maintains health:

• Bone Health: this is especially important for women, as they are at a higher risk of osteoporosis.When you lift weights it creates stress on your bones. This stress stimulates bone cells responsible for building new bone tissue. Over time, this process can lead to an increase in bone density.
• Strength training stimulates release of growth hormone and testosterone which have a role in bone remodeling
• Strength training increases calcium retention for stronger, denser bones
• Balance and Fall Prevention: Strong muscles, particularly in the lower body, help improve balance & stability, reducing the risk of falls and fractures.
• Functional Independence: Adequate muscle mass and strength is crucial for performing daily activities such as walking, climbing stairs, and carrying groceries.
• Joint Health: Strong muscles support & protect joints.
• Creating strength of the surrounding muscles helps to take load off of that painful joint!
• Metabolic Health: Do you think that metabolism slows with aging? Or could it be decline in muscle mass slowing your metabolism? Muscle has insulin receptors that improve insulin sensitivity for better blood sugar control and metabolic health.

💪 Muscle 💪 and YOUR Pelvic Floor:

• Pelvic Organ Support: If you’re losing muscle mass in general, you’ll be losing mass and strength of the pelvic floor too. This can lead to a myriad of pelvic floor specific symptoms.
• Pelvis Support: The pelvic floor works with surrounding muscles of the inner thighs, glutes, core, and hip rotators. Weakness of these muscles will affect the pelvis and create a downstream effect of impaired function in the body.
• Ex: core weakness will affect posture 👉 poor posture affects the diaphragm function 👉  poor diaphragm expansion in all directions impairs the ability to work WITH the pelvic floor 👉  pelvic floor issues
• Evidence shows increased lumbar flattening (a.k.a rounded upper back) correlated with pelvic organ prolapse
• Kinetic chain: Strong muscles and stability from the foot to the hip help with balance & fall prevention.
• Weak hips can allow the hips and knees to roll in toward midline, this can overly lengthen the inner thighs creating tension across the pelvic floor.
• Imagine your hips like the trees that support a hammock, if they’re not creating enough support the hammock (a.k.a your pelvic floor) will be impacted
• Tug of war: the glutes and pelvic floor compliment each other in a healthy game of tug of war to create support across the bony pelvis. But if the glutes are weak, the pelvic floor can win that tug of war, creating issues of impaired pressure control and support across the pelvic floor and bony pelvis.

As you can see, strength training has far reaching benefits for your overall wellness across the spectrum, including your pelvic floor.

Found this blog post useful? I'd love to hear from you! Send me a message and spread the word by sharing it with your friends!

Cheering you on ♥️
- Caroline Packard, DPT