Brian (1s):
Hello and welcome to the Get Lean and EATCLEAN podcast. My name is Brian Gryn. I'm a certified health coach, trainer and author, and this podcast is for middle aged men and women looking to optimize their health and get their bodies back to what it once was 10 to 15 years ago. I will give you simple, actionable items to get long term sustainable results. Thanks for listening and enjoy the show.
Brian (25s):
All right, Welcome to the Get Lean, Eat Clean podcast. My name is Brian Gryn. I hope you had a great weekend and I always been traveling a bit, had a family trip to Israel, so we're back. Hope if you're celebrating Easter. Hope you had a nice Easter or Passover as well. Hopefully had a chance to listen to my interview with Marcus Philly, performer, professional CrossFit athlete and the founder of Functional Bodybuilding. We got into his five ingredient meals, his keys to losing fat and maintaining muscle, the importance of recovery and daily walks and much, much more. So really a good one here. Episode 4 45, my, my interview with Marcus Philly. Now on today's micro podcast, we are gonna get into, sometimes we get back to the basics and today we're getting back to the basics With strength training, we're talk about the importance of it.
Brian (1m 14s):
How many times a week should you aim to do this? And if you haven't started, it's not too late. I would say that for myself, I've been strength training for the past probably 25 years. And when I started out, obviously complete beginner in high school. I think I was a junior in high school. I strength trained about three days a week at a small studio called Premier Fitness up in the northern suburbs of Chicago. And yeah, it just sort of got me into that habit and made me realize the importance of it. Not only just for an aesthetics, but for just everyday life and feeling good about myself, confidence, helping to maintain bone mass and things like that.
Brian (1m 57s):
You don't realize that when you first start, but now that I'm in my forties, I'm so grateful and happy that I started lifting at at a younger age. 'cause it is tougher to start when you get older. I mean, I see people get into weight training at fifties and sixties. There's nothing wrong with that. But you know, obviously building a base early on is, is truly important and does play a key role. You know, one thing that I talk about a lot on this show is that, you know, cardio can play a role, but you have to prioritize building muscle mass or maintaining muscle as we age, because statistics show that muscle mass decreases after the age of 50 at an annual rate of about one to 2%.
Brian (2m 37s):
So you think about that after, after 10 years of not lifting from 50 to 60, you could lose about 20% of your muscle mass within that timeframe. And then after the age of 60, this reduction increases to 3% per year. And then even after the age of 75, some individuals have lost approximately 50% of their muscle at mass. So it can really, it's this like sliding scale that can really, really increase as you age, the loss of muscle. And So we want to be aware of this, whether you're 30, 40, 50 or beyond, you know, it should be a top priority.
Brian (3m 18s):
You know, I'm gonna touch on here just about six or seven reasons why losing muscle is not good. Maybe this will give you a little wake up call if you're not lifting already. One of the health consequences of losing muscle is you are higher insulin resistant. So for every 10% increase in skeletal muscle mass, there's an 11 perc percent decrease in insulin resistance. So yes, building muscle is the best way to help improve your insulin sensitivity. Number two, losing muscle is gonna decrease your metabolic rate. You know, muscle is sort of that glucose tank, right? So I talk about adding in carbohydrates. Well that is one great way of helping to build and maintain muscle is obviously protein and having a quality carbohydrate source as well.
Brian (4m 7s):
This is a big one, especially as obviously we're getting past our fifties and sixties, is losing muscle. You have a higher susceptibility to falls and getting injured. And individuals with age-related muscle loss have a 58% higher risk of fractures. So I'll put references in the show notes if you wanna read, read on these studies a little bit more. You are also gonna lower your bone density. You're less independent as far as functionality to perform daily activities. There also could be an increased rate of cognitive decline, increased risk of cardiovascular disease. I think you get the point. So a muscle isn't just for strength and appearance, it's a powerful endocrine organ that increases your metabolic rate and improves how your body functions on a systematic level and just on functional daily tasks.
Brian (4m 56s):
The good news is there's a lot we can do with that. And even though humans, as I've said, are naturally inclined to lose muscle as we age, we are also incredibly capable of building it no matter the age. So if as long as we give our bodies the right tools and provide the proper stimulus, we can encourage a positive change in the right direction. So smart training's important. It's not about being perfect. I think a lot of it's just getting in there and doing it. This could be 20 minutes, three days a week. And I've talked about micro workouts before. If you haven't listened to any of my episodes on, on some of the micro workouts, definitely check those out. But you know, there's research that shows that muscle growth can even occur after the age of 90 with just smart strength training.
Brian (5m 39s):
So I guess what I'm saying is you don't need to be at the gym every day. Two to three focus sessions per week can make a huge difference. Gosh, probably close to 20 years. I was three days a week. And the main thing, everyone would ask me, well, what am I doing? I'm just being consistent. I think that's first and foremost the key. Yeah, so I think within those workouts, it's not like I was going crazy And you know, maxing out every time. And I think it's a matter of being smart, especially as we get older and making sure that we have quality recovery and sleep. But if you can get in the gym two to three times a week, even not in the gym, you could do it in your home and just do body weight exercises.
Brian (6m 19s):
But this is a, this is a smart and strategic way of lifting because you want to be in it for the long haul. And if you're doing it six days a week, I talked about this with Marcus Philly on my last podcast. You know, he started to straight, you know, coming from a CrossFit background, and we all know CrossFit athletes are very hardcore. He had to learn how to sort of tone it back a little bit, take a, instead of, he was doing five, six days a week in the gym. Now he used to four days a week. But those, those four days are a lot more aff, effective and efficient than trying to force out a couple extra days. So it's about being strategic, keeping things simple, And you know, just training smarter.
Brian (6m 60s):
So focus on sleep recovery, but consistency is really important. So that's all I want to touch on today. If you want some guidance in this area, feel free to Book a free 15 minute health breakthrough call with me and we can get you on your way to getting back in the gym, putting on some muscle, building, some quality sleep, managing stress, and much more. So have a great rest of the day and thanks so much for listening.
Brian (7m 24s):
Thanks for listening to the Get Lean Eat Clean Podcast. I understand there are millions of other podcasts out there and you've chosen to listen to mine and I appreciate that. Check out the show notes@briangrin.com for everything that was mentioned in this episode. Feel free to subscribe to the podcast and share it with a friend or family member that's looking to get their body back to what it once was. Thanks again and have a great day.
