As longevity science has entered the wellness zeitgeist, experts have worked to popularize the idea of healthspan over lifespan—the number of years you thrive, not just survive. And when it comes to the components that drive long-term health, muscle plays an outsize role, Gabrielle Lyon, DO, a family medicine physician and author of Forever Strong and the forthcoming companion The Forever Strong PLAYBOOK, tells SELF. She coined the term musclespan, or the “length of time that you live with healthy skeletal muscle” (a.k.a. the kind you control to move your body), to encapsulate muscle’s longevity impact.
The idea reframes muscle as not just something that makes you look ripped or even allows you to perform more physical feats, but as a key element of aging well. It’s often overlooked that “if we don’t preserve our physical function, our quality of life becomes severely compromised” and risk for disability and disease go up, Nathan K. LeBrasseur, PhD, a professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Mayo Clinic who studies the biological processes that drive aging, tells SELF.
Indeed, a growing body of research ties muscle with life- and healthspan. Studies that have tracked adults for several years have consistently found that those with higher levels of muscular strength, as well as those who did weight training activities, were less likely to die within the follow-up period from any cause (including leading killers like heart disease and cancer) than their less-buff counterparts. As Dr. Lyon points out, the muscle-longevity connection even turns up in studies looking just at grip strength (which can be a proxy for overall strength).
It also seems to be extra-relevant for women. That may be because women tend to have less muscle than men at a baseline, which makes them more susceptible to dropping below a critical threshold, Dr. LeBrasseur points out. And they also face a “double hit” of both aging (which brings dips in muscle mass starting around age 40) and menopause, he says, which can accelerate muscle loss because of both hormone changes and their effects (like, for instance, insomnia or joint pain that may make you less active).
But the good news is, muscle can be built at basically any age, regardless of sex, so it’s always possible to pump up your strength. Read on to learn why muscle can influence longevity, plus how to measure and extend your personal musclespan.
Why having strong muscles can increase how long you live in good health
The most apparent reason, Dr. LeBrasseur says, is mobility: Any form of movement, whether it’s getting out of bed or running a marathon, hinges on functional muscle. While losing the ability to do major physical undertakings might not impinge on your longevity (even if it does sap some joy from your life), struggling to complete basic daily tasks can have a snowball effect that ups your risk for disease and death.
You’re more likely to fall and seriously injure yourself, Dr. Lyon points out, which “causes survivability to plummet.” Being less able to care for and nourish yourself also increases your chance of illness, just as being more sedentary lowers mental activity and lessens circulation, which can put you on a path to cognitive decline, Deborah M. Kado, MD, a board-certified internist and geriatrician, and co-director of the Stanford Longevity Center, tells SELF. Meanwhile, the movement necessary to build muscle both shunts blood to your brain and exercises its coordination abilities, Dr. Kado says, helping safeguard cognition.
Perhaps less evident, if just as important, are the many functions of muscle beyond keeping you upright and agile. For one, it’s a critical factor in metabolic health, serving as the biggest storage location in the body for glucose, Dr. LaBrasseur says. The more muscle you have, the better you can clear sugar from your blood—and the lower your odds of developing type 2 diabetes. At the same time, active muscle breaks down triglycerides (a type of cholesterol) for fuel, Dr. Lyon says, reducing the level in your blood. Taken together, these shifts power up your metabolism, in turn lowering your risk for heart disease.
Muscle is also “an endocrine organ,” Dr. Lyon says: When you contract it, it oozes proteins called myokines, which act like hormones, trickling throughout the body and signaling a variety of beneficial effects. Doctors suspect these agents, like brain-derived neurotrophic factor (which supports memory and learning) and interleukin-6 (which lessens inflammation), could explain how muscle-building seems to lend a hand to far-off organs.
And finally, robust skeletal muscle seems to function like body armor, Dr. Lyon says, making you more resilient in the face of intense physical stressors. For example, those with ample muscle seem to fare better during chemo and recover more easily from critical illness, Dr. LeBrasseur points out. By contrast, frailty—or a weak state of low muscle mass and limited mobility—can make you more vulnerable to negative health outcomes, like longer hospital stays, poor tolerance for medical interventions, and yep, premature death.
How to measure your personal musclespan
You can get a sense of your musclespan by assessing your strength. To gauge your lower extremity strength, Dr. LeBrasseur recommends a basic chair stand test: See how quickly you can stand and sit back down in a chair five times in a row—if you’re under age 40, you should be able to finish in fewer than 10 seconds (add a second for ages 40 to 70 and for each decade after that). And to assess your upper body strength, see how long you can dangle from a pull-up bar in a dead hang; 10 seconds is great for a beginner, and longer is better.
You could also get technical and test your grip strength with a device that you squeeze called a dynamometer; an average result is 40 to 50 kilograms (roughly 100 pounds) for men up to age 40, and 25 to 30 kilograms (about 65 pounds) for women in that age bracket, and it ticks down by a few kilograms per decade beyond that.
Another simple barometer is how you feel physically while going about the movements of your day, Dr. LeBrasseur points out: Is it a struggle to stand from a low chair? Are you breath-y going up a flight of stairs? Do you feel sapped of energy when doing activities that used to be no problem? These are all signs of a lacking musclespan, whereas not noticing any difficulties in everyday tasks suggests a stronger trajectory.
What you shouldn’t use to quantify musclespan is how you look physically or the number on the scale, Dr. LeBrasseur says. Muscle gains (or losses, for that matter) aren’t always visible in the mirror, and body weight fluctuations can’t tell you much about muscle either.
How to start increasing your musclespan if strength training is new to you
Like your lifespan or healthspan, your musclespan can shift: A consistent strength training routine will stretch it, whereas neglecting this kind of exercise can shrink it. Muscle is use-it-or-lose-it, so sticking with training really matters, Dr. Kado says. That’s why, if you’re just diving into resistance work, she emphasizes finding a version of it that piques your interest, so it doesn’t feel like drudgery to do it two times a week. (Ideally, you’re also doing some cardio, and you sandwich the strength work in between.)
There are a bunch of flavors to choose from, Dr. LeBrasseur points out, including beginner-friendly bodyweight circuits and dumbbell or kettlebell routines. Dr. Lyon suggests starting by training a few simple movements (like a push-up, pull-up, and squat) and then moving into workouts with resistance bands and free weights when you feel solid.
Once you embrace the weights, start with 12 to 15 reps per set and two sets of each exercise, and move to three sets when you feel capable. The key to choosing the right starting weight is to find one that challenges you but still allows you to retain your form. By the end of the set, you should feel like you have one to reps in reserve, max, Dr. Lyon says. (If you could do even more, go for a heavier weight.) She finds that women often sell themselves short in this department. “They’ll say, I have to go light, I’ve never lifted before,” she says. “But the reality is, women have been lifting weights their whole lives—lifting their children, lifting luggage and bags. You can always lift more than you think.”
As you ramp up your strength work, you’ll also want to pay extra attention to two other things: protein intake, which you should ratchet up (Dr. Lyon recommends no less than 100 grams a day) to build muscle mass; and sleep, which is essential for your muscles to recover from the additional strain, and bounce back stronger.
Related:
- 5 Simple Tests That Can Tell You About Your Longevity
- Why 30 Isn’t Too Young to Start Thinking About—And Preparing for—Menopause
- The Surprising Strength Workout Linked to Better Brain Function, According to a Neuroscientist
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