Getting out of a chair shouldn’t be a struggle. Yet for many older adults, simple everyday movements like this become increasingly difficult as our muscles break down and weaken with age, a process called sarcopenia. The consequences build quietly: trouble climbing stairs, more hospital visits and, eventually, losing the ability to live independently.

The encouraging news is that you do not need long workouts or heavy training to push back. Even modest amounts of strength training can meaningfully preserve muscle and maintain your ability to move with confidence.

Being hospitalized or immobilized for short periods of time can have profound consequences for our muscles. During these short (around five days) and sometimes longer periods of inactivity and immobilization, we lose muscle and get weaker.

The bad news is that it’s hard to get that muscle and strength back, particularly as we age. Therefore, prevention is always better than a cure. However, sometimes accidents or illnesses just can’t be avoided. This is why we need to create a bit of a buffer or “muscle savings account.”

Here’s an uncomfortable truth: you will lose muscle during periods of immobilization, whether from illness, surgery or injury. The loss is inevitable. What’s not inevitable is whether you can afford that loss. If you’re already low on muscle mass, losing even a small amount can push you over the edge from independence to dependence. The same loss that barely affects someone with a larger amount of muscle can leave someone with less muscle unable to function independently.

This matters especially as we age, because older adults........

© The Conversation