Muscle mass and strength usually peak in your early 30s, then drift downward for decades before falling faster in later life. The National Institute on Aging (NIA) calls this pattern sarcopenia.
The NIA notes that muscle typically reaches its peak at around 30 to 35 years of age. After that, muscle power and performance decline slowly and linearly, then faster after age 65 in women and 70 in men.
Cross-sectional research pins the pace down more concretely. In a quantitative review indexed on PubMed Central, researchers report a median loss of 4.7% of peak muscle mass per decade in men and 3.7% per decade in women.
Roughly what you lose each decade
The picture below is not a personal forecast. It is a summary of what the two anchor sources describe, and individual paths vary widely with activity, diet, illness and genetics.
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Age | Typical pattern of muscle mass |
|---|---|
30-35 | Peak muscle mass in most adults Also read: 7 everyday foods that may be raising your fat-level |
35 through mid-60s | Roughly 3.7% loss per decade in women and 4.7% per decade in men |
65 (women) / 70 (men) | Decline of muscle power picks up speed Also read: Want to maintain muscle strength as you age? New study points to creatine |
75 and older | 0.64-0.70% loss of muscle mass per year in women and 0.80-0.98% per year in men |
Strength shrinks even faster than mass. In the same review, strength at age 75 drops 3-4% per year in men and 2.5-3% per year in women, roughly 2 to 5 times faster than muscle tissue itself is lost.
The lever that pushes back
NIA-supported researchers at Tufts University have studied the effects of strength training for more than 40 years.
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Roger A. Fielding, associate director of the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts, describes the best recipe for improving physical function as a combination of walking and resistance training.
Group sessions in his studies use ankle weights, dumbbells and body-weight moves adapted to what each participant can manage.
The strongest early evidence came from a landmark trial in The New England Journal of Medicine. Progressive resistance training worked in frail nursing home residents with a mean age of about 87, counteracting muscle weakness in people well into their 90s.
A multi-nutrient supplement without exercise did not produce the same effect. The Harvard research on strength training and longevity later put a practical ceiling on the dose that seems to matter most for lifespan.
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Protein is the second lever
Food matters too. The PROT-AGE position paper, published by a European working group in 2013, recommends adults over 65 aim for at least 1.0 to 1.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight each day.
Older adults who exercise or live with acute or chronic illness are advised to aim higher, around 1.2 to 1.5 grams per kilogram.
For a 70-kilogram (154-pound) adult, that works out to roughly 84 to 105 grams per day.
People with severe kidney disease who are not on dialysis are an exception and may need to limit protein.
Our earlier piece on how much protein you actually need to build muscle walks through where the standard adult figure falls short for older adults.
Resistance training slows muscle loss and can rebuild some of what has already gone, but it does not stop the underlying trend. Talk with your doctor before starting a new program, especially if you have heart, joint or bone concerns.
How much should you exercise?
The CDC's activity guidelines for adults recommend muscle-strengthening activities on 2 or more days a week that work all major muscle groups, including legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders and arms.
This article is made and published by Ida-Marie Palm Varbæk, who may have used AI in the preparation.