Muscle is Nature's Spanx, and we are not talking about Kim Kardasian.

Why do we keep on harping on strength training and protein intake?

Well what we know is, by and large, we are not lifting or eating enough nutrient dense food to sustain musculoskeletal health.

Let's try to explain it on a cellular level.

Bone is constantly being chewed up and regenerated. When we go through the aging process we have a significant decline of hormone levels. This causes the rate of resorption to increase (the process of breaking down old bone tissue) and the progression of bone production can not keep up with the rate of resorption.

So the overall net is bone loss.

Similarly, muscle is being regenerated constantly.

That is why the majority of muscle strains heal without the need of surgery. Your muscles are continuously getting chewed up, remodeled and realigned.

Now the decrease in hormones during aging (and particulary menopause) causes a decrease in satellite cells (responsible for the growth, maintenance and repair of muscle tissue). So now your muscles are getting chewed up at the same rate, but the rate of remodeling and realigning is decreased.

So the overall net is muscle loss.

So now we're looking at net bone AND muscle loss. Talk about a recipe for osteoporosis, broken hips and living in a nursing home.

• Strength train to stimulate bone formation.

• Proper protein intake to provide the building blocks for muscle growth.

• Turn the overall net loss to neutral, or even better:

• A NET POSITIVE!

  
  

If you don’t know where to start, Cape Concierge Physical Therapy is here for you. We offer Strength Training for all ages, Osteoporosis Prevention and treatment as well as Menopause Empowerment Program. We also offer Pharmaceutical Consultations to see if you HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy) or other options are right for you.