David Gordon, MD is a primary care is a primary care physician at Inova 360° Concierge Medicine. As a board-certified family medicine physician, he brings more than two decades of clinical expertise to Inova. His experience spans a wide range of medical disciplines, with a special focus on managing chronic health conditions, mental health diagnoses and musculoskeletal injuries.
Getting older brings wisdom and experience – but it also brings quiet changes to your muscles. Starting around age 30, we slowly lose muscle mass and strength, and this loss speeds up after 60. When it becomes significant, doctors call it sarcopenia. Losing muscle makes everyday tasks harder: rising from a chair, climbing stairs, carrying groceries or catching yourself before a fall. The encouraging news is that this decline is not inevitable, and it is often reversible. The single most powerful tool we have is strength training.
Strength training (also called resistance training) simply means asking your muscles to work against a force. That force can be dumbbells, weight machines, resistance bands, water, or even your own body weight through movements like squats, wall push-ups or standing up from a chair. You do not need a gym membership or fancy equipment to begin.
Strength training does far more than build muscle. Research shows it can:
Remarkably, even frail adults who begin very weak can make meaningful gains – some have been able to trade a wheelchair or walker for greater independence.
Health guidelines recommend that older adults do muscle-strengthening activities working all the major muscle groups on at least two days per week and ideally add balance exercises three or more days per week.
A reasonable starting plan:
It is never too late to start. Whether you are 55 or 95, building strength a couple of times each week is one of the best investments you can make in staying active, steady and independent for years to come.
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Dr. Gordon - you will be happy to know I've started strength training after seeing you for an annual check-up last summer. This has turned out to be fantastic advice. Hopefully you will see the results on my next check-up, which I had to postpone over the summer.