Muscle loss in midlife is not a sentence to spend your sixties avoiding stairs. Here’s how to train, eat and spot changes worth discussing with your GP.
The shopping bags feel heavier. Getting off the floor involves a small negotiation. You can still walk for miles, but you’re less sure you could carry the suitcase upstairs.
After 45, it’s tempting to put that down to age and leave it there. Age matters, but so do the things you can change. The useful question isn’t whether you can look like you did at 25. It’s whether you can keep the strength that makes ordinary life easier.
Muscle loss isn’t triggered by a birthday. Bodies change with age, but being less active, eating too little and periods of illness can all contribute. A desk job can quietly remove the lifting, carrying and climbing that used to give your muscles a reason to stay strong.
There’s an important distinction between losing some gym performance and struggling with everyday tasks. Sarcopenia is the name used for a more significant loss of muscle and strength that can affect movement and independence. It is particularly relevant to frail older adults and people with some long-term conditions. Feeling less impressive at five-a-side is not, on its own, a diagnosis.
Your bathroom scales won’t tell the whole story, either. If your weight stays steady while your legs feel weaker, that change is still worth noticing. Pay attention to what you can do: rising from a chair, carrying shopping, climbing stairs and keeping your balance. These are not glamorous fitness tests. That is rather the point.
Nor should you assume testosterone is the explanation. Levels can decline gradually with age, but the NHS says that decline alone is unlikely to cause problems for most men. If reduced strength comes with symptoms such as low sex drive or persistent low mood, speak to your GP rather than diagnosing yourself from an advert.
Start with two days a week. UK physical activity guidance recommends strengthening work for all the major muscle groups on at least two days: legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders and arms. That applies whether you live in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. It does not require a gym membership or a heroic expression in the mirror.
For a straightforward session, choose a movement for your legs, one that involves pushing and one that involves pulling. You might use chair rises or squats, wall or worktop press-ups, and a resistance-band row. Add a hip movement, such as standing up with a light shopping bag held close to your body, if you can do it comfortably. A gym offers more options, but your muscles respond to the work, not the postcode.
The NHS suggests trying eight to 12 repetitions of an exercise as a set, aiming for at least two sets and building up gradually. Choose a version you can control. By the end of a set, another repetition should feel difficult; the first one should not feel like a medical emergency. If you have not exercised for some time, or you have a medical condition or concerns, speak to your GP before pushing the intensity.
You do not need to train like a bodybuilder. You do need to give your muscles a reason to stay.
Make the work a little more challenging as it becomes comfortable: a slightly stronger band, a more demanding press-up angle or a controlled extra repetition. Keep the movement steady rather than chasing a bigger number at the expense of form. If an exercise causes pain, don’t treat it as a character test; ask a qualified exercise professional or physiotherapist for help adapting it.
Keep walking, cycling or whatever gets you out of the chair. Adults are also advised to aim for 150 minutes of moderate activity a week, or 75 minutes of vigorous activity. Brisk walking is excellent for your heart, but it does not replace strengthening every major muscle group. You need both, and neither has to be perfect in week one.
Protein helps your body maintain and repair muscle, but it cannot do the lifting for you. The British Heart Foundation gives a general recommendation of around 0.75g of protein per kilogram of body weight each day for a healthy-weight adult. For a man weighing about 11 stone 11 pounds (75kg), that works out at roughly 55g a day. Your needs may differ with your health, activity and age, so treat that as a reference point, not a compulsory target.
An easier place to start is your meals. Have a protein-containing food regularly through the day: eggs or yoghurt at breakfast, beans or lentils at lunch, and fish, tofu or chicken at dinner, for example. If you have been eating poorly, losing weight without trying or recovering from illness, getting enough food matters as well as getting enough protein. A powder will not compensate for regularly skipping meals.
Protein shakes can be convenient if eating enough is difficult. For most men eating a varied diet, though, they are an optional food purchase, not a proven shortcut to stronger legs. More is not automatically better, and very high protein intakes may be unsuitable if you have kidney problems. If you have kidney disease, or want to make a substantial change to your intake, ask your GP or dietitian for individual advice.
The same scepticism belongs with hormone products marketed for midlife muscle. Testosterone treatment is for a diagnosed deficiency, assessed using symptoms and blood tests, not for an ordinary dip in gym performance. Spend your attention on training and meals before buying a solution in a tub.
Book a GP appointment if your weakness is new, persistent or getting worse, if you are falling, or if you are losing weight without intending to. Illness and long-term conditions can affect strength, and an assessment is more useful than guessing that it must be your age. If you develop sudden weakness, particularly on one side of the body, call 999.
An ordinary health check is useful, but don’t mistake it for a muscle assessment. In England, eligible adults aged 40 to 74 without certain pre-existing conditions should be invited for a free NHS Health Check every five years. It looks at risks such as heart disease and diabetes and gives you a chance to discuss physical activity; it does not diagnose sarcopenia.
That five-year programme is specific to England. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have different health services and checks, rather than the same automatic NHS Health Check invitation. Wherever you live, contact your GP practice about a concerning change in strength instead of waiting for a routine invitation. You can start building useful strength now, and ask for help when the change does not seem ordinary.
To slow muscle loss after 45, do strengthening exercises for your major muscle groups at least twice a week, build up gradually and eat regular meals containing protein. Keep up aerobic activity too. If weakness is worsening, affecting daily tasks or comes with unexplained weight loss, speak to your GP rather than blaming your birthday.
You lose muscle with age, but you can still build it at 50 and beyond. Here is what strength training does for you, how much you need and how to start.
Dieting and cardio alone can strip away muscle as well as fat. Here is why lifting weights is the underrated part of losing weight in midlife, and how to start.
Muscle doesn’t stay put in midlife. If you don’t use it, you lose it. Here’s how much strength training you actually need after 45, and how to start safely.
Weight-loss injections can reduce more than body fat. Here is what the evidence says about muscle loss, and how to protect your strength without living in a gym.
Newsletter
The best guides of the week — collected, without the noise, for anyone who likes to stay a step ahead.
