Got Mass?

November 29, 2015 – 

Working with young athletes is so much fun. They never run out of energy, the neural pathways are crystal clear (the messages delivered from the brain to the exact nerves with lightning speed), almost immediate recovery, and the ability to develop force (strength) is near perfect … and then we age. No excuses, the body we are given does age and does change. Our decision-making, good or bad, affects the speed and intensity of that aging.

Working with seniors is so much fun. They are so smart from their years of experience, and the stories they have to share are great! When we get a little older the opportunity to exercise and get stronger and healthier, is truly appreciated. These are the people who genuinely realize the value of health and mobility. Adversely these bodies don’t recover as quickly, do run out of energy, and sometimes have difficulty sending the correct signals from the brain to the right muscles to make their bodies move in a certain way.

What happened? Well, it’s a mass problem. Now there is a hum-dinger of a homonym! Mass could be taken by my religious friends as a public celebration of the Eucharist in the Roman Catholic Church and some Protestant churches as well. Then there are my friends from up north in Massachusetts, Boston, Mass! Mass destruction refers to a unified body of chaos. And for the wordsmiths out there my guess is there are a plethora of other definitions. But for use in this article, mass is simply the density of an object or area. To be specific, muscle mass.

Here is a great example, lets use a family and say we grab their arms. Childrens mass, grab the arm and squeeze the dense, firm, elastic skin…strongest. Parents mass, grab the arm and squeeze the fleshy, soft, stiff skin…stronger. Grandparents mass, grab the arm and squeeze a bony, mushy skin…strong.

Now this is not an attack on anyone in particular or on your family or mine, just an extreme example of aging and what can (this is the key term here) happen to the mass of our tissues. Skin becomes less elastic, muscle atrophyies (decreases in size or strength), bones become ridged and more pronounced due to less muscle or mass.
Remember our decision making, if we stopped exercise or chose a mode of activity that did not challenge the muscular system then the tissues that used to move our bones have lost their size and lost their strength. Go ahead; grab your upper arm and squeeze! How old are you? Got mass?

Well if you do way to go!!! If not then I think it’s high time you start getting your mass in shape.

In good health,

Bob

“The best advice I can give for keeping your brain healthy and young, is exercise.” – Donald Stuss, PhD.