The Importance of Muscle Mass for Your Health
Muscle, the organ that does so much. How important is muscle mass? There’s a saying going around that we are not over-fat, we are under-muscled. What does that mean? Why is muscle mass so important? Why is everybody pushing for us to build more muscle? And what does building more muscle mean? It’s time we start focusing on what it does and how we can build more so that we can reap the benefits of muscle.
Muscle and Metabolism
Every pound of muscle mass we have on our body burns about ten calories at rest. So now you’re thinking, why is it so important for our metabolism? Well, that’s twice as many as every pound of fat on your body. So, one, it does increase your basal metabolic rate, which is what we burn at rest. But it does more than that. It’s more efficient and effective at using the calories you’re taking in. That’s really how it improves our metabolism.
Muscle and Insulin Sensitivity
Also, the more muscle tissue you have on your body, the easier it is for your body to stay in balance, you know, homeostasis. Having more muscle will help with that. Now, it also helps with insulin sensitivity. We all want to be more insulin sensitive because we know the opposite of that is insulin resistance, which leads to diabetes and all sorts of other health issues. So having more muscle improves our insulin sensitivity.
Muscle and Bone Health
It also will help with your bone health. We’re all kind of aware of how important having strong bones are, that we want good bone density so that we can lower our risk of osteoporosis. But we don’t all understand the mechanism of how muscle improves our bone density.
Muscle and Fall Prevention
As we age, another factor that we want to prevent are falls. Muscle mass helps prevent falls by giving us balance and stability, especially if we can accumulate some extra muscle in our legs and our core. We don’t want fractures. So bone density along with stability helps prevent us from getting fractures as we’re older because we know it’s harder for us to heal from that.
Muscle, Strength, and Mobility
Muscle mass is directly linked to physical strength and mobility. There’s no way around it. Without muscle, we lose that mobility and we lose that overall strength. So we need to have and focus on building this muscle mass. It also helps us age gracefully. Having strong muscles improves our posture, improves our balance, and improves our vitality as well as mobility.
Building Muscle at Home
Now that you understand the importance of muscle mass, how exactly do we build more muscle mass? Especially if we aren’t the gym-going type? Many will tell you, just suck it up and go to the gym for an hour or two a day. You’re not going to get that from me. If you enjoy the gym, go for it. That is one of the easiest ways to do it.
But there are plenty of other ways to build muscle right from the comfort of your own home. In order to build muscle, you need weight-bearing exercises or resistance-filled exercises. They will help put extra stress on that muscle so that it tears down the muscle tissue and builds it up stronger so that we can build more muscle tissue.
Ways to Build Muscle Mass
- YouTube Workouts – Search the type of exercise you want, use the term beginner if you are just starting out so it brings up ones suitable. There is such a variety you should be able to find something that works for your body and something you enjoy.
- Simple Walks – One scroll through YouTube. Now I know that’s not going to get you healthy, scrolling through YouTube, but what you’re going to do is you’re going to put in a keyword search of beginning exercises, maybe something you enjoy doing. Is it Zumba? Yoga? Pilates, something of that nature?
- Bodyweight Exercises –But a simple walk. Grab a couple of those half-liter water bottles; they’re a pound each. As you’re walking, do some arm exercises, like bicep curls and chest presses. That will help build some muscle slowly, especially if you’re a beginner and you haven’t exercised in years. Bodyweight exercises are incredible for building muscle.
- Yoga for Muscle Building – Yoga is one that I suggest to every beginner. It’s difficult. I’m not going to say yoga is easy, but there are lots of yoga classes out there that are about 15 minutes long that you never have to get on the floor. They will help you build muscle by contracting it.
- Kettlebell Workouts – If you can invest in a lightweight kettlebell, you can do high-intensity interval training (HIIT) with a very lightweight kettlebell pretty safely and get in a really good workout in 15 to 20 minutes. My thing is, I like to maximize my time. I don’t want to spend hours upon hours upon hours because I’m not trying to be a bodybuilder.
Wrapping Up
Muscle mass is crucial for our overall health. It impacts our metabolism, insulin sensitivity, bone health, fall prevention, strength, and mobility. Whether you prefer YouTube workouts, simple walks, bodyweight exercises, yoga, or kettlebell workouts, finding an exercise routine that you enjoy is key to building and maintaining muscle mass. So let’s stop being under-muscled and increase our muscle mass so that we can live a healthy, long, thriving life. Your health depends on the muscles you don’t have yet.