What Do Muscles Really Do?

We all know muscles allow us to walk, run, jump and to breathe, but what else do they do?

What Do Muscles Really Do? (With a Program to Develop Your Muscle Mass)

We all know muscles allow us to walk, run, jump and to breathe, chew and swallow food, circulate our blood and empty our bowels and bladder. We were taught that in elementary school.

Dr. David Williams gives another take on muscle function and it doesn’t have anything to do with “traditional” concepts of muscle function.

“The amount of muscle tissue you have can actually help determine your ability to prevent disease, recover from illness, and live the longest life possible,” Dr. David Williams. 

The medical term is sarcopenia, a fancy way of saying muscle loss. It is very common as we get older and drug companies are scrambling to come up with a wonder-drug to “treat” sarcopenia. As you will see this is not a “drug” problem but a lifestyle issue.

Muscle tissue is very metabolically active and uses glucose (blood sugar) as its form of energy. Due to this fact alone, increasing muscle tissue is extremely important for diabetics to control blood sugar levels.

The rate of diabetes begins to increase around the same time muscle mass starts to decline.

Muscle tissue is the only place in the body where you can store amino acids and as we know amino acids are the building blocks of protein, they also have a crucial role in immune system function.

Amino acids such as glutamine, arginine and cysteine play a critical role in antibody production and detoxification. They are also important for the growth and integrity of the gastrointestinal lining and provide energy for lymphocytes, neutrophils and macrophages (immune system cells).

When you lose muscle mass your body loses its amino acid storage facility which will weaken your immune function. This is one of the primary reasons mortality rates are so much higher in the elderly and frail during epidemics.

Less muscle equates to more falls.

Falls are the leading cause of death due to injury in the elderly. 

*87% of all fractures in the elderly are caused by falls.
*40% never return to independent living.
*25% die within a year.

Here are just a few lifestyle tips to maintain and increase you muscle mass:

1. You do not have to become a body builder or lift weights to strengthen and tone muscles.

2. Resistance exercises are essential. These can be body weight exercises like squats, lunges, push-ups, pull-ups or dumbbell exercises, exercising with bands, free weights or machines.

3. A healthy diet is crucial with little to no refined carbohydrates and grains and plenty of fruits, vegetables, lean protein, nuts, seeds and Omega-3 eggs. Get more information at www.deflame.com.

4. Proper nutrition includes our foundation nutrition program with our Multi-nutrient supplement with essential fatty acids, magnesium, vitamin D and probiotics.

5. In addition, the best time to use a high quality whey protein supplement is 30-60 minutes before exercise and a scoop immediately after exercise. This will provide muscle tissue with energy during exercise (to prevent breakdown) and help the repair process after exercise. On days you do not exercise it can be taken anytime.

What a muscle building program may look like:

Diet:
Breakfast: Veggie omelet with fruit.
Mid-morning snack: String cheese, pumpkin seeds, fruit.
Lunch: Salad with avocado, veggie with a chicken breast.
Mid-afternoon snack: Nuts, fruit.
Dinner: Spinach salad, veggies, protein like beef, fish or turkey.

Supplement Program

Wellness Essentials (different formulas for men and women) – 1 pack per day.
Magnesium
Vitamin D – dosage depends on lab testing.
Probiotics – taken on an empty stomach.
Whey protein – 1 scoop 30-60 minutes before exercise, 1 scoop after exercise (within 30 minutes).
Before bed – casein protein (a slow digesting and absorbing protein that will supply your muscle with amino acids all night long). You may use a powdered protein supplement or food choices like a hard-boiled egg, cottage cheese or your favorite protein source like beef or chicken.

Exercise

Bands – Bands or tubing are inexpensive, last a long time and can be done at home.
With the band under your feet, handles in your hands:
1. Press your arms overhead.
2. Press arms overhead, keeping your arms straight, perform a squat.
3. With your arms at your side, raise both arms up to shoulder level (lateral raise).
4. With hands/arms in front of you pull the handles of the tubing up so your hands are near your shoulders (upright row).
5. Put the band around a pole, step forward until it is tense and perform flies (with your arms out to the side slowly pull your hands together until they touch in front of your chest) and reverse flies (turn around and with your hands in front of you, move them out to your sides).

Perform 3 sets of 15 repetitions for each exercise; it should take about 30 minutes. Perform 3 times per week.

Aerobic exercise – perform three times per week.
Walking, biking, swimming, cycling, elliptical or any other exercise you enjoy that raises your heart rate… with one twist – interval training.

Interval training is increasing your rate of speed for a short period of time to increase heart rate, fat burning and muscle mass. During your exercise session, increase your effort (can be an all-out effort if you are ready for that) for 30-60 seconds, then go back to your normal pace until you recover. Recovery here means you are not out of breath and can talk in full sentences. Perform 1-7 intervals.

A simple program.
The diet and fitness “experts” tend to complicate things, make it seem like it’s too hard, too confusing, and you can’t do it without their expensive help, it is really very simple.

Eat well, proper supplementation and get 30 minutes of daily exercise.

Try it for 30 days and let me know your thoughts.

Please do not stop or discontinue any medication, do not start an exercise program unless you have had a cardiovascular examination and your heart is healthy enough for strenuous exercise.