Will Harlow

So you lose muscle mass over the age of 30 at about a rate of three to 8% per decade if you do nothing about it.

Yeah, yeah.

And you can see the fatty infiltrates inside the quads themselves as well, inside the muscle.

But have you seen the same cross-sectional studies with masters athletes?

They're still going into their 60s, 70s, 80s.

These guys have got muscle that looks very similar to many people in their 30s and 40s.

It's because they're using them all the time.

So they avoided these changes that we used to think were inevitable because they're using it, not losing it.

Yeah.

The simplest place would be to repeat it.

But if they're in pain or they got a really low score or they just couldn't do it, they had to use their hands, we might need to even wind it back a step further.

So from that position, which by the way, is where I find many of my patients when they first meet me, they often can't get out of a chair without help.

We might start with some seated exercises.

So just getting the quads going, add some weight to the ankles.

So you're getting the quads going like that.

You might get them in bed and doing a straight leg raise against a resistance band.

So non-weight bearing exercises, but still building up the quads.

Once you can,

get to that position where you can get in and out of a chair.

That's a great thing to practice.