Nutrition and Exercise: The power couple for Muscle Strength

How do you ensure that your body retains muscle strength as you age?

Are you surprised to hear that nutrition and exercise both play a role in gaining muscle strength?

Then you need to read on to know what I do to tackle the problem.

The Early Days….

When I was in my preteens, I was nearly stick thin. My sister used to tease me by calling me a cylinder!Those were the days when I used to eat as much as I can without a care in the world! But then came adulthood with a bang! Suddenly I am in the thirties and struggling with my weight. Before I realised it, nearly 10 kgs of extra weight crept up on me.

Realising the need of Lean Muscles

Some intense internet research made me realise that things are no longer as easy as before. Several physiological changes have made loosing weight an even bigger challenge. Just cutting down on the calories was not enough. I needed to build lean muscle strength which required a fine balance of nutrition as well the right form of exercise.

Muscle Strength and Protein Intake


Strong muscles require the intake of the right form of protein. Not only for muscles but proteins are composed of amino acids which play a huge role in cognitive performance, stress management, and brain function. Overall adequate protein intake is extremely important for overall health.

Check out these medical publications to know more about this topic.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK224629/
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/224958594_Brain_Responses_to_High-Protein_Diets
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26297940/


Protein rich food that I like to include in my diet


• Eggs: My egg allergy has subsided some what now and tolerance is increasing. So I try to have atleast one egg every day.
• Milk Protein in the form of fresh homemade curd, milk in my tea and cottage cheese.
• Fish: Being a bengali, fish is an intrinsic part of our diet which is one of the healthiest forms of protein.
• Chicken: I try to have chicken atleast twice a week.
• Lentils in the form of our daily staple, the humble dal is a must for me everyday. I try to eat at least one small bowl of dal everyday.
• Nuts like almonds, walnuts, pistacchio are a good protein rich snack.
My main aim is to include at least one portion of protein in each of my meals.
P.C www.pexels.com

Exercise for Muscle Strength


Together with the intake of right quantity of protein in our daily diet, its extremely important to follow a daily exercise regime. Make sure to choose a form of exercise that you enjoy. Because if you don’t enjoy the time you are spending on working-out, you will feel a lethargy . Sticking to a regime for a long time will be difficult then. For e.g, I don’t enjoy doing the traditional gym workouts. During such workouts, my brain is constantly thinking “ when will this end??”

My preferred form of Exercise

So I have chosen a combination of cardio on my treadmill for a while together with my daily one hour long power vinyasa yoga, which I absolutely love to do! During my yoga sessions, never for once does the thought of “ when will this end?? “ enter my mind.
 

Power vinyasa, is a fast paced powerful, energetic form of yoga in which you have to fluidly move from one pose to the next while connecting breaths to movement. I am left drenched after my daily one hour of yoga me- time. 6 months of this form of yoga on a more or less daily basis has helped me regain my muscle strength to a great extent. Sometimes I used leg weights of 1 kg each during my yoga session, which makes the workout even more invigorating.

I recently took an online muscle age test and I was elated!

See me taking the Muscle Age test
Muscle Strength

You can check your muscle age here .

I am taking my blog to the next level with Blogchatter’s #MyFriendAlexa.

34 Comments

  1. This is a very informative post. I was impressed reading about your daily routine of yoga and nutrition. You ae inspiration. I would love to know more about your yoga routine.

  2. Very interesting post. We rarely think about muscle strength in our daily mundane routine. Yoga surely has tremendous effects if done regularly

  3. Vinyasa with weights! Wow! That’s a unique form of yoga. At your age anything is possible….and its great you started young. Do make it a part of your lifestyle. My result of the test was pathetic. All the best to you.

  4. This is really informative. You have shared some excellent tips to help increase muscle strength. I am yet to take the test, not too positive about the results.

  5. Really liked your point on choosing a form of exercise that we love. I have found that gym is something I don’t enjoy so I have found other forms of exercises 🙂

  6. I took the muscle age test and was so thrilled with the reuslts because my muscle age is exactly half my actual age. Happy that the last 20 years of regular stremgth training workout helped. SO, I complete;y loved your pointers on fitness and nutrtion.

  7. Being consistent is the key and also following the plan 🙂 thanks for reinforcing the importance of protein intake

  8. Though I am aware about muscle strength, more so in my age. I being a senior citizen – a new entrant to the segment. 😛 I checked immediately and it’s in 20s… Thanks for the post.

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