McCall McPherson explains why muscle loss causes falls in older adults and how functional strength training like squats and overhead presses, combined with balance work, protects bone density and prevents injury.
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Loss of muscle strength is the primary cause of falls. Falls are the number one cause of injury related deaths in older adults. So both of those, again, just like you said, totally able to be influenced if we just do the proper things now.
Do the work. And here's the thing, if you are doing the work, then you're gonna have better bone density too. I look at bone density kind of like blood sugar, and it drives me nuts that we are still like looking at blood sugar and not looking at fasting insulin. I know you are looking at fasting insulin, but it's the same thing. Like blood sugar's a lagging indicator, bone mineral density is a lagging indicator. If your muscle mass is good, your bone mineral density, unless there's something really bizarre going on, is going to be good. And so it all goes together. If you're going to the gym, you're doing functional movement because you're training to get better at life, not train to get better at a leg extension machine. So you're doing the squats so you can get off the toilet, you're doing overhead presses so you can put stuff in an overhead compartment. Those things also require core. They require all this synchronicity between muscles and nerves talking, and they require balance.
