Maybe with older adults the baseline goal should be to merely maintain or slow the loss of the muscle, mobility, and cardiovascular capacity they already have? It's not realistic for a 50 year old to think they could build muscle year-after-year for the next 30 years.

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vidarh 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

For the next 30 years, probably not, but mostly because you can get really strong really quickly, as most adults are really weak.

It's not that unusual for people to pick up e.g. powerlifting past 50 and still get to levels well beyond what most younger adults can lift.

I'm 51, and recently back into powerlifting after many years out of it, and I certainly expect to build back muscle and improving week over week for many years before I can't stem the decline any more, as long as avoid injury or health issues that takes me out of the gym - avoiding time off exercise is the biggest challenge with getting older.

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username135 6 hours ago | parent [-]

The time off from exercise is not a bad thing; even when forced due to holidays and being sick, life et al. As we age, we need more of that rest time. For those of us on the back 9, its critical to avoid those injuries because they set us back.

	▲	vidarh 4 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Rest time of a couple of days is good. I'm not talking about that. But more than a week and you'll typically need to deload to avoid DOMS. More than a few weeks and it will start taking significant time to work back up, and a lot of injuries happens because people try to rush that recovery and add even more time to that. If you regularly lose weeks at higher age, it quickly becomes tricky to avoid tipping over into lasting decline.
	▲	bluGill 6 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		The only problem with time off is it breaks habits. a couple days off and suddenly you haven't done anything for months.

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bitexploder 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

However, if you are a male and age 50 you can definitely expect to still build muscle up to 60 if you are diligent with your strength training. You can maintain mass 60-70. You do need a little more protein. I collected as much proven data and studies on this as I could: https://stealthgoat.com/building-muscle.html