The Longevity Organ: Why Muscle Maybe One of Your Most Important Investments in Aging Well

Stronger Longer Library Guide #003

The Stronger Longer Library is a collection of evidence-based guides created to help adults 45+ build the strength, confidence, balance, and resilience needed to remain active, independent, and healthy throughout life. Every article combines current research with practical, real-world strategies you can use to move better, feel stronger, and continue doing the things you need, want, and love for years to come.

By Jackie Bachmeier, FAS, IMS

Why Muscle May Be One of Your Most Important Investments in Aging Well

There is an organ in your body that plays a role in how well you manage blood sugar, how strong and capable you remain, how well you recover from illness or injury, and how much physical reserve you may carry into the decades ahead.

And chances are, you don't think of it as an organ at all.

It's your muscle.

For years, we've thought about muscle primarily in terms of strength, appearance, or athletic performance. But research has dramatically expanded our understanding of skeletal muscle.

Muscle isn't simply attached to your bones waiting for you to move.

It's metabolically active tissue. It plays an important role in glucose metabolism. And when muscle contracts during exercise, it releases signaling molecules called myokines that communicate with other tissues and organs throughout the body.

Researchers now describe skeletal muscle as a secretory organ.

That's why we think it deserves another name:

Your longevity organ.

Not because muscle can guarantee a longer life. It can't.

But because maintaining muscle and strength can influence so many of the things that determine how well we're able to live the years we have.

This Isn't Just a Conversation for Your 70s

One of the biggest mistakes we can make is waiting until we feel weaker to start thinking about strength.

At 45 or 50, you may still be working full time, traveling, hiking, playing pickleball or golf, raising children, helping with grandchildren, managing a household, caring for aging parents or doing several of those things at once.

You may not feel “older” at all.

Good. This is exactly when the conversation should begin.

Changes in muscle don't suddenly appear on a particular birthday. They develop over time and can be influenced by inactivity, illness, injury, nutrition and extended periods when we're simply asking less of our bodies.

That means what you do in your 40s and 50s matters.

You don't have to wait until you've lost strength to start protecting it.

What Will 75 Look Like for You?

When you're 45 or 50, you probably don't spend much time imagining yourself at 75.

But if your parents are now in their 70s or 80s, you may be getting your first real window into what later life can look like.

For some, that means watching a parent slow down. Walking becomes harder. Strength declines. Travel changes. Everyday activities require more effort.

But that's not the only picture of aging we're seeing.

Today, adults in their 70s and 80s are hiking, strength training, traveling, playing pickleball, working, volunteering, caring for grandchildren and continuing to challenge themselves physically in ways previous generations may not have considered possible—or even necessary.

We're learning more about the factors that influence healthspan not simply how long we live, but how long we remain healthy, capable and engaged in life.

There are no guarantees. Genetics, illness, injury, environment and circumstances all matter.

But many aspects of how we age are also influenced by things we can do something about.

And muscle is one of them.

So perhaps the question at 45 isn't:

“Why should I worry about being 75?”

It's:

“What do I want 75 to look like—and what am I doing now to give myself the best opportunity to get there?”

Muscle Does Far More Than Move You

Obviously, muscle allows you to lift a suitcase, climb a hill, get out of a kayak, swing a golf club, pick up a grandchild or stand up from the floor.

But that's only part of its job.

Healthy skeletal muscle also plays an important role in:

Metabolic health. Skeletal muscle is a major site for glucose uptake and utilization, making it important to metabolic health and insulin sensitivity.

Bone health. Muscle and bone work together, and appropriately prescribed resistance and impact training can provide the mechanical stimulus that helps support bone health.

Recovery and resilience. Muscle provides physical reserve that becomes particularly valuable during periods of illness, injury, surgery or inactivity.

Whole-body communication. Working muscle releases myokines—chemical messengers involved in communication between muscle and other tissues, including the liver, pancreas, adipose tissue, bone and brain.

Physical capability. Strength and power help determine whether you can continue doing not only what you need to do, but what you want to do.

This is why we need to stop treating muscle as something that's only important to athletes or people who want to look muscular.

Muscle is health tissue.

Think of Muscle as a Reserve Account

Here's where longevity enters the conversation.

As we move through adulthood, muscle mass, strength and especially power can decline, particularly when we don't give our bodies a reason to maintain them.

Eventually, significant age-related loss of muscle mass and function can contribute to sarcopenia.

But we shouldn't wait for a diagnosis before we care.

Think instead about building a physical reserve account.

Every appropriately challenging strength-training session is a deposit.

You're building something you can use today while creating greater capacity to draw from later.

Imagine two people who are both 50.

One consistently strength trains, eats to support muscle, remains active and continues challenging their body.

The other doesn't.

The difference may not seem dramatic next year.

But we're not thinking only about next year.

We're thinking about 60.

And beyond.

The goal isn't to prevent aging.

It's to enter each decade with as much capacity as possible.

At EFW, we call that becoming Stronger Longer.

And If You're Starting at 65, 75 or 85?

Start.

One of the most encouraging things we know from exercise research is that older adults retain the ability to respond to resistance training. Resistance exercise can improve muscle strength, physical function and resilience even later in life.

You may not train or recover exactly as you did at 25.

You don't need to.

The goal is improvement from where you are today.

My own 84-year-old father began working with a trainer three times a week in early June. After a lifetime without a consistent exercise routine, no one expected an overnight transformation.

But he's working.

He's progressing.

And his trainer is already seeing change.

The body can still adapt when we give it an appropriate reason to do so.

Muscle and Bone: A Partnership Worth Protecting

Muscle becomes even more interesting when we talk about bone health.

One of the studies we've discussed frequently at EFW is the LIFTMOR trial.

Researchers studied postmenopausal women with low bone mass who participated in eight months of twice-weekly, 30-minute, supervised high-intensity resistance and impact training.

Compared with a low-intensity home exercise group, the women performing the supervised high-intensity program experienced superior improvements in lumbar-spine bone mineral density, femoral-neck bone measures, strength and measures of physical function.

That last part is important:

The training was supervised, progressive and performed by appropriately screened participants.

The takeaway from LIFTMOR isn't that everyone with osteoporosis should walk into a gym tomorrow and lift the heaviest weight possible.

It's that appropriately prescribed resistance training can be a powerful tool and that our bodies may be capable of considerably more adaptation than we've sometimes been led to believe.

We recently had a returning EFW member come back carrying information about osteoporosis and the LIFTMOR research she was given by her doctor.

I loved that.

Because she wasn't simply asking:

“What shouldn't I do?”

She has learned what she can do to influence her future.

That's the mindset we want more adults to have at 45, 55, 65 and beyond.

You Need to Give Your Body a Reason to Keep Muscle

Our bodies are remarkably efficient.

If we don't regularly ask our muscles to produce strength, there's little reason for the body to maintain more capacity than it needs.

Walking is wonderful.

Cardiovascular exercise matters.

Mobility matters.

Balance matters.

But none of them completely replaces progressive resistance training.

To maintain and build muscle, we need to challenge muscle.

That challenge should be appropriate for the individual and progress over time.

Then we need to support that work with adequate nutrition and recovery.

You don't have to train like a bodybuilder.

You do need to give your body a reason to remain strong.

5 Things You Can Do Now to Protect Your Longevity Organ

Understanding why muscle matters is useful.

Doing something with that information is what changes the trajectory.

1. Strength Train Consistently

Aim to make resistance training a regular part of your week.

Dumbbells, kettlebells, machines, resistance bands and body weight can all provide resistance. What's most important is that the exercise appropriately challenges you and progresses as you become stronger.

Walking and cardiovascular exercise provide tremendous health benefits, but they aren't substitutes for resistance training.

Muscle needs a reason to remain muscle.

2. Start Before You “Need” It

If you're 45, 50 or 55 and still feel strong, don't wait for something to become difficult before deciding strength matters.

Build the reserve now.

The goal isn't to reach 65 and begin repairing decades of neglect if you have the opportunity to begin investing at 45.

Start before you need it.

And if you're already 65, 75 or beyond?

Start where you are.

3. Make Protein a Priority

Exercise provides the stimulus for adaptation, but your body also needs the raw materials to maintain and repair muscle.

Protein becomes especially important as we get older because the muscle-building response to dietary protein can become less robust with age, a phenomenon commonly called anabolic resistance.

Rather than thinking about protein only at dinner, consider how you're distributing quality protein throughout your day.

Individual protein needs vary based on age, body size, activity level, health status and goals. Certain medical conditions can also affect appropriate protein intake, so individualized guidance may be necessary.

4. Train for Strength but Don't Forget Power

Strength is your ability to produce force.

Power is your ability to produce it quickly.

Getting out of a chair, climbing stairs, catching yourself after a stumble, swinging a golf club, reacting on a pickleball court or moving quickly across a busy street all require some degree of power.

Power tends to decline more rapidly with age than maximal strength, making appropriately programmed power training an important part of maintaining physical capability.

That doesn't mean everyone needs to jump or perform explosive Olympic lifts.

It means your training should eventually prepare you not only to produce force—but to use it when life requires it.

5. Pay Attention to More Than the Scale

Body weight alone tells you very little about physical capability.

Pay attention to the things that give you a broader picture of how you're aging:

Strength.

Lean mass and body composition.

Balance.

Movement quality.

Energy and recovery.

And, perhaps most importantly, your ability to perform the activities that matter to you.

Ask yourself:

What can I do today and what do I want to still be able to do 10, 20 or 30 years from now?

Then begin training for that future.

What Are You Training For?

At EFW, we don't train you to become good at the gym.

We train you for the life waiting outside of it.

Maybe you're training for a hiking trip next summer.

Maybe it's pickleball on Saturday.

Maybe you want to carry your own luggage through Europe.

Maybe you're thinking about your metabolic or bone health at 52 because you'd rather address it now than wait until there's a problem.

Maybe you want enough energy and strength to keep saying yes when opportunities arise.

Or maybe you're 75 and determined to keep doing everything you're doing today.

Those are all longevity goals.

The weights, squats, carries, pushes, pulls and power exercises are tools.

The real goal is capacity.

The Stronger Longer Takeaway

Muscle isn't just about how much you can lift.

It's active, adaptable tissue that influences how you move, how your body handles energy, how you support your bones, how you recover and how much physical reserve you carry into the decades ahead.

And unlike many aspects of aging, this is something you can influence.

Don't wait until you've lost strength to decide strength matters.

Build it. Protect it. Use it.

And give your future self as much capacity as possible.

That's what becoming Stronger Longer is all about.

Research Behind This Guide

Pedersen BK, Febbraio MA.Muscles, exercise and obesity: skeletal muscle as a secretory organ. Nature Reviews Endocrinology, 2012. This landmark review describes skeletal muscle as a secretory organ and explores myokines and communication between muscle and other organs.

Watson SL, Weeks BK, Weis LJ, et al.High-Intensity Resistance and Impact Training Improves Bone Mineral Density and Physical Function in Postmenopausal Women With Osteopenia and Osteoporosis: The LIFTMOR Randomized Controlled Trial. Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, 2018.

Fragala MS, Cadore EL, Dorgo S, et al.Resistance Training for Older Adults: Position Statement From the National Strength and Conditioning Association. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2019. The position statement reviews evidence supporting resistance training for maintaining and improving muscle strength, muscle mass, physical function and healthy aging.

Shailendra P, Baldock KL, Li LSK, et al.Resistance Training and Mortality Risk: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 2022. The analysis found resistance training was associated with lower all-cause, cardiovascular and cancer mortality risk.

Bauer J, Biolo G, Cederholm T, et al.Evidence-Based Recommendations for Optimal Dietary Protein Intake in Older People: A Position Paper From the PROT-AGE Study Group. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 2013. This paper examines protein needs, lean mass and physical function in aging adults.

About the Author

Jackie Bachmeier is the co-owner of Evolution Fitness & Wellness in Houston, Texas, where she and her husband, Jason, help adults 45+ build strength, improve mobility, and protect their independence through evidence-based functional fitness. Jackie is an Integrative Movement Specialist, Certified Functional Aging Specialist, and co-author of Stronger Longer and Optimal Longevity.

The Stronger Longer Promise

At Evolution Fitness & Wellness, we believe that growing older should never mean giving up the life you love.

Through evidence-based education, purposeful movement, and a supportive community, our mission is to help adults build the strength, confidence, and resilience to keep exploring, traveling, playing, working, and living life on their own terms.

Because stronger isn't just how you train. It's how you live.