Regain muscle

[shemesh]

58f workout daily with cardio and resistance training. Recently, I had a flu and then the next week a cold and not eating enough and not working out for two weeks, I had a sudden loss of muscle in my arms. At first, I thought it was my skin because now it’s floppy, but now I realize it is muscle loss. I have increased my protein intake this week and gotten back into my full routine and already feeling back to normal in strength and cardiovascular ability. To be fair, I was never as focused on upper body as lower, so I was not as strong. Maybe that’s why I lost muscle mass there. Now I am doing a lot more upper body and pushing myself in that regard. It’s fine and feels good. I have heard that at my age I may not regain lost muscle. Anybody have any words of wisdom and encouragement about building my arms back? I’m very disappointed in having these floppy arms that were not really like this only one month ago. Any recommendations for building my muscle mass back in my arms?

 

[lee]

@shemesh If you eat right and train hard I'll be astonished if you don't regain your lost muscle mass quickly.

 

[shemesh]

@lee Thank you!!

 

[teofrastus]

@shemesh I’ve read that it is harder to gain muscle, but not impossible. Articles stress eating a lot more protein as you get older and having protein spread out over your meals and after lifting weights to allow better use by your body. (But, I’m no expert on this).

 

[shemesh]

@teofrastus Allow better use?

 

[teofrastus]

@shemesh Read that your body can only use up to 30-40g of protein from each meal. So, it is best to spread out protein consumption over your day. Aldo, good to have some protein shortly after resistance training to give your muscles more protein for repair.

 

[shemesh]

@teofrastus Ohhhh, good to know!! Thank you!!

 

[anne_l]

@shemesh Were you bed ridden for any part of that? Muscles can atrophy at an alarming rate during an illness. However if not, muscle loss typically doesn’t occur until more than two weeks of not training. You may just be noticing a loss of glycogen/water. Either way, muscle will rebuild in a fraction of the time it took originally.

 

[shemesh]

@anne_l Also encouraging! Thank you! I think it might have been due to not enough protein, OR, I also had a weird allergy to a supplement. So I don’t know, but I’m already improving. Just hoping to get my arms back to normal or even better