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After the age of 40, each year we lose 1/3 of a pound of muscle to fat.
The other truth is this:
Muscle burns 2.5 times as many calories as fat.
I know, I know...
So you can see what a slippery slope it is when we don't continue to build and maintain muscle.
When we don't build muscle, we usually put on more weight as we grow older. The worst thing is that the added weight causes all sorts of issues like knee, hip and back problems, not to mention diabetes. When we stop moving, because we are in pain or because we are unable to move, the slope unfortunately gets even slipperier.
Even at rest, muscle burns 2.5 times as many calories as fat.
There are many ways to build muscle but swimming is excellent because water is 12 times as dense as air. It's great resistance training. This makes swimming a far more effective way to tone muscles than any other cardio exercise on land.
Once we get over having to put on a bathing suit, and bear the 10 seconds it takes to adjust to the water temperature after plunging in, we can gradually add on more lengths each time we swim, until you start feeling like THIS.
Thank you to Sam at Team Sam Fitness for this week's inspiration.
( Sam is a cancer survivor and was hired along with me, to launch Nestle's new Boost product, Simply Complete.)
Thank you also to my mama for her inspiration. At 94 she is still strong enough to not sit on the toilet seat in public restrooms.
Every time she does it I'm amazed.
