If you have exercise but don’t have muscles, what’s the problem? Experts reveal three reasons

Health     8:48am, 16 August 2025

Although many people now have sports habits, you can see people full of sports in the park in the morning, but most of them are shook hands, slapping and walking. The three major sports problems, including irregular sports, low strength, and single projects, are one of the reasons why we aging prematurely.

1. Thinking about the latest "Sports Current Situation Survey" released by the Sports Department found that the legal population of sports in Taiwan is 33.6%. From age, the rate of regular sports among retirees over 65 years old is close to 60%, but only about two percent of middle-aged people from 30 to 65 who are still fighting in their careers have regular sports habits.

2. Low sports intensity

Taiwanese people have low sports intensity

Do you don't like sweating or panting. In terms of sports strength, it will sweat and breathe when choosing sports. As the age drops like a steep slope, about half of the 20-year-olds choose this sports strength, but people in their 50s found that almost one in every three (36.1%).

3. Sports partial eclipse

From the "Sports Current Situation Survey", the most common exercise that Taiwanese people do is walking and walking (55.2%), followed by jogging (21.6%), and the third one is mountain climbing (13.2%); the following items such as basketball and yoga have all fallen below 10%. Walking is a good exercise, but it cannot resist the ruthless loss of muscles.

He Li'an, a sports doctor at the Springfield University in the United States, believes that muscle strength training in middle-aged and elderly people is urgent, because muscle strength deterioration increases the difficulty of exercise, which reduces the intention to move, which also causes a decline in muscle strength. This is "a more and more serious malicious cycle once it starts. To prevent degeneration, sufficient stimulation strength must be effective."

After three months of retraining, you can feel muscle gain.

Some people say that the purpose of running is to nourish yourself, so you don’t need to be so tired, just be motivated and relaxed. Some people also say that the doctor says that knees are useless, so you should avoid exercising to the knees. Some people also say that they were injured when playing basketball in high school, so they couldn't stand their waists and couldn't move.

There are also many people who are afraid that their muscle strength will be so "strong" and will they suffer? In fact, muscle strength exercise is not just for bodybuilding players, sportsmen or the male protagonist in the action film. The middle-aged and elderly people are the ones who can benefit from muscle strength exercise. Many studies have proven that muscle strength can be built after three months of weight training.

However, muscle strength training after middle age requires more emphasis on functional muscle strength training than training that pursues fitness lines and explosive power. What is functional muscle strength? In fact, it is the muscle strength and endurance required for movement that we use every day, such as walking, squatting down to lift heavy objects, pushing heavy doors, or just standing up and sitting down from a chair. No matter how old you are, these training can help your daily activities, not just muscles that look majestic and have lines.

When training functional muscle strength, you usually use your own body to do free-hand training, which is less dependent on equipment and can avoid injuries. It not only avoids sports injuries, but also includes accidental injuries in daily life.

Eat protein to gain muscle. It is very important to gain muscle 24 hours after exercise.

Enhance your muscles to increase protein, but the more protein you eat, the better. If the protein intake exceeds 35% to 40% of the total heat, or if the protein intake exceeds 20 to 25 grams per time, it exceeds the upper limit of amino acids for liver function treatment, and the efficiency of protein synthesis will also begin to decrease.

So a better strategy is to have some fun after exercise, but the next three meals should be specially supplemented with sufficient protein and heat.

Protein quality is not only sufficient, but also important. In terms of muscle building effect, animal protein efficiency is higher, such as eggs, milk, qualities, chicken, etc., which are better than bean paste and tofu.

But this is also common if you don't get tired after exercise, especially when you run under heat. But even if you eat less, it is better than if you don’t eat. For example, drink a glass of iced chocolate milk, or take a juice and drink a glass of juice with tea leaves.

In the past, I thought that I should eat it immediately after exercise, otherwise the synthesis window will close and everything will be done in vain. I still need to eat it right away, but now I have found that the gold synthesis window is actually very open. In addition to eating protein and carbohydrates for the meal after exercise, I have to carefully replenish protein for the next 24 hours, which can help you grow muscles.

Which kind of exercise can really fight sarcopenia?

The American Society of Sports Medicine (ACSM) suggests the following suggestions for middle-aged and elderly people. You do not need to go to the gym or special equipment to start basic sports.

Resistance movement: that is, training muscle strength, including bare hands and the use of resistance sports equipment. If you have not done any resistance training, it is best to find a coach or ask for guidance at the beginning. Correct posture can prevent sports injuries. Sports types include bare hands and instrumental exercise.

Endurance exercise: It is a movement that can improve the heart rhythm and strengthen breathing. Through endurance exercise, oxygen can be efficiently sent to all parts of the body. Such as: riding bicycles or fixed indoor pedals, jogging, brisk walking, swimming or water sports.

Flexibility: It can help you become more flexible in your body, and it can also eliminate the fatigue caused by muscles and joints. Such as: stretch, taiyang, yoga, Pilates, etc.

Balanced Movement: Improve the ability to maintain balance can help you reduce the risk of falling. For example: standing on a single foot or standing with a foot, standing with a tip of a foot, etc..