Another reason for oldies to hit the gym.

The Real Fitness Nerd has long espoused the benefits of anaerobic activity for seniors. Now, a team of doctors and scientists across the pond at the University of Nottingham (as in sheriff of) have discovered new evidence as to why this is a good idea.

Researchers have already shown that when older people eat, they cannot make muscle as fast as the young. Now they've found that the suppression of muscle breakdown, which also happens during feeding, is blunted with age.

These results may explain the ongoing loss of muscle in older people: when they eat they don't build enough muscle with the protein in food; also, the insulin (a hormone released during a meal) fails to shut down the muscle breakdown that rises between meals and overnight. Normally, in young people, insulin acts to slow muscle breakdown. Common to these problems may be a failure to deliver nutrients and hormones to muscle because of a poorer blood supply.

So when you're old, your body breaks down muscle continually, which is a bummer. But before you give it all up and report to the Carousel, the researchers also figured out that pumping iron promotes blood flow, which promotes the delivery of nutrients around your system, which seems to stave off this insulin problem.

"In the course of our tests, we also noticed that the blood flow in the leg was greater in the younger people than the older ones," added Professor Rennie. "This set us thinking: maybe the rate of supply of nutrients and hormones is lower in the older people? This could explain the wasting we see."

Following this up led Beth Phillips, a PhD student working with Professor Rennie, to win the Blue Riband Award for work she presented at the summer meeting of The Physiological Society in Dublin. In her research Beth confirmed the blunting effect of age on leg blood flow after feeding, with and without exercise. The team predicted that weight training would reduce this blunting. "Indeed, she found that three sessions a week over 20 weeks 'rejuvenated' the leg blood flow responses of the older people. They became identical to those in the young," said Professor Rennie.

"I am extremely pleased with progress," he said. "Our team is making good headway in finding more and more out about what causes the loss of muscle with age. It looks like we have good clues about how to lessen it with weight training and possibly other ways to increase blood flow."

So like I always say, "Drop and give me 20, Grandma!"

(By the way, "Carousel" was a hardcore scifi reference. Don't feel bad if you missed it. It just means I'm a bigger nerd then you are.)