Friday, August 08, 2025

Why do people say manual labor gets harder as you age, and what can you do to prepare for that?

 · 
Follow

Well, the data from science states that a person loses 3 to 5 percent of their muscle mass per decade after 30 years of age.

After 60 years old, the rate of muscle loss increases up to 8% per decade.

That is why you don’t see 70-year-olds gathering in Home Depot parking lots to look for day laborer jobs, or octogenarians on construction sites building houses.

Combine that with the fact that most of us accumulate injuries over a lifetime that can predispose a joint or muscle system to fail with exertion on the job-site. Then you have the risk of a possible on-the-job injury that isn’t good for the injured person nor the company she/he works for.

Now the older you get, the more you must exercise, but the caveat is not to try to exercise as you once may have in your younger days. There are plenty of resources online for exercising in an age-appropriate manner. My recommendation is to find a method of exercise you like that works for you and follow it religiously. (Eat well, rest well, exercise your brain goes without saying)

With that being said, we all know someone who is an aging outlier. The person who chops down trees and builds a log cabin or digs their backyard swimming pool by hand when they are 90 or some awesome age. In my experience, that person would be the exception to the more common rule of aging. You get old, you get weak and slow. So, protect the vitality that you have, preserve it and add to it wisely.

No comments: