YoIt is known that we lose muscle mass with age. It decreases between 3% and 8% per decade, starting at age 30, and approximately 15% after age 50. This loss, called “sarcopenia,” It is associated with a lower capacity of the central nervous system to mobilize muscle mass. All of this leads to a reduction in muscle strength called “dynapenia”, which can cause functional limitations, apart from any neurological or muscular disease. Lesser known, children can also be affected. This is pediatric dynapenia.
“The quadriceps muscle strength of young people aged 10 to 16 has decreased by 25% since 1990”according to Sébastien Ratel, researcher and professor at the University of Clermont-Auvergne. To establish this surprising observation, he draws on data from several studies, mentioned in an article published in February in theEuropean Journal of Applied Physiology.
He himself observed it on the ground: “I regularly measure the muscle strength of young people in my laboratory, at the level of the quadriceps, and in recent years I have noticed a drop of around 20%…”explains the researcher. “This generation appears to be as vulnerable as older adults to the inevitable consequences of decline. muscular and neuromuscular dysfunction »according to the study.
The health consequences are harmful. “The state of the muscles is an important determinant of the state of health of people”recalls the Institute of Myology of Paris, which wants to make muscle a “major public health problem”. A 2019 study (Henriksson et al.), conducted among 1.2 million participants, showed that muscle weakness in hand grip and knee extension during adolescence was associated with disabilities observed thirty years later.
Sedentary lifestyle gains ground
But the good news is that this trend can be reversed, as highlighted by the study coordinated by Sébastien Ratel and Brazilian professor Ronei Pinto. A muscle strengthening program was carried out in a dozen Brazilian children, with an average age of 13 years, who are at risk of suffering from pediatric dynapenia. At a rate of two sessions per week for three months, The training allowed them to increase their strength level by 16% and, therefore, combat this phenomenon.
The American researcher Avery Faigenbaum also warned, in 2022, about the few activities of this type that young people practice. “The ideal is to combine aerobic work and muscle strengthening, such as cycling and running [à deux, l’un fait du vélo, l’autre court, et on inverse les rôles tous les kilomètres] or offer orientation courses in natural environments. And, to strengthen the muscles, explains Sébastien RatelIt is not about going to a weight room, but rather mixing push-ups, squats, pull-ups and exercises with elastic bands, dumbbells, etc. »
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