I just returned from a five-day 1,500 mile motorcycle ride surrounded by mountains, canyons and desert, all at speeds averaging 85-90 mph. I started doing these rides, especially like this one to Southern Utah, 32 years ago. It was then that I came up with the five-day format that I have tended to follow ever since. Of course, I was 40 years old then where I’m 72 now…minor difference, right? I have been quite anxious for several months to see how this ride would feel to me after my significant weight loss and my five months of working out with increasing regularity. I had my trainer focus our sessions three times a week on upper body and core strength improvement with the thought that it would allow me to ride a longer and safer day with minimal discomfort. People who don’t ride do not necessarily understand that motorcycle riding, particularly the big heavy touring bikes that I prefer and riding across long western distances at speed, is a physically demanding activity. Wrangling a 700+ pound loaded machine on twisted and sometimes rugged mountain or desert roads can be a serious challenge under the best of conditions…and conditions are rarely always at their best. Road conditions, temperature, precipitation, visibility, traffic, wildlife and even the actions (purposeful or accidental) of fellow riders always seem to come into play at the least opportune moments. And that doesn’t even consider what it’s like balancing that top-heavy, fully-loaded monster when its standing still or needs to be moved ten feet to a different parking space. That’s when you really need that muscle and core strength.
I have consistently ridden several times per week since moving out here in 2020 and for the past nine months I’ve been doing a day ride for 4+ hours with my local gang, so its not like I’m not used to riding and managing the physics of the bike. What’s most different is the length of the day and the extreme focus required while riding in an unfamiliar and somewhat hostile environment. That is very wearying when the mileage builds and the day runs to six or seven hours or more. My destination for this trip, the Lodge at Red River Ranch, is 614 miles from this hilltop and Apple Maps tells me it is 9 hours away, implying about 70 mph. But traveling the most efficient path is not the motorcycling way. Our chosen paths were closer to 720 miles with a travel time of about 12 hours. That implies a speed of 60 mph, which is misleading because the more local roads and less limited access highway means you spend a good amount of your time traveling faster to keep up with stops, starts and small towns that make those paths more interesting, but less efficient. At the end of each day, I found myself, in a word…whipped. My arms and shoulders were tired. My upper back was stiff and my lower back was sore and weakened. And, my hands, from the accumulated “handlebar palsy” of putting pressure on the hypothenar area of the palm, compressing the ulnar and meridian nerves, caused finger numbness and grip weakness, that made fine motor skill functioning near impossible. When you are young, these are all minor and fleeting annoyances.
As we age, muscle mass declines in a predictable pattern, a process called sarcopenia. The trajectory is that most people begin losing muscle around age 30–35, at roughly 3–5% per decade. After 60, the rate accelerates, and after 70 it can reach 1–2% per year if unchecked. The reason this happens is a combination of declining anabolic hormones (testosterone, growth hormone, IGF-1), something called anabolic resistance wherein muscles becomes less responsive to protein intake and exercise stimulus, chronic low-grade inflammation (“inflammaging”) that promotes muscle deterioration, reduced satellite cell activity (the cells that repair and build muscle), and normal neuromuscular changes that causes motor neurons to die off, especially because fast-twitch (Type II) fibers atrophy faster than slow-twitch. What this all means functionally is that fast-twitch fiber loss really hits us hard since those are the fibers for power, speed, and the all-important catching yourself when you stumble. In other words, strength and power decline faster than endurance capacity. The good news is that sarcopenia is not destiny. Resistance training is the single most effective preventative as it can reverse significant muscle loss even in people in their 80s and 90s. The key variables start with protein intake since older adults need more protein per pound of bodyweight than younger people due to that anabolic resistance thing (1.6–2.2g/kg is the evidence-based range we should aspire to). You also need adequate leucine per meal (3–4g) to trigger mTOR and muscle protein synthesis. Leucine is an essential amino acid, one of the nine your body can’t synthesize on its own, so it must come from food. It’s the most potent amino acid for triggering muscle protein synthesis (MPS) as a direct signal to the mTOR pathway (the body’s anabolic switch…think of it as the master switch that decides whether a cell should grow, divide, or conserve resources). This makes leucine particularly important for muscle building and repair. And, of course, there’s the importance of sleep and muscle recovery since growth hormone is primarily secreted during deep sleep.
To summarize that trajectory for me, the blend of my age, my recent weight loss program (remember my BMI ranking still lists me as “Obese Level 1” and not yet merely “overweight” at this point, no matter how slender I feel), my attempts to keep protein levels up every day (very hard to do sufficiently, though I do try), my workout regime (much improved but with 72 years of disuse or abuse to overcome), and even my recent OT efforts for my weakened hands, have all left me with the realization that my physical strength has eclipsed my concern with weight loss. I will likely continue to lose weight because I really have changed my eating habits at this point. But exercise is anything but locked into my psyche. I still force myself to do strength training (less so with walking and gardening, which have become more imbedded in my routine)…but I’m beginning to wonder whether its helping. I meet with my trainer tomorrow and I plan to discuss the whole issue and how the ride has sent my hand weakness over the edge. The back and shoulders already feel recovered. The lower body was unfazed by the ride (no leg or hip cramping like in years gone by…thanks to my new skinnier legs). But these hands! I’m seeking out s neurologist to do an EMG/Nerve Conductivity Study to determine the nature of the nerve damage I have suffered as well as its severity to give me a roadmap to a corrective solution for my compressive nerve issues. The good news is that compressive neuropathies caught before permanent axonal damage (injury to the core electrical “wire” of a nerve fiber as opposed to damage to its insulating sheath) are often quite reversible with the right intervention. I’m not sure where that will leave my future riding (at least the five-day variety), but right now buttoning my shirt and safely using Q-tips are a higher priority. The one thing I suspect is that continuing strength training will help not hurt any and all aspects of my ongoing lifestyle…and may even help with my hand strength recovery…so I will hang in on the gym efforts.