Staying active as you get older might help keep your leg strength from decreasing as quickly.

In older adults, how fast muscles can generate power matters more for staying steady on your feet and avoiding falls than how strong or big the muscles are — and it drops faster as you age.

Regular physical activity that keeps energy use high may help maintain a higher resting metabolic rate and lower the risk of losing metabolic function and gaining weight as people age.

As people get older, their muscles lose power — but how that happens changes over time. Younger adults mostly lose strength, while older adults lose both strength and speed, meaning different things go wrong in the body as we age.