OT? Strength training for older people

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This has Macroeconomic impacts because one out of three people over age 65 fall every year, leading to millions of dollars in medical costs.

Many, if not most, METARs are in our senior years so this applies to us. It’s the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recently updated resistance training guidelines based on data from 137 systematic reviews with over 30,000 participants. That’s what I call BIG DATA!

Over the last decade, the science has become much clearer: resistance training is not just about building muscle, it is fundamental to healthspan, longevity, metabolic function, injury prevention, and long-term human durability.

Strength tends to decline gradually over time, but power declines much more rapidly, often beginning in the fourth and fifth decades of life. This has direct real-world implications. Power is defined by the speed of a move as well as its strength. Power is what allows you to catch yourself when you trip, climb stairs efficiently, react quickly, and maintain independence.

There are two types of voluntary muscles: slow-twitch and fast-twitch. A muscle with lots of slow-twitch cells can be strong because of slow resistance training. But it’s the fast-twitch cells that have to react quickly if you trip and begin to fall.

The new recommendations for older people include exercises that are fast, even explosive movements.

Regular resistance training should include performing body weight squats or lunges during daily routines, using stairs instead of elevators, incorporating short to medium strength sessions 2–3 times per week, and adding resistance bands or light dumbbells at home.

Power training can be safely incorporated using simple movements like faster sit-to-stands, step-ups, medicine ball throws, or even brisk walking with intentional acceleration. The point is to ACT FAST to train your fast-twitch cells (and also your nervous system). I have been doing fast sit-to-stands with two 5 pound weights which I push up into a shoulder press when I stand. I do 15 of these which raises my pulse to 145 bpm.

Increase weights as you get stronger but DO NOT train to failure (where you can’t do any more reps). The data says that training to failure can cause injury in older people. (BTDT myself – so don’t do it! Tendons take many months to heal.)

Wendy

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If you do physical therapy for muscle weakness this is what they teach you. Also medicare insurance often covers gym membership. A good way to keep active and maintain strength.

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It’s a reasonable review and position paper…..spoiled a little by the article author’s editorialising (maybe the headline isn’t her own?). I guess you always have to have “myths” to bust…..even if said myths weren’t widely held in the first place by anyone with .25 of a clue.

With regards to application of these revised guidelines towards the Chronologically Enriched…..especially those who’ve reached that status without any background in general exercise, are significantly deconditioned, and possibly have underlying physical compromises/medical issues (best to assume that if the other two states exist…..even though “healthy individuals” is mentioned)…..I’d quibble quite a bit with the myths that replace the alleged previous three.

The elderly, deconditioned, novice trainee should think twice before going it alone in getting started…….both from a perspective of injury avoidance and just place doing it right.

Even with an extensive background in exercise, the degree of deconditioning that a few weeks of non exercise and a few months of compromised movement from my foot surgery and aftermath….and the rehab necessary to start meaningful training….surprised me to no end. Gawd knows what it’d be like trying to get started as a committed Couchandrian.

Full disclosure…..I doubt I would be back to where I am without gym membership and a personal trainer guided programme. “Where I am” is nowhere near where I want….and probably need….to be.

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@VeeEnn if you think you were deconditioned from your foot surgery (which I understand was very painful and debilitating) try having part of your heart cut out and your lungs partially collapse from being surrounded by fluid. I’m only now beginning to feel more like myself again…even though I was able to do a wall-assisted hand stand after about 6 months.

250724_Wendy Handstand
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As for Couchandrians (I love that word)…they need exercise more than anyone. Data show that even 20 minutes per day of walking make a difference. Anyone should be able to do that safely, even if they have to use a walker. But 90% of people over age 60 don’t get that amount of exercise.

Good for you for getting a personal trainer! Maybe I should do that, too.

Wendy

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The interesting thing about the 20 minutes a day of walking is that, although it certainly can be shown to make a statistically significant difference over and above doing nothing……..at least, to the sets of data points researchers use…..that difference may not be enough for demonstrable gains in the health and fitness parameters that are of interest to individuals themselves. Primarily, I guess, because doing nothing….or next to nothing….for years/decades or more has so much nothingness to it that even “better than nothing” isn’t very much. Best analogy I can use is from personal finance. Cutting out a daily trip to Starbucks and putting the $20 or so a week into some savings vehicle is a good start to financial health……but not much if it’s against a background of serious credit card debt, zero savings and looming retirement (thinking back to the Olden Days on the Credit Card Fool board)

Additionally, to someone seriously deconditioned, non exercising/exercise-hating, novice trainee, 20 minutes is a lot. Not least because that first 15-20 minutes of work (warm up/cardiovascular shunt period) is the suckiest….and there oftentimes isn’t a walking speed slow enough to be sustainable.

Edit: …just off with dh for our 3 mile, 40 walk around the neighborhood. I’ll be back with a few more thoughts in a bit

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So, whenever I think about applied exercise physiology/training strategies, I’m as left brain as with anything else. I tend to divide the body and its response to training effects into systems and structures….without either one being more important than the other……your systems being cardio respiratory/cardiovascular (engine) and structures being neuromuscular/musculoskeletal (chassis) At any one time, either one (or both in your, my husband’s, and more recently my case) can be the primary limitation on optimal movement etc.

Back when I had my first lapiplasty (Oct 2021) my recovery was a bit quicker, I think, and by early Jan, I was on the treadmill doing my Road to Recovery. This was the Nordictrack plus incorporated iFit program we purchased after dh’s bio-Bentall procedure. The R2R (as it became known) was a 6 week walking program led by a well known marathon and ultrarunner who was coming back to health and fitness after his own brush with.death. Tommy Rivers Puzey is his name (AI overview has a reasonable explanation….his FB page more detail) Anyways, this little program was a series of walks in the Yucatan peninsula….each one no more than 10-12 minutes. About the most he could hack. Me too.

My compromise was purely structural at the time. The engine took a hit with the passage of time simply because of being unable physically to get the chassis to perform at a level that would maintain what I’d built (over decades) I remember bellyaching on the Running Fool board about the compromise to my progress that my lapiplasty had caused. A humbling and enlightening experience

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I’ve been doing CrossFit for about 20 years. Over that time, they have been doing studies/collecting data on “older athletes” because surprisingly the largest number of participants in their Online Qualifier competition is over 50*.

There has been 3 big takeaways from their articles over the years. 1 - muscle mass loss starts around 40 and it is primarily the fast twitch fibers that go first. Weight lifting can delay this loss. 2 - need way more protein than previously thought. Closer to 2gm/kg body weight where in the past was 1 gm/kg. 3 - to build muscle you have to go to fatigue (not failure and for some it’s a fine line). Doesn’t matter much if failure is from low weight/high reps or high weight/low reps, it is the fatigue that evokes signals for muscle growth.

*the reason for over 50 being the largest participant group on the Online Qualifier basically comes down to class participation. If you are working out in a class, the class as a whole does the competition. A little fun, a lot of sweat, and a way to measure your progress. FWIW, one year I posted a DFL score for a workout. DFL is Dead Freaking Last (the nice word version), not just class, not just nationally, globally. In my defense it required a gymnastics movement that I couldn’t do well.

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I don’t know how this will show, but it’s a short trailer advertising that first R2R series. It contains footage from his BC (before cancer) training programs as well as a few shots of the Yucatan mix….

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@JLC ….yes, WRT muscle loss ,the truck starts rumbling downhill towards the cliff at age 40, gains momentum thereafter and plunges over the edge mid-late 60s without the interventions you mention. Add injury or surgery (same thing as far as the body is concerned) after that and the climb back up is almost insurmountable.

I don’t think I could’ve hacked what Wendy has done because I’ve actually taken a hit to my motivation along with everything else….hence the gym and PT expense (or investment, depending upon how you look at it…..both my daughter’s instigation).

The protein/creatine supplementation is a relatively new addition too. Predates the surgery (so I can’t blame the struggle on that shortcoming)….but hitting the 1 gm/lb bodyweight is not that easy now my energy intake needs a bit more policing than when I was teaching upwards of 5 classes a week plus my own training a decade or so ago.

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I gave creatine a try several years ago. Not sure I was on it long enough to see results but definitely got the side effect of muscle cramps. No matter what else I did. The juice wasn’t worth the squeeze. Opted for peanut butter and almonds for snacks and extra protein.

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I just ordered some yesterday for the first time! But I didn’t know about this side effect. Maybe I’ll cancel the order before it even gets here.

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I take creatine without muscle cramps. Don’t cancel till you try it. Everyone is different. Also, different ingredients could cause different reactions. I order pure bulk crystal creatine, not pills.
Wendy

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Or you could check to see if it’s a recognised phenomenon with evidence to support it. From what I’ve seen….and from personal experience….there doesn’t seem to be.

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