Heavy lifting is a good thing, especially for older women
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
Strength training -- it’s not just for muscle heads anymore. Of course, you knew that, because you’re up on all the research that shows strength training benefits everyone, right?
In case some of you haven’t been paying attention, older people especially need to hit the weights, as they gradually lose muscle mass and become more prone to falls.
A study published last month in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise found that while older women gained muscle strength after an eight-week strength-training program, they showed little improvement in muscle power, or how much force is generated in a given amount of time. The latter is indicative of having fewer fast-twitch muscle fibers, used for strength, speed and muscle power — in a practical application, those would be the muscle fibers engaged during sprinting, kicking a ball, or getting up and down from a chair.
The study included 49 inactive women, half young (18 to 33 years old) and half older (65 to 84 years old). Some of each group served as a control, not altering their normal routine. The training groups engaged in an eight-week strength-training program consisting of knee-extension exercises that concentrated on quadricep muscles, which support the body’s weight when climbing stairs, or getting up or down from a seated position. The women did the exercise at a normal speed to increase muscle strength, then again faster, to increase muscle power.
The younger and older women showed about a 12% increase in muscle strength, which Dain LaRoche, lead author and assistant professor of exercise science at the University of New Hampshire, calls ‘a huge benefit.’
But when it came to muscle power, the young women logged a 35% increase, while the older women had only a 9% increase. Part of that, according to the study, could be that the strength-training program didn’t provide enough stimulus to merit a greater increase.
But LaRoche believes other factors are in play as well: ‘With aging,’ he says, ‘you tend to lose the fast-twitch muscle fibers. And if you have less of them to begin with, you might get less adaptation...The lack of physical activity with aging plays a big role, too. If you think of activities older people tend to do, it’s walking, gardening — things that tend to be low-intensity that don’t use the fast-twitch muscle fibers. If you’re able to maintain some sort of strength training across your lifespan, you might prevent the loss of those fibers.’
LaRoche also notes that what some people think is adequate strength training might not be intense enough. For example, lifting lightweight dumbbells that don’t stress the muscles enough won’t do the trick. ‘People need to use resistance heavy enough to cause them to fatigue in eight to 12 repetitions,’ he says.
Having more powerful upper- and lower-body muscles, he adds, could prevent falls that can cause serious consequences in older people.
And lest we forget, LaRoche reminds us, ‘It’s never too late to start.’
-- Jeannine Stein
Photo credit: Sean Masterson