Category Archives: Mobility

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Exercise Physiology, Strength, Weight/Fat loss, Mobility, Endurance

12 Reasons Why Older Adults Need To Do Resistance Training Exercise: Part 1

April 2, 2023 seanwilso 3 Comments

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What are they:

Increases longevity and improves quality of life
Helps manage hypertension and decreases heart disease
Enhances sleep quality and quantity
Prevents/treats type 2 diabetes & decreases inflammation
Prevents cognitive decline & neurodegenerative disease
Improves mental health
Enhances skeletal health
Maintains or increases lean body mass (muscle)
Increases strength, power, speed and physical function
Reduces body fat and help maintain body fat loss
Improves endurance performance
Reduces injury risk

Resistance or weight training is a critical component of training programs of most elite athletes irrespective of the sport. The benefits of resistance training – to increase maximal muscle strength and neuromuscular power – has long been recognised by most strength and conditioning experts, coaches and sport scientists as key to sporting performance. Logic would dictate therefore that if elite athletes are doing concurrent training to improve sport specific performance, masters athletes may also reap huge benefits too. There is now compelling evidence to suggest that resistance training can potentially augment athleticism of masters athletes well beyond that achieved by confining training to sports specific training. Furthermore, these significant benefits are not just limited to sprint, speed or power orientated sports but endurance performance may also be enhanced.

However, before I address the athletic performance benefits of resistance training for older athletes and functional enhancement such exercise has in older non-athletes (these will be outlined in part 2), I want to discuss the significant and sometimes life-changing health benefits that have been well documented in research conducted over the last 20 years. There is a great deal of data now to support the use of resistance training to help treat and manage a number of chronic diseases that become more prevalent as we get older. The following outlines 6 key reasons why resistance training exercise should be included in all programs of older athletes and exercise programs of older non-athletes.

strength training for over 50 — Resistance Training Reduces The Risk Of Death

Reduce the risk of death. Evidence continues to accumulate to show that skeletal muscle strength is strongly predictive of longevity. Maximum muscle force in men aged 20-80 is independently and inversely associated with all-cause mortality. Over the age of 60 years, all cause and cancer-associated mortality is twice as likely in individuals with low compared to high skeletal muscle strength. Older adults over 15 years who reported twice/weekly strength training had 46% lower odds of all-cause mortality than those who did not. Resistance training when performed regularly is one of the best methods to increase skeletal muscle strength (see links 1, 2, 3, 4). A recent assessment of the research that has been conducted in older adults showed that resistance training substantially improved health-related quality of life. In other words, resistance training and getting stronger has a direct impact on our perception of how meaningful, manageable and comprehensible life is, and as such, significantly greater promotion of this type of activity is warranted (see here).

Helps manage hypertension and decrease heart disease. High blood pressure can still affect masters athletes and resistance training when performed in conjunction with aerobic or endurance training has been shown to have a positive effect and reduce blood pressure. However, data to support resistance training as a stand alone practice is mixed with some studies suggesting improvement in systolic and diastolic blood pressure versus other research that has shown such exercise can increase arterial stiffness. Evidence tends to point to concurrent exercise (resistance training combined with aerobic exercise) as being the most effective for reducing the risk of heart disease (see links 1, 2, 3, 4).

Improves sleep quality and quantity. Problems with sleep are common with advancing years and occur in over half of adults age 65 and older. It has been estimated that insomnia affects about a third of the older population. The evidence to date suggests that poor sleep hygiene directly impacts and worsens many aspects of health including such things as mental health, obesity, heart disease, cognition, memory, executive function, metabolic disturbance and falls to name just a few.

Overall quality of life is thus dramatically reduced. Other factors associated with ageing, such as disease, changes in environment, or concurrent age-related processes also may contribute to problems of sleep. Sleep disturbance and long sleep duration, but not short sleep duration, have been shown to be associated with increases in markers of systemic inflammation. Research has shown that both sleep quality and quantity is improved with increased levels of exercise. Resistance training alone appears to positively impact sleep quality but more data is required to confirm that sleep quantity is equally improved (see links 1, 2, 3).

Prevent/treat type 2 diabetes & decrease inflammation. Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is one of the fastest growing non-communicable diseases worldwide and occurs much more frequently in those that are overweight and obese. However, impaired blood glucose metabolism, one of the hallmarks of T2DM, is an increasingly common problem in those that are not overweight and have relatively normal BMI. A poor and overindulgent diet – high in things like sugar, trans-fats, processed foods, junk foods and that are low in fish (omega-3 fatty acids), vegetables, fruit, fibre and high quality protein – combined with long-term sedentarism has been postulated as playing a leading causative role. Such a combination causes the development of chronic positive energy balance whereby excess energy disposal and adipose storage triggers a significant oxidative pro-inflammatory response referred to as metabolic inflammation.

In obesity, expanding adipose tissue attracts immune cells creating an inflammatory environment within this fatty acid storage organ. Skeletal muscle is the predominant site of insulin-mediated glucose uptake and insulin resistance is considered the primary defect that is evident years before the development of T2DM. Resistance training has consistently been shown to improve the ability of the skeletal muscles to take up and metabolise blood glucose (sugar) and is therefore an important strategy in managing T2DM. Finally, there is now scientific data to show that disorders that arise and are linked to inflammation (e.g. Insulin resistance, obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, chronic kidney disease, osteoarthritis, Alzheimer’s disease and many more), can be improved or mitigated with resistance training and exercise (see links 1, 2, 3, 4, 5).

strength training for over 50 female — Resistance Training Enhances Brain Health

Prevent cognitive decline & neurodegenerative disease Recent research has shown that long-term resistance training in older women promotes executive function, memory, reduced cortical white matter atrophy and increased peak muscle power. Such findings are very exciting as they suggest that exercise and resistance training can modify brain neuroplasticity and help improve brain function. The current thinking is that resistance and physical exercise represents a promising nonpharmaceutical intervention to prevent age-related cognitive decline and neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia and Alzheimers. There is some evidence that the mechanisms behind these alterations may be related to increased levels of Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and IGF-1. BDNF-induced neuroplasticity is speculated to be facilitated by physical exercise but conclusive evidence supporting this mechanism of action has not yet been established (see links 1, 2, 3, 4).

Improved mental health. There is substantial evidence to demonstrate that resistance training and exercise more generally has a very dramatic and potent effect on improving mental health and treating those that suffer from mental health disorders. For example, research has shown that high-intensity resistance training is more effective than low-intensity resistance training or standard care by a GP in the treatment of depression in older patients. Resistance exercise has also be shown to reduce anxiety, slow the progression of white matter lesions in older women, improve symptomatology and disease severity in severe mental illness and essentially improve overall quality of life and general mental health (see links 1, 2, 3).

To finish up I cannot emphasise enough just how important resistance training exercise is for all older adults including masters athletes. The reasons mentioned above are only some of the many that support resistance training exercise as an essential ingredient of a healthy lifestyle and confirm current recommendations for people to partake in a minimum of 2 resistance training sessions per week.

To read part 2 of “12 reasons why older adults need to do resistance training exercise” which discusses the performance-enhancing benefits for older athletes and the incredible functional improvements that can be achieved in older non-athletes, see here.

For local Townsville residents interested in FitGreyStrong’s Exercise Physiology services or exercise programs designed to achieve the above-mentioned benefits or to enhance athletic performance, contact FitGreyStrong@outlook.com or phone 0499 846 955 for a confidential discussion.

For other Australian residents or oversees readers interested in our services, please see here.

Disclaimer: All contents of the FitGreyStrong website/blog are provided for information and education purposes only. Those interested in making changes to their exercise, lifestyle, dietary, supplement or medication regimens should consult a relevantly qualified and competent health care professional. Those who decide to apply or implement any of the information, advice, and/or recommendations on this website do so knowingly and at their own risk. The owner and any contributors to this site accept no responsibility or liability whatsoever for any harm caused, real or imagined, from the use or distribution of information found at FitGreyStrong. Please leave this site immediately if you, the reader, find any of these conditions not acceptable.

© FitGreyStrong

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Exercise Physiology, Strength, Mobility, Exercises

Why we need to look beyond just traditional strength training exercises for older adults

August 21, 2021 seanwilso Leave a comment

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Exercise professionals involved with older adults pay a great deal of attention to the lower limb prime movers¹ and exercises² which will enhance the strength and power of these important muscles, and so we should. There are all sorts of ingenious ways to increase the strength, function and aesthetics of these muscles, just take a quick look at Instagram and you’ll see what I mean. The hip abductors are now recognised also, in both research and practice, as playing a pivotal role in hip and knee function influencing gait and postural stability, particularly in the medio-lateral plane. But what about the hip adductors? Are they a forgotten piece of the puzzle? Rarely do we see much attention paid to exercising these muscles of older adults in any sort of meaningful way³. This is interesting in and of itself and a curiosity, but the inference is that the adductor muscle group is not viewed as important enough to dedicate any time to specifically develop its neuromuscular capacity irrespective of some recent research that certainly suggests otherwise. There is now enough evidence to support the adductors being treated as a distinct target for improved muscle strength and power production. In fact, FGS would contend that this muscle group deserves the same degree of focus as the quads, GMax, hamstrings and hip abductors in any resistance training program for older adults given the following:

The adductor magnus (AM), the 3rd largest muscle can be considered as a primary antigravity muscle, like the GMax (Takizawa et al 2018).

Age-related hip adductor strength loss appears to be more pronounced compared to the knee extensors (Daun & Kibele, 2019).

Postural instability with ageing is especially problematic in the medio-lateral plane (Mille et al 2013).
Neuromuscular rate of activation of adductors (AM) is significantly lower in older versus younger adults for both forceful static muscular contractions (IMVC) and dynamic recovery following lateral balance perturbations (Inacio et al 2019).

Power-based resistance training of the hip adductors (and hip abductors) has been shown to elicit improvements in maximal neuromuscular performance and enhanced medio-lateral balance recovery. Traditional (slower tempo) performed resistance training did not result in significant improvements in isolated or balance-related neuromuscular or biomechanical performance (Inacio et al 2018).

Based on the abovementioned research, FitGreyStrong’s recommendation is to ensure that weight-bearing exercises that load and challenge the adductor muscle group (frontal plane) be included in resistance training programs of older adults. Moreover, it should be acknowledged that open kinetic chain seated machinesmay not provide the appropriate neuromuscular challenge to bring about improvements in medio-lateral balance and function (Daun & Kibele, 2019; Inacio et al 2018) however, further research is required⁴.

Footnotes:

1 Quads, GMax and hamstrings

2 Squats, deadlifts, glute bridges, hip thrusts, leg curls, sit-to-stands, step-ups etc

3 The same could be said for the hip flexors where age-related muscle mass and strength losses occur disproportionately compared to other major muscle groups and this obviously impairs physical function and gait potentially increasing the risk for falls.

4 Thanks to Rhys Manchester for pointing out some inconsistencies with these concluding remarks.

For local Townsville residents interested in FitGreyStrong’s specialised Exercise Physiology services or exercise programs for older adults or for Master’s competitors wanting to enhance athletic performance, contact FitGreyStrong@outlook.com or phone 0499 846 955 for a confidential discussion.

For other Australian residents or oversees readers interested in our services, please see here.

© FitGreyStrong

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Exercise Physiology, Strength, Weight/Fat loss, Nutrition, Mobility, Endurance, Exercises

Personalised programming with FGS

February 2, 2020 seanwilso Leave a comment

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If your goal is to improve your basic health and fitness, or build incredible strength and power, or enhance your overall athletic performance, or you simply want to look better then look no further. Personalised Programming with FitGreyStrong will design and deliver super effective regular monthly programs specifically tailored for YOU. Every 4 weeks customised workouts are delivered to help you reach your specific goals.

COST:

Please contact FitGreyStrong to discuss the fees regarding Personalised Programming.

You may cancel at anytime and all cancellations must be completed prior to your next billing date.

Please direct any questions to fitgreystrong@outlook.com for further information.

DISCLAIMER:

All contents of the FitGreyStrong website/blog are provided for information and education purposes only and the Personalised Programming with Mr FGS is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Those interested in making changes to their exercise, lifestyle, dietary, supplement or medication regimens should consult a relevantly qualified and competent health care professional. Those who decide to apply or implement the Personalised Programming or any of the information, advice, and/or recommendations on this website do so knowingly and at their own risk. If you think you are experiencing a medical emergency call you doctor or ambulance immediately. The owner and any contributors to this site accept no responsibility or liability whatsoever for any harm caused, real or imagined, from the use or distribution of information found at FitGreyStrong. Please leave this site immediately if you, the reader, find any of these conditions not acceptable.

As with all program, results may vary. Exercise alone has been shown to be relatively ineffective at inducing weight loss and diet remains critically important. It is advisable to consult your healthcare professional before beginning any lifestyle change or if anything arises that is of concern or relates to questions of a medical nature.

Please note: Discount coupon codes are not valid for this service.

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Strength, Weight/Fat loss, Nutrition, Mobility

Muscle strength gains during resistance exercise training are attenuated with soy compared with dairy or usual protein intake in older adults – part 1

January 5, 2020 seanwilso 2 Comments

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On a global scale, the number of people over 60 yr is expected to more than double from 841 million in 2012 to more than 2 billion by 2050. This change in demographics will have profound implications for many aspects of life (Thomson et al. 2016). Furthermore, Government bodies worldwide will be faced with considerable challenges related to ageing policy and how best to deal with this new reality.

ageing, loss of muscle mass, strength, sarcopenia — Courtesy @LeighBreen PhD (Twitter): Sarcopenia presentation

Of the many things that occur during the ageing process one of the most obvious signs is the loss of skeletal muscle mass and strength, with decrements in physical function and potential predisposition to disability. In academic speak, this is known as sarcopenia. The research and interest in this area has been gradually increasing as evidenced by the below graph that shows – since the term sacropenia was first coined in 1989 – a massive increase has occurred. To enhance functional physical capacity and reduce disability into older age, it is therefore critical to develop strategies that facilitate the attenuation of skeletal muscle mass and strength. With more than 30 years of scientific evidence to show that exercise – and, more specifically, resistance training – as both very effective and safe methods to maintain skeletal lean muscle tissue mass and strength (see here and here), current recommendations strongly advocate this form of exercise for older adults.

Interestingly, gains in skeletal lean muscle tissue and muscular strength may be potentiated through the application of appropriate nutritional strategies and in particular increased protein intake. A recent meta-analysis by Cermak and colleagues (2012) reported ~35% greater enhancement in muscle mass and strength can be achieved in older adults undertaking resistance training who consumed at least 1.2 g/kg of body weight/d of protein through supplementation or diet compared with other control groups that were either non-protein, lower protein diet or exercise training with no nutrition co-intervention. Thus, protein quality or source may further augment the effect of the resistance training stimulus by eliciting a greater stimulatory effect on muscle protein synthesis. Dairy protein compared to soy protein has been shown to be more effacacious post-exercise in stimulating increases in lean mass in young healthy males. In older adults though this response to resistance training and increased protein intake may be blunted which necessitates that higher doses of protein are required to bring about an increase.

The aim of the study under review for this article was to determine whether increased dairy or soy protein intake combined with resistance training improved strength gains in older adults.

Soy protein, strength, muscle mass, testosterone — Does Soy Protein Suppress Strength Gains?

Researchers recruited one hundred and ninety two older adults (age, 50-79 yr; BMI, 20-35 kg/m²) by public advertisement. Participation was allowed if they were physically active but not engaged in formal exercise. Those that meet the inclusion criteria undertook a resistance training program for 12 weeks. Randomisation to one of three experimental diets was performed:

High dairy protein diet (HP-D)
High non-dairy (soy) protein diet (HPeS)
Usual protein diet (UP).

DIET: Each diet was isocaloric and low-fat (30% fat, <8% saturated fat) and aimed to maintain energy balance. The diets provided ~1 g/kg of body weight/d of dietary protein, mainly from lean meat sources. HP-D including additional dairy protein of ~27 g per day in the form of a shake (475 g Devondale Smart reduced fat milk, 200 g Nestle Soleil diet no fat yoghurt & 20 ml Bickfords vanilla milk mix syrup). The HP-S providing in the form of a shake – 300 g So Good reduced fat soy milk, 100 g Kingland soy yoghurt, 20 g Nature’s Way instant natural protein powder & 15 g poly-joule – which added an extra ~27 g of soy protein. Protein intake was distribtuted evenly across the day with the three main meals providing >20 g per feed; this is consistent with best practice for optimising muscle protein synthesis in older adults. Following resistance training sessions participants consumed the appropriate additional foods immediately after training and that represented the main meal of that day. Participants were supplied with key foods specific to their allocated diet for the duration of the study to facilitate adherence. Energy and macronutrient intakes from daily food checklists were analysed to monitor food intake and dietary compliance.

Strength training and ageing — Resistance training: a key component of healthy ageing?

RESISTANCE TRAINING: All subjects participated in a whole body resistance training program three days per week on non-consecutive days for 12 weeks and the principles of progressive overload were applied. Five exercises on weight stack pin loaded machines were performed: leg press, chest press, knee extension, lat pull down and leg curl, and seated bent knee hip flexions. Trainees started with one set x 8 repetition maximum (RM; maximum weight lifted for eight repetitions), this was maintained until individuals could perform three sets of 12 repetitions and then the load was increased. This cycle was repeated again for the duration of the trial. Assessment of muscle strength, body composition, physical function and quality of life was conducted at baseline and 12 weeks. All exercise training was completed in the research gymnasium at the University of South Australia under the supervision of gymnasium staff.

Assessment of muscle strength using handgrip, isokinetic dynamometry and 8RM was completed. The leg press, chest press, knee extension, lat pull down and leg curl were tested with 8RM and a summed total 8RM for all exercises was recorded Dominant handgrip strength was measured using hydraulic handgrip dynamometer and isometric strength of the knee extensor muscles of the right leg was assessed using an isokinetic dynamometer.

resistance training slows down aging — You don’t have to lift weights to do resistance training

RESULTS: 83 participants completed the intervention being adherent to both diet and resistance training protocols. HP-D and HP-S had higher protein intakes compared with UP (HP-D 1.41 ± 0.14 g/kg/d, HP-S 1.42 ± 0.61 g/kg/d, UP 1.10 ± 0.10 g/kg/d; P < 0.001 treatment effect). Baseline characteristics, compliance with the intakes of the additional protein foods and adherence to the resistance training program in those that meet all relevant study protocols was not different between groups.

Increase in muscular strength as ascertained by total 8RM was significantly less in HP-S compared with HP-D and UP (HP-D 92.1 ± 40.8%, HP-S 63.0 ± 23.8%,UP 92.3 ± 35.4%; P=0.002 treatment effect). 8RM percent improvement in leg press was much greater in HP-D and UP compared with HP-S (HP-D, 136.8 ± 88.2%; HP-S, 64.8 ± 35.2%; UP, 135.0 ± 62.0%; P < 0.001). For most other exercises, 8RM was not signficantly different for each diet group. Total training volume over the 12 weeks was not different between groups.

Weight, waist circumference and total body fat decreased and lean mass and the distance covered during the 6 min walk test increased significantly increased with no difference between diets. As expected absolute protein intake (g) and relative protein intake (per kg body weight) were different with HP-D and HP-S greater than UP. Dairy protein in HP-D was significantly greater compared with both HP-S and UP with the amount of non-dairy protein in HP-S significantly greater compared with both HP-D and UP.

DISCUSSION: This study has demonstrated that 12 weeks of progressive resistance training exercise in healthy older adults did not provide any additional benefit for improvements in strength, body composition, physical function, or quality of life when additional protein from either dairy or soy is compared to usual (lower) protein intake. Perhaps of more significant interest is that results suggested that increased soy protein intake attenuated improvements in muscular strength. I am going to publish this article before it is entirely finished as I believe this is important research for those interested in this area and facilitating discussion on this topic should start now.

Over the next week or so I will be posting a part 2 in relation to this study as there is a lot more to explore. For example, why did the authors fail to acknowledge or discuss the fact that the attentuated strength improvement in the HP-S was confined exclusively to the leg press exercise? For all other exercises, no difference for dietary influence on strength improvement was found. Whilst not a criticism, it seems rather odd that whey protein was not included as one of the intervention dietary arms of the study. The evidence for whey protein augmenting the development of strength and facilitating the accretion of lean muscle mass from resistance training is well documented. Comparing this with the other diets would have provided some interesting insights into whether there are any further benefits of whey protein to older adults. Finally, one thing that does disappoint me about many of the studies that investigate the efficacy and safety of resistance training in older adults is the reliance on exercises that are machine-based.

CONCLUSION: Increased soy protein intake attenuated gains in muscle strength during resistance training in older adults compared with increased intake of dairy protein or usual protein intake.

Look out for part 2 (see here) titled “Does Soy Protein Really Inhibit Resistance Training Induced Strength Gains In Older Adults?” where I will discuss some of the things I mentioned above in more depth and some possible mechanisms of action as to why soy protein may or may not suppress strength gains from resistance training.

Post-script: Following further analysis and publication of part 2 of this blog, I wrote a letter to the Editor of Clinical Nutrition Journal outlining some of the, what I believed, flaws regarding the interpretation of the results of this trial. Upon peer review this was accepted for publication and can be found here. If you are unable to access this correspondence and the authors reply to my letter, please contact me and I should be able to assist.

References

Cermak et al. (2012) Protein supplementaiton augments the adaptrive response of skeletal muscle to resistance-type exercise training: a meta-analysis Am J Clin Nutr 96: 1454- 64.

Thomson et al. (2016) Muscle strength gains during resistance exercise training are attenuated with soy compared with dairy or usual protein intake in older adults: A randomized controlled trial. Clinical Nutrition. 35: 27-33

Wilson, SA (2016) Comment on: Muscle strength gains during resistance exercise training are attenuated with soy compared with dairy or usual protein intake in older adults: A randomized controlled trial. Clinical Nutrition. 35(6):1575-1576

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