By Chris Collins on Tuesday, 07 April 2020
Category: Fitness

How do Older Populations Respond to Resistance Training?


Let me start by saying this, I love training older populations.  Why? For a number of reasons.




  1. I can always learn something each
    session and gain valuable life information.
  2. The effects on quality of life as
    a result from resistance training can be dramatic. 



The ladder is why I coach.  Coaching provides me the vehicle to affect
positive change and impact for a high number of individuals.  From a career standpoint there is nothing
better than to see the impact on quality of life, from evidence based
resistance training,  on my older
clientele.




Recently I have read two solid research studies
on how older populations respond to resistance training and I thought I would
summarize and share what I have learned so you can better understand how strong
of an impact resistance training can have for you as you age.




Paper # 1




Purpose




The authors of this paper
were looking to see the prevalence of unresponsiveness in older men and women
to create more lean muscle mass, muscle fibre size, strength, and physical
function following a resistance training program.




Who was in this study?




Participants included healthy older men and women
who were greater than 65 years old.  The
participants had to be considered healthy and independent. They also had to
have no history of structured exercise training for at least 5 years.




What did the resistance training program look like?




Participants took part in a 12 and 24 week training program.  110 individuals took part in the 12 week program while 85 of those people continued into the 24 week program.  The program consisted of 3 supervised training days a week that were supervised by professionals.  This program started with higher volume (reps and sets) and less intensity (how much weight you're lifting as a percent of your 1 rep max for a given exercise), and progressed toward lower volumes and higher intensities as the program went on.




What measurables did
they look at?




Participants were tested before the program, at
the end of 12 weeks, and at the end of 24 weeks.  The participants tested for the following.







What were some of the
notable results?




After 12 weeks







After 24 weeks







Paper #2




Objectives: Similar to paper 1, this paper also looked at the prevalence of non
responders in older populations, with a few main differences. The study was
only women and compared the results of two different types of resistance
training programs, one being higher volume and one being lower volume.




Who was in this study? The study consisted of 376 women.  In order to be eligible to participate in the study, the women had to be 60 or older, healthy with no conditions that could affect outcomes (attested to by physician), and had not participated in resistance training for at least a year.




What did the resistance training program look like?




The women were divided up into two training
program groups, a low volume and a high volume group. The participants trained
2 times per week for 12 weeks. 1 session was lower body and 1 session was upper
body.  There was a minimum 48 hours between
bouts.  Sessions were monitored by 1 supervisor
for every 5 participants.




What measurables did
they look at?




Participants went through a series of tests pre
and post program testing a range of different qualities.







What were some of the
notable results?




Both groups significantly decreased their waist circumference and there was no major difference between low and high volume groups.  It is worth noting that a decrease of at least 4 cm was seen in 242 participants (this is 64% of the study subjects!),  and was almost evenly divided between the two groups. Why is this important besides your pants fitting better? In other literature, a decrease of 4 cm has been linked to an increased life expectancy of 5 years! (3)




1 RM Leg Press ( lower body strength)







1 RM Bench Press ( upper body strength)







Sit and Reach (flexibility)







30 second chair stand







What are my big takeaways from
these two papers?




  1. There are no non-responders to resistance training in older populations.



 Remember, all the numbers I mentioned in the results section  is the average across all the participants.   Each person had different levels of responsiveness to resistance training.  There was a large number of variability in results between participants BUT every person improved at least one quality significantly in both studies.  The most interesting was in paper number 1, there was 1 subject who actually decreased from their initial tests in 1 RM strength, lean body mass, and fibre size but had BY FAR the most improvement in chair rise time.  The take away from that nugget? Even if you are not seeing improvements in the weight room or scale, you can still be significantly improving your life and that's what it is all about!







From paper #2 we can see that there are significant changes in the lower volume group as well as the higher volume group and there was not much difference between the two either.  These individuals were training only twice a week and saw marked changes across a number of qualities.  If your busy schedule has been stopping you from starting, let this be you sign to get started! I believe we can all carve out 2-3  hours a week to train.  If all you can commit to is a couple of days a week don’t sweat it, you're going to improve and work towards your goals. 







All of these participants were performing some decent intensity strength training sessions. As an example, in paper 2 all participants were training each set until ‘momentary failure’. Meaning they were using loads that by the end of the set they would not have been able to do more reps with good technique.  Note, this is different than failing on each set, before someone usually fails it means there were probably some technical breakdowns a few reps before (this is my opinion, not a reference).







In paper 2 the absolute changes for the sit and reach test were incredible.  Direct stretching was not included in the participants program which means that this was most likely a result of getting stronger!  This makes sense when you think about it.  I want you to imagine a bridge with no support in the middle. If we make that bridge longer, the weaker the middle will get, and might collapse in the middle.  Well, if we think of a muscle in the same context, if a muscle is weak and lacks enough strength the best option would be to tighten and make itself shorter increasing its mechanical advantage.  If we get those muscles stronger, your muscle will feel more comfortable resting at  longer lengths which will mean more range of motion.  This is why I opt for strengthening as a better option for gaining more range of motion rather than just static stretching alone.




We're all aging, and I don't know about you, but I want to age with a high quality of life.  If this sounds like you, resistance training is a powerful way to keep or even regain some quality of life as you age.  I hope you have received value from reading this and if you did please share this with someone you know who can benefit from this as well! Take care, train hard and train safe.




References:




1. Churchward-Venne TA, Tieland M, Verdijk LB, Leenders M, Dirks ML and de Groot LC. There Are No Nonresponders to Resistance-Type Exercise Training in Older Men and Women. J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2015 May 1;16(5):400-11.




2. Barbalho, M. D. S. M., Gentil, P., Izquierdo, M., Fisher, J., Steele, J., & Raiol, R. D. A. (2017). There are no no-responders to low or high resistance training volumes among older women. Experimental Gerontology99, 18–26. doi: 10.1016/j.exger.2017.09.003  




3. Cerhan JR, Moore SC, Jacobs EJ, Kitahara CM, Rosenberg PS and Adami HO and. A pooled analysis of waist circumference and mortality in 650,000 adults. Mayo Clin Proc. 2014 Mar;89(3):335-45.

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