Why Strength Training is Important as We Age?

Ever wonder why as we age it gets increasingly more difficult to do daily tasks that at one point seemed easy to perform, such as standing up out of a chair, walking up stairs, getting up from the floor, or even recovering your balance after tripping over something? There are many factors that contribute to decreased mobility and balance as we age, but a big culprit is a gradual decrease in muscle strength and power. To differentiate between these two concepts, think about strength as the most amount of force you can produce for a few repetitions. Power is more about intention, and trying to perform a movement in the shortest amount of time as possible. For the people that enjoy math, Power = Force x Velocity. 

When attempting to minimize the risk of falls in older adults, increasing our muscular power is a key objective. Research has shown that  in people aged >70 years old, there is ~6% decrease each year in muscular power. Why is this significant? A fall can occur for many different reasons, but a common one is tripping over an object causing you to end up losing your balance without catching yourself. Because a fall is unpredictable and can happen at any instance, our ability to react quickly (velocity) is crucial in whether or not you can recover your balance.

Another benefit of strength training is the development of stronger, more resilient bones. Bone adaptation revolves around a principle referred to as Wolff’s law. Basically, the more healthy stress you put on your bones, such as walking and strength training, the more they are able to adapt and remodel to be able to withstand the forces put upon them. As we age, it is common to become more sedentary. Decreased activity leads to less healthy stress being put on our bones, which leads to decreased bone mineral density. One of the biggest risk factors for a fall, is sustaining a fracture, which can minimize your health span significantly if there is poor recovery. Strength training has been proven to decrease risk of falls, improve bone density, and keep individuals involved in their recreational activities and hobbies as they get older.

Weight lifting exercise for strength training