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How quickly a 70-year-old can become as strong as a 50-year-old
Toril Moe, 75, trains a group of older adults who are doing something smart: strength training.
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"Our muscles do not lose their ability to respond to exercise even as we get older," says Truls Raastad, a professor at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences.
A 70-year-old who starts strength training can reach roughly the same strength level as a 50-year-old within a few weeks, the sports professor explains.
Toril Moe is 75 years old and trains a group of older adults between the ages of 62 and 88.
"We do a lot of strength training. We train at different stations, use free weights, and do plenty of balance exercises," she said during a recent seminar on ageing in Oslo.
Moe believes there is another aspect of the workouts that is just as important:
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"I think many in the group feel they have to go because others expect them to show up."
Muscles start shrinking in our 50s
Ageing causes muscles to become smaller and weaker. But ageing is not solely to blame. Part of it is also because we use our muscles less.
Our muscle strength peaks when we are between 20 and 30 years old. After that, it remains fairly stable for a while, depending on how active you are.
But from around the age of 50, it starts to decline.
Critically low muscle strength in your 60s
On average, you become about 15 per cent weaker with each passing decade.
After turning 70, the loss of strength accelerates, according to Raastad.
"But there's a lot you can do about this. Your lifestyle plays a major role in how this trajectory unfolds," she says. "If you're inactive, the process speeds up. You then risk reaching critically low muscle strength as early as your 60s."
You can train to become 20 years 'younger' in 12 weeks
If, on the other hand, you regularly engage in strength training in old age, researchers find that you can build enough muscle to maintain a solid reserve well into your 80s and 90s.
"You don't stop the decline completely, but you can slow it down considerably," says Raastad.
The good news is that it is not too late to start, even if you have already begun to become weaker.
The oldest person to participate in an exercise study and see results was 102 years old, Raastad notes.
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Strength increased by 30 per cent
But this is not just about exceptional individuals.
In a study Raastad helped conduct several years ago, researchers recruited relatively healthy men and women between the ages of 70 and 90.
The participants exercised most of the body's major muscle groups using weight machines.
After 12 weeks, the participants had increased their upper-body and leg strength by an average of 30 per cent. Their total muscle mass increased by as much as 1.5 kilograms.
At the same time, their ability to perform important everyday tasks improved, including climbing stairs, getting up from and sitting down on a chair, and lifting and stacking heavy objects on a shelf.
"A 70-year-old who increases their strength by 30 per cent can reach roughly the same strength level as a 50-year-old. We see this clearly and consistently across many studies," Raastad said at the seminar.
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Are older adults becoming healthier?
Since the year 2000, the number of Norwegians aged 100 or older has nearly quadrupled.
But for Bjørn Heine Strand, a senior researcher at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, the most important thing isn't how many years we manage to add to our lives.
"What's interesting is how many of those years we can live without major limitations," Strand said at the same seminar.
Will this new, large generation of older adults be fitter than previous generations of older people?
There are signs suggesting this might be the case.
Today’s 80-year-olds have roughly the same hand-grip strength as 75-year-olds had a few years ago.
Results from cognitive tests show even greater differences – in favour of today’s 80-year-olds.
"These preliminary results look promising," says Strand.
The figures he refers to come from the Tromsø Study.
Is going for walks enough?
Walking is the most common form of physical activity among older people in Norway (link in Norwegian).
"And it's very good for their health," says Arnhild Jenssen Nygård, who recently completed a PhD on older people and exercise at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).
But walking alone is not enough to prevent frailty, she points out.
“People over the age of 65 are also advised to engage in activities that challenge their strength and balance,” she says.
Just as Toril Moe does.
The wealthy and highly educated exercise
At the same time, Moe is concerned about something else: The group she trains is not particularly representative of older people as a whole.
"Many have a high level of education and are financially well off," she says.
And therein lies a major challenge, she believes.
Although research shows that older adults benefit greatly from strength training, few follow the recommendations to work on strength and balance several times a week.
When the authorities try to influence us through standard public health information, it tends to be the highly educated and wealthy who heed the message (link in Norwegian). These are often the same people who are already interested in health and have the best health.
So how can other older people be encouraged to participate as well?
More than just good advice
Arnhild Jenssen Nygård at NTNU believes municipalities should offer different programmes for different groups.
Some initiatives could target those who prefer to exercise on their own. Others could be aimed at those who need both guidance and assistance to get started.
Raastad also believes accessibility needs to improve. He highlights free workouts at gyms and programmes offered through sports clubs and pensioners' associations.
"It doesn't take a huge amount of exercise," he says.
Particularly difficult to reach men
Older men can be particularly difficult to reach, according to Strand. He used his own father as an example.
His father would never have gone to a gym on his own initiative. But then he got a new hip.
After the operation, he received three months of free gym access, and his doctor encouraged him to use it to build up his strength.
At the gym, he ran into old school friends. They would have coffee together after their workouts.
When the free period ended, his father continued paying for the membership himself.
"Sometimes people need a nudge to get started. And when the gym also becomes a social hub, the motivation to keep going often comes naturally," says Strand. "Now I think he goes three days a week. If someone doesn't show up for a workout, the others drive by and pick them up."
References:
Solberg et al. Effects of different types of exercise on muscle mass, strength, function and well-being in elderly (Abstract), European Journal of Sport Science, 2011. DOI: 10.1080/17461391.2011.617391
Strand et al. Do More Recent Born Generations of Older Adults Have Stronger Grip? A Comparison of Three Cohorts of 66- to 84-Year-Olds in the Tromsø Study, The Journals of Gerontology: Series A, 2018. DOI: 10.1093/gerona/gly234
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Translated by Nancy Bazilchuk
Read the Norwegian version of this article on forskning.no
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