For over 15 years I have been training with many clients in their 70's, 80's who suffered from many severe injuries that could have been avoided if they had adopted a strength training routine a few years earlier. This topic is one I feel very strongly about as I know that we can help people significantly improve their quality of life and avoid some of the debilitating problems we often see in older adults. The ignorance of the media to get behind this really irritates me so I hope you share this article with your family and friends so they become aware of the potential dangers of avoiding strength training in older age.

More recently we have been having quite a few older adults join our training facility with their goal being “ I want to get stronger”. We now train at least 15 people aged over 75 years of age! The interesting thing is the people who have been training with us consistently for years, who are aged 75+ seem much younger than the 75 year olds just starting out. The comparison is not even close.

If you want to see someone in action watch this inspiring video of 76 Year Old Laurie Ford completing an 60 minute training session incorporating various strength training movements and activities with ease!

Why Is There Such A Difference With People Of The Same Age?

Is it just because they had been exercising? Well, this depends on the type of exercise because we also found that the clients who were still active in their old age but were doing more cardio type activities and not weight training suffered from more postural and injury related problems and had the same appearance as the non training older adult! Only the people who had adopted a good weight training program appeared much younger than their counterparts and suffered less injury, were more active and were leading a life similar to some 40 year olds. Notice I underlined the word good., and there is a good reason for this that I will share with you later.

In summary as the population continues to increase with age there is a dramatic increase in the % of people with disabilities, injury & other related health problems that could be prevented by adopting strength training in combination with healthy nutrition and lifestyle habits. If there is one thing that we need to live a productive and satisfying life well into old age it is functional capacity. What is quite interesting is that it is also what most older adults want. We rarely get a 75 year old saying “ I want ripped abs”. It is usually “ I want to be able to walk up the stairs without having pain in my hip or feeling like I am going to fall over”. Basically our older clients ALL want to be able to do what they want without fear, limitation or pain. That is, they want function and only a Functional Strength Training method program in combination with nutrition and lifestyle components can achieve this.

The loss of muscle mass with advancing age, which is called sarcopenia, is an important factor to address because it can have a dramatic impact on functional capacity.

Below is a picture I have borrowed from Cody Sipe and Dan Ritchie from the Functional Aging Institute and highly recommend you look them up as the stuff these guys are teaching is phenomenal. https://www.functionalaginginstitute.com/

Look at the picture above and closely at the legs on the left.

The first one is the leg of a healthy, active person with a high level of functional capacity. They have worked to maintain their bodies through regular physical activity and exercise. Because of the strength and power they have they are easily capable of getting out of a chair, climbing stairs, hiking, playing tennis, gardening and many other necessary and enjoyable activities. This is typical of one of our clients who has been doing weight training for years, for example Laurie Ford in the video.

The leg in the middle is a person we regularly see. They have not been as active as they could or should have been and maybe only participated in random exercise throughout their life. Because of this they have lost an average amount of muscle mass and strength. They still can perform most activities of daily living without too much difficulty yet more vigorous and strenuous tasks are no longer possible. They have therefore modified their lifestyle so that they do not have to do these activities anymore. For example they stopped playing tennis because they just couldn’t keep up with their doubles partner or they changed houses to not have to walk up the stairs anymore.

This person has a little difficulty even getting off a chair or getting up off the floor and need to find a way to use chairs or something around them to give them a little extra boost. They have lost a good deal of functional movement skills just to live an ordinary life. These people are potential candidates for needing assisted living and are at risk of further decline into disability.

The third leg shows someone who has lost a considerable amount of muscle mass. So much so that they are no longer capable of performing all of their activities of daily living. Now just simple movements such as bathing, toileting, shopping, working, dressing and other tasks have become hard and they need help with some or all of these. This is the rehab client we would get who needs a lot of support to just do simple movements. We see this leg in people aged in their 40’s!

The lady in the picture below is 83 years old and shows it is never too late to add muscle.

There has been many studies that have demonstrated the capability of people as old as 100 years to build muscle through high-intensity resistance training. Even with all of these studies being completed many people still think that older adults are incapable of regaining muscle and strength. Some still think that lifting weights is dangerous. However we know that weight training for preventing sarcopenia and building muscle mass is essential for improving function and avoiding disability. However many people are misinformed and believe that they are too old to go the gym and are even told so by many of the so called experts.

There is a real fear around exercise for the elderly. But injury due to their clients lack of stability and strength is in fact a real possibility. As is using poor methods such as machines and isolated body building methods to improve strength. Which although they may achieve the goal of building muscle these movements do not improve the function of their clients, meaning they do not improve the way a person moves in real life. Technique is everything for this client as disaster awaits for the person who uses Bodybuilding techniques or tries movements that are dysfunctional and not relevant to the clients goals.

Remember I said earlier that only the people on a good strength training program showed great results. What I really meant was, only those on a functional strength training program showed great results.

For example being bolted to the floor and pushing a weight plate with your legs ( Leg Press )does not teach the body how to stabilize the spine, pelvis, knee, and ankle in a standing position like a squat does! If anything it actually teaches your body making to become dysfunctional as it now it thinks it does need stabilizers to lift heavy objects. This can be disastrous for a new clients. To build Core Strength you need to develop movements in a standing position that activate stabilizers of the body and force the body to react. This is essential for preventing falls with older adults. 

Watch the videos below to see examples of what I am referring to.

A perfect example of an elderly client who can perform many exercises by adopting functional training techniques that we at No Regrets use is the guy in the video at the top of the page, Laurie Ford. Laurie is 76 years old this year and still competes in Sailing competitions like the Melbourne To Hobart Yacht race which if anyone knows about sailing will tell how difficult that race is for a 30 year old yet alone a 75 year old. Laurie can comfortably Squats with 80kg on his back, walk up stairs holding 10kg dumbbells, perform many complex single leg movements and he even learned how to perform a Dumbbell Single Arm Snatch! Laurie completes 3 x 30 minute Functional Strength Training sessions per week and has done so for a long time.

As you can see this is his secret to not only staying in shape, but maintaining great function to do the things he loves such as sailing and gym work. So if you are not strength training now, get started because it is never too late.

Do You Need More Help?

There is obviously a lot of information and great exercises I have not included in this article and I do suggest to grab a copy of our latest report that covers everything you need to know about older adults health. This report provides you with detailed pictures, instructions of over 50 exercises and some excellent workouts and tests to use for measuring your improvement. Many of the exercise pictures shown in this report are of clients who in their 70’s and 80’s who currently train with us at No Regrets. We also feature several of their stories for you to see how they changed their life by adopting the methods explained in this report. I hope you enjoy reading this and it helps you to enjoy your golden years.

And if you would like to arrange a Free Consultation to find our more about our Stronger For Longer Group Classes fill in the form below and I will get back in touch with you within the next 24 hours.

About The Author

Nick Jack is owner of No Regrets Personal Training and has over 15 years’ experience as a qualified Personal Trainer, Level 2 Rehabilitation trainer, CHEK practitioner, and Level 2 Sports conditioning Coach. Based in Melbourne Australia he specializes in providing solutions to injury and health problems for people of all ages using the latest methods of assessing movement and corrective exercise.

References:

• Bending the Aging Curve -  Joseph Signorile
• Movement - By Gray Cook
• Functional Training for Sports - By Mike Boyle
• Corrective Exercise Solutions - by Evan Osar
• Athletic Body Balance by Gray Cook
• Diagnosis & Treatment Of Movement Impairment Syndromes - By Shirley Sahrman
• Low Back Disorders - by Stuart McGill
• Back Pain Mechanic - by Stuart McGill
• Anatomy Trains - by Thomas Meyers
• Motor Learning and Performance - By Richard A Schmidt and Timothy D Lee
• Assessment & Treatment Of Muscle Imbalance - By Vladimir Janda
• How To Eat, Move & Be Healthy by Paul Chek
• Scientific Core Conditioning Correspondence Course - By Paul Chek
• Advanced Program Design - By Paul Chek