People train for a lot of different reasons. Just at The Spot Athletics, we have clients who train for, among other things, Powerlifting, team sports, weight loss, physique competitions, marathon running and MMA. Heck, one of our clients trains so that in the summer, he can carry his canoe from his car to the lake. What I’m getting at is that there are as many reasons to train as there are ways to go about it. One very important reason for training is often overlooked, however. It’s not glamorous or sexy, but for aging populations, strength training as a means to prevent and recover from falls is crucial.

One very important reason for training is often overlooked, however. It’s not glamorous or sexy, but for aging populations, strength training as a means to prevent and recover from falls is crucial.

After talking with our clients here at The Spot Athletics and with many older adults I have found that many know that exercise helps with, among other things, weight management, appearance, and heart health. I find few, however, who are aware that resistance training can lead to other benefits that will pay dividends to them in their advanced years. I want this article to put the view of strength training away from that of powerlifting, fat loss or bodybuilding, and more on how getting stronger and more powerful can help reduce the loss of bone mineral density and muscle quality in one’s older years.

I can reasonably guess that every single person that reads this article worries that they or someone in their life is at risk of injury due to falling. As we age we experience a decrease in type II-a muscle fibers, the fibers used for exhibiting large amounts of power and force over short durations, in a process known as Sarcopenia [loss of muscle tissue as a natural part of the aging process (6)]. And, also we experience osteopenia [reduction in bone volume to below normal levels especially due to inadequate replacement of bone lost to normal lysis (6)]. Put these two together and it is a recipe for disaster in older populations.

My biomechanics professor from Oregon State, Dr. Mike Pavol, has done much of his research on this subject, mainly looking at the effects of strength on the ability to recover your balance after it has been compromised due to an event such as tripping or stumbling. In his research, he would trip people using floor traps (don’t worry, they were hooked up to harnesses) and looking at their ability to catch themselves with a recovery step. He found that older adults with significant age related strength loss had slower reaction times and decreased strength therefore making it more difficult to recover after a loss in balance (2).

So, if Dr. Pavol’s research tells us age-related strength loss is detrimental to one’s own health then Orr’s et. al. research on power training for older adults (1) shows that there is an alternative to ending up on the ground pushing the Life Alert button like your playing Whack-a-Mole. Orr et. al. concludes that balance can be improved with resistance training using 20%, 50% and 80% of an individual’s maximal strength loads. All sets were done with rapid contractions, both concentric (eg: pushing the weight up in a bench press) and a slow eccentric (eg: lowering the weight to your chest in a bench press). The fast contraction speed allowed for training of neural response time in contraction of muscles, while the slow eccentric portion allowed for more muscle mass to be preserved or even enhanced.

Along with Dr. Pavol’s and Dr. Orr’s research I’d like to bring your attention to a study done by Liu-Ambrose et al in which they took almost one hundred women from a community center, with a average age of 67 years, and had them do either resistance training, agility work, or stretching for 25 weeks. They found that the risk of falling was decreased by 57.3% in the resistance training group and 47.5% in the agility group, but only 20.2% in the stretching group (8).

So now that we know that falls become increasingly likely as you age and that strength loss is a huge contributing factor to that increased risk, what can be done? Well, unfortunately you can not stop age-related muscle loss due to the loss of type II-a muscle fibers (5). But if you get to the gym under proper guidance and coaching you can increase your overall strength utilizing the muscle fibers you have. Resistance training will not only improve your strength, decreasing the risk of a fall, but maintaining your bone density means that in the event of a fall, it is less likely to be a catastrophic event and will be easier to recover from.

Resistance training will not only improve your strength, decreasing the risk of a fall, but maintaining your bone density means that in the event of a fall, it is less likely to be a catastrophic event and will be easier to recover from.

Now obviously, your health is the primary focus, but there is another aspect that is interesting to consider: Health care costs. In the year 2000, the most recent year for which numbers were available, $18.5 billion (that is a billion with a “b”) were spent on care relating to falls (9). That number really isn’t that surprising once you know that falls occur at a rate of 30% in individuals over sixty and 50% in individuals over eighty (9). Falling doesn’t just hurt your body. It hurts your wallet too.

So get to the gym and get healthy, because falling hurts!

Orr, R., De Vos, N. J., Singh, N. A., Ross, D. A., Stavrinos, T. M., & Fiatarone- Singh, M. A. (2006). Power Training Improves Balance in Healthy Older Adults. The Journals of Gerontology, 61(1), 78-85.
Kadono, N., & Pavol, M. (2013). Effects of aging-related losses in strength on the ability to recover from a backward balance loss. Journal of biomechanics, 46(1), 8-12. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbiomech.2012.08.046
Waters, D., Baumgartner, R., Garry, P., & Vellas, B. (2010). Advantages of dietary, exercise-related, and therapeutic interventions to prevent and treat sarcopenia in adult patients: an update. Clinical Interventions, 5, 259-270
Hunter, G.R., McCarthy, J.P. & Bamman, M.M. Sports Med (2004) 34: 329. doi:10.2165/00007256-200434050-00005Efficacy of 3 days/wk resistance training on myofiber hypertrophy and myogenic mechanisms in young vs. older adults
David J. Kosek, Jeong-su Kim, John K. Petrella, James M. Cross, Marcas M. Bamman Journal of Applied Physiology Aug 2006, 101 (2) 531-544; DOI: 10.1152/japplphysiol.01474.2005
hacker. 2011. In Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved May 8, 2011, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hacker