Rafael is 66 years old. Five days a week, first thing in the morning, he goes to the public gym in his town, in the south of Valencia, where he follows a strength exercise routine that the center's instructor has given him to work on throughout the day. week all muscle groups. Two other days a week he goes out pedaling his bike. Between 50 and 70 kilometers at a good pace, the same one he sets every time he goes out for a walk (he daily exceeds the 10,000 steps recommended by the WHO), whether in the orchards that surround the town or to run errands. “My 40-year-old son keeps joking with me, telling me that I am much stronger than him,” he says, laughing.
For a long time, the concept of “anabolic resistance” prevailed socially and among professionals, according to which as people age, there is a reduction in the response of skeletal muscle to anabolic stimuli such as physical exercise. However, as Dr. Enrique Sáinz de Murieta, a rehabilitation doctor and member of the Board of Directors of the Spanish Society of Rehabilitation and Physical Medicine (SERMEF), points out, although it is true that the muscle response is less than in younger people.
"This concept is frequently overvalued and the lower response that is sometimes obtained with strength training after the age of 60 is usually due to errors in training, such as inadequate rest, protocols not adapted to the age profile or lack of progressive load,” says Sáiz de Murieta.
A recent study led by researchers from the University of La Frontera (Chile) and the University of Maastricht (Holland) has shown that even people over 85 years of age, when they undergo individualized and progressive resistance exercise training, They are able to increase their skeletal muscle mass. “These results challenge the common belief that they are less likely to gain muscle and strength compared to other age groups,” emphasizes Gabriel Marzuca, member of the Interuniversity Center for Healthy Aging (CIES) of the Consortium of Universities of the State of Chile (CUECH). and main author of the research.
The study analyzed the impact of strength exercise routines on people aged 65 to 75 and over 85, who performed the exercises supervised three times a week for three months. “We thought that if one performs resistance exercise training in a supervised and progressive manner we would observe benefits in all older people, however, we hypothesized that people over 85 years of age would benefit to a lesser extent than those between 65 and 75 years of age. To our surprise, however, all older people benefited from this type of training in a similar way, regardless of their age,” explains Marzuca.
For Julián Alcázar, researcher at the Networked Biomedical Research Center for Fragility and Healthy Aging (CIBERFES), the results of the study are not really new, although he recognizes their importance given that there are few investigations that have specifically analyzed them in the past. The effects of strength training on people over 85 years of age.
“We tend to think that from a certain age everything that happens to our body and mind is normal and is simply due to age. However, what we don't usually think about is that as we age we also substantially change our habits: we become more sedentary, we eliminate high-intensity exercise, and we eat worse. We should not resign ourselves and embrace the negative consequences of aging, because they can be prevented and avoided, or in the worst case, slowed down. Science has already said a lot about this and continues to tell us,” argues Alcázar.
As Alcázar explains, strength training is recommended throughout the entire life cycle (“also in children, contrary to popular belief”) but “it progressively gains importance” as we age. It is estimated that, if nothing is done to prevent it, from the age of 40, around 8% of muscle mass is lost per decade, a loss that accelerates even more after the age of 60.
“Maintaining a good quantity and quality of muscle is key to the aging process, since it allows us to have more strength and greater physical performance to carry out activities of daily living in a better way (for example, getting up from a chair, climbing or go down stairs or carry bags from the market) and, in the process, achieve greater independence and reduce possible social and health costs,” says Gabriel Marzuca.
The loss of muscle mass, strength and function, precisely, is basic in the development of fragility or sarcopenia, a typical condition of older adults characterized by the appearance of symptoms such as weakness, fatigue, lack of energy, balance problems and difficulties. to walk and stand. “By carrying out this type of strength training we can prevent the appearance of this pathology and if it is already established, we can combat it,” says the researcher.
An opinion shared by Julián Alcázar, who points out that scientific evidence shows that, even in situations of advanced fragility in older people, the symptoms are reversible thanks to physical exercise: “Through the collaboration between the University of Castilla-La Mancha and the Toledo Hospital Complex we have been able to demonstrate with several studies that physical exercise (including strength training) is capable of achieving, for example, that an elderly person who was not able to get up from a chair without help, can do so in just 16 weeks of training.”
In addition to sarcopenia, adds Enrique Sáinz de Murieta, there is large and growing scientific evidence that shows a direct correlation between greater physical strength and reduced mortality from all causes throughout life. “Good muscle function (strength and power) is one of the best indicators that an older person enjoys good general health. Getting it is one of the best investments to maintain the ability to do the tasks that we usually do without the help of other people,” says the SERMEF spokesperson.
As Sáinz de Murieta recalls, muscle is a tissue that, in addition to allowing movement or maintaining posture, has much broader functions: “Today, among other things, we know that muscle is an important endocrine and metabolic tissue. , which improves synapses in the brain and neuroplasticity, or is a protective factor against certain cancers such as breast and colon cancer.”
Despite the fact that there is more and more discussion about it, the World Health Organization continues to recommend 10,000 steps a day as the pillar of a healthy life. A scientific review published in The Lancet in 2022 concluded that in people over 60 years of age, between 6,000 and 8,000 steps per day were already sufficient to achieve a significant reduction in the risk of mortality. In any case, experts point out, although it is advisable to walk and do cardiovascular exercise, this is not enough for healthy aging.
“The available evidence indicates that strength training combined with cardiovascular conditioning exercises, either classically or in interval training, gives greater health benefits than strength exercise alone or aerobic exercise alone,” says Sáinz de Murieta. , for whom this evidence breaks the myth that the best exercise is walking: “Walking is an excellent exercise, but it must be combined with strength exercise, which is essential in improving people's ability to carry out the activities they do. "usually and today it is one of the most important elements in rehabilitation programs to recover the functional capacity that has been lost, for example after a hospital admission."
This strength exercise can be done in a gym or at home. In any case, experts agree, it should be supervised by a competent professional. “The most advisable thing is to put yourself in the hands of a physical-sports educator (Graduate in Sports Sciences) so that they can evaluate us, analyze our objectives and design a training program according to them,” concludes Julián Alcázar.
