{"id":136723,"date":"2025-09-14T12:42:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T12:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/136723\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T12:42:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T12:42:08","slug":"we-lose-muscle-power-as-we-age-heres-how-to-stay-strong-and-fast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/136723\/","title":{"rendered":"We lose muscle power as we age. Here\u2019s how to stay strong and fast"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Maintaining power as you age helps support muscle and metabolic health.francescoridolfi.com\/iStockPhoto \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

A while back, I thought I\u2019d show off for my son by performing a kip-up, springing neatly to my feet from my back in one powerful motion. I hadn\u2019t attempted this in 20 years but somehow expected to pull it off. He watched as I kicked off explosively and caught about an inch of air before falling back to earth with a thud. \u201cWhat was that?\u201d he asked. Other than a near concussion?<\/p>\n

Our sense of aging doesn\u2019t progress smoothly over time; we piece it together through moments such as these. And there is a fairly predictable list of physical changes that take place as we get older. But what goes first? Is it your metabolism? Your bone density? Your can-do attitude? <\/p>\n

One of the steepest drop-offs is how fast you can move something, whether it\u2019s your own body or a weighted implement. The term is muscle power<\/a> (work divided by time) and it can be conspicuous in its absence. <\/p>\n

Is it a myth that seniors need to slow down their fitness routines?<\/a><\/p>\n

When you look for physically fit people over 40, you\u2019ll find plenty of endurance athletes and yoga practitioners. You\u2019ll see weightlifters and rock climbers too. Most of these athletes move slowly. Deliberately. Between 0.4 and 2.5 metres a second, if you\u2019re tracking. Speed and power athletes \u2013 the kind you\u2019d see in a decathlon event \u2013 are far rarer in that age group. This is because the fast-twitch muscle fibres responsible for generating powerful, high-velocity contractions atrophy earlier than slow-twitch fibres. <\/p>\n

Your muscles don\u2019t exist in isolation. If they are the hardware, your nervous system is the operating system.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we talk about the factors going into muscle power, we have to consider the features of the muscle tissue itself and neural input. \u2026 With aging, both of these systems are going to be deteriorating,” says Michael Paris<\/a>, a researcher at York University who studies the relationship between muscle and aging.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithin the nervous system, the brain and spinal cord of older adults may have a reduced and more inconsistent ability to activate the muscle in a co-ordinated manner, especially during fast or forceful contractions, which again will contribute to the loss of muscle power with aging.\u201d<\/p>\n

But do these physical changes come because we stop moving fast? Or do we stop moving fast because of these physical changes? It\u2019s a chicken-or-the-egg kind of situation, Paris says.<\/p>\n

To get some insight on the athletic side of things, I reached out to coach Derek Evely, whose athletes, including Canadian Olympian Dylan Armstrong, have earned more than 70 national and international medals in throwing events. His experience syncs up with Paris\u2019s research \u2013 that power decreases with age \u2013 but he\u2019s also worked with people who challenge these norms.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrowers probably are able to sustain performance later in terms of their age relative to the other event groups. … They can peak in the early 30s. And so you have people that, you know, are technically masters at 35, but could still be world-class athletes.\u201d<\/p>\n

What makes throwers different?<\/p>\n

Throwing sports \u2013 such as shot put and hammer throw \u2013 have the highest technical demands of all track and field activities, Evely explained. Technique takes time, and skill can be the bottleneck in expressing power, not raw horsepower. \u201cThat\u2019s why throwers can compete at a higher level so much longer than everybody else. It\u2019s really interesting. And kind of compelling.\u201d<\/p>\n

For aging and fitness, community is the most important part<\/a><\/p>\n

Do you need to hurl iron spheres at 12.5 to 14.5 metres a second to age gracefully? Probably not. Aging well has more to do with functional abilities, such as getting up from the floor<\/a> (albeit not with a kip-up). However, maintaining power supports muscle and metabolic health.<\/p>\n

\u201cMuscle power \u2013 the ability to generate force or contract in a quick and forceful manner \u2013 is really important for older adults and their ability to move around the world,\u201d Paris says.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s no point where hope is truly lost, he adds. Older adults who stay in motion lose power at a slower rate than their counterparts; even 100-year-olds can improve their muscle power with dedicated exercise.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Movements that work on muscle power, like jumping, are great to incorporate into your regular exercise routine.bernardbodo\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

How to build up your power<\/p>\n

Jumping: Paris recommends targeting the quads and front abdominal muscles in particular. Working up to five minutes of daily jumping<\/a> is one evidence-based option.<\/p>\n

\u201cStart easier than you think. There\u2019s no rush,\u201d says Greg Lehman<\/a>, a pain and rehab expert. Five sets of 10 jumps can work when performed near daily. \u201cWith age, the stiffness and strength of our Achilles and calves decreases. You could argue this is a pretty good intervention.\u201d<\/p>\n

Resistance: Lehman recommends a simple protocol of two resistance workouts a week, the first done with moderately heavy weights at a slower tempo. The second should feature the same exercises, but done with less weight and at a faster speed. Try a controlled lowering motion followed by an explosive lifting (concentric) motion.<\/p>\n

Start slow: You should build a base of strength for six to eight weeks before adding fast movements, Lehman says. <\/p>\n

Paris suggests going beyond your body weight for explosive movements and adding weight, in the ballpark of 60 to 70 per cent of your one-rep max (the most weight you can move once). Training for power also means terminating the set before movement slows down \u2013 something that happens before you even register feeling tired. Specificity is key, and training for power doesn\u2019t mix well with fatigue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Maintaining power as you age helps support muscle and metabolic health.francescoridolfi.com\/iStockPhoto \/ Getty…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[6647,102,14367,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-136723","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-fitness","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-noastack","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}