Sunday, May 4, 2025
5/4/2025
Improving Strength Training in Older Adults - PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Maintaining muscle mass and strength in older adults is critical for preventing mobility disability, falls, and long-term independence. Although ‘high intensity’ strength training (ST) is widely considered the most effective strategy for improving muscle mass and strength, fewer than 15% of older adults engage in strength training. High load/intensity, due to high mechanical stress, can be burdensome, unfeasible, and lead to a greater risk of injuries/pain for many seniors. Pain and injury are common barriers to exercise participation in older adults. Interestingly, lifting lighter loads to muscular failure (or inability to perform another repetition) is as effective as high loads in increasing muscle growth and strength in younger adults. However, there is a gap in knowledge about the efficacy of lifting lighter weights to fatigue on muscle mass, strength, and function in older adults. Our long-term goal is to develop less challenging but effective ST interventions, thus improving strength training participation in aging adults. The overall objective of the current study is to evaluate the efficacy of lifting lighter loads to near to failure on strength training adaptations and function in older adults. Based on our pilot data results, our central hypothesis is that ST with lighter loads close to failure is not inferior to higher loads for increasing muscle mass, strength, power, and function in older adults. Although promising, a large, long-term, randomized controlled trial (RCT) is necessary to demonstrate the feasibility and efficacy of lifting lighter loads close to failure. We will conduct a single-blind RCT in 66 community-living sedentary older men and women (≥ 70 years) to compare a light load, high repetition (LLHR) ST program (20-24 repetitions) taken near to failure to a conventional high load, lower repetition ST program (8-12 repetitions) with the following aims: 1) To assess the efficacy of light load, high repetition (LLHR) program on changes in physical function in older adults. 2) To assess the efficacy of the LLHR program on changes in lean body mass, power, and strength in older adults. 3) To assess engagement and affective responses of the LLHR program. The application is innovative in that it seeks to a novel, pragmatic approach to resistance training in older adults that can produce benefits and also be more sustainable than conventional approaches. The application is significant since if the above hypotheses are supported, the LLHR program can improve ST participation by providing a more accessible and less challenging alternative for older adults. In addition, the application will provide valuable training in recruitment, training, testing, and data analysis to Queens College students and prepare them for careers in the sciences. Considering that there are now more Americans ages 65 and older, and numbers steadily increasing, the LLHR program is timely and has the potential to make a substantial contribution to public health by enhancing function and independence in aging adults.
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