Stronger Muscles: The Secret to Healthy Aging. Exercises to Do at Home

It’s well established that strength training is beneficial at any age: In addition to building muscle, it strengthens tendons and ligaments, increases bone density, and appears to protect against everything from osteoporosis to dementia. But a new study based on data collected over two decades in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, suggests that another physical characteristic may be just as important—and it’s the one that tends to decline more rapidly than strength as we age: muscular power.

What is Muscle Power?

Power, for those who need a physics refresher, is force multiplied by speed—in other words, how quickly we can apply the force we possess. Sprinters, high jumpers, and hurdlers need large amounts of power; marathon runners, who focus on endurance rather than explosive strength, do not. Be careful not to confuse muscular power with strength.

“Muscular power,” explains Gianfranco Beltrami , vice-president of the Italian Federation of Sports Medicine (Fmsi), “is the ability to do a job that requires strength, such as moving a weight or sprinting in a short amount of time. It differs from strength because, for example, an athlete may be able to lift a very heavy load slowly, but power is the ability to do so quickly. In other words, strength is the amount of load you can lift, while power is the speed with which you lift that load.”

Muscle power in everyday gestures

Power also plays a crucial role in everyday movements, from climbing stairs to recovering from a fall. This is where it becomes crucial to quality of life. A recent study of nearly 4,000 men and women between the ages of 46 and 75 found that power was a stronger predictor of mortality than relative strength, meaning that, all else being equal, people who could generate force quickly were less likely to die prematurely.

One reason is the tendency to have accidents. “Power is probably more related to the risk of falling than strength,” Claudio Gil Araújo, one of the study’s lead authors, told The Guardian . “Let’s say you’re walking and you stumble. To maintain your balance and avoid falling, you have to use your muscles to make quick compensatory movements, and as we know, a fall, especially for older people, can have serious health consequences. That’s where muscle power comes in.”

As we age we lose power

The problem is that power tends to peak in the late 20s and early 30s and declines more rapidly than other qualities if left untrained. “It is highly recommended to include power training in exercise programs for people in their 30s and 50s,” says Arto Hautala, associate professor of physiotherapy and rehabilitation at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland. “Think of something as simple as crossing the street at a traffic light: you have to be fast enough to do it in time, and without power it can be difficult.” Are there tests or measurements to assess muscle power and monitor its progress? “There are dynamometers and platforms used in sports medicine to determine an athlete's strength, but there are also much simpler tests, evaluating, for example, the number of push-ups performed on the thighs or steps climbed, getting up from a squatting position or from a chair, lifting a weight several times with one arm, etc.,” replies the vice-president of the FMSI.

How to train strength

Therefore, it is essential to train these two skills daily if we do not want to risk weakening ourselves. “Strength training - Beltrami continues - represents that large category of anaerobic physical training in which the muscles exercise their activity against an external load. Each type of sport requires a good strength base and the training methods are different depending on the type of discipline practiced. To train strength you can use gym machines, small tools such as elastic bands or free weights but also just the simple weight of your own body by doing free body exercises”.

How to train muscle power

What about muscle power? It can also help to continue doing the same physical activities as usual, but a little faster. For example, running up the stairs is one of the easiest ways to integrate strength training into your daily life: it also develops coordination and balance, which are essential as you age.

“Muscles play an important role in general health and well-being at all ages and unfortunately muscle strength declines inexorably with age due to the phenomenon known as sarcopenia , a syndrome characterized by a progressive loss of muscle mass that also leads to disabilities with reduced quality of life in old age,” explains the sports doctor. It is therefore important to continue training muscle strength and power throughout life as suggested by the World Health Organization and the main scientific societies, including in Italy the Italian Sports Medicine Federation, which recommend at least two training sessions per week dedicated to developing and maintaining strength.

Free body or weighted squats

What exercises can you do to train your strength at home, safely, without gym equipment? “The squat is an exercise that involves the lower body, especially the leg muscles, glutes and stabilizing muscles of the abdomen and back. It consists of lowering the body by bending the knees and pushing the hips backwards while keeping the back straight, until you reach an angle of about 90 degrees between the thighs and calves and then returning to an upright position by pushing with the heels towards the floor,” explains Beltrami. The exercise can be performed with your own body weight or holding weights in your hands depending on your training goals and starting level, and it is essential to maintain good posture throughout the movement to prevent back injuries.

Flat bench press

Another useful exercise for developing upper body strength is the flat bench press. “You need to lie down on the bench so that your upper back, head and buttocks are well supported on the surface. Your feet must be planted firmly on the ground. Using weights or a barbell, these should be raised upwards until your arms are fully extended and then brought back towards your chest, controlling the movement which should be repeated several times depending on your level of training,” explains Beltrami. Exercises for the abdominal muscles can be crunches to be performed with your arms under your neck and your knees bent, of which there are several variations. “It is important to start with a number of repetitions and sets appropriate to your fitness level, gradually increasing the difficulty as you gain strength. Another exercise to tone many muscles of the body is the plank in which you keep your body in a prone, horizontal position with the hip slightly forward. The weight remains supported on: forearms, elbows and toes in order to intensely stimulate the core muscles, which are kept in isometric contraction”.

Precautions for over 65s

However, it is important to build muscle strength and power progressively, to reduce the risk of injury especially if you suffer from osteoporosis or bone fragility. "Every physical activity program for people with pathologies - Beltrami explains - must always be prescribed by a sports medicine specialist who, based on the clinical conditions, age, sex and pathologies, determines for each individual the intensity of the load, the weekly frequency of sessions and their duration in order to provoke positive physiological adaptations, avoiding the risks associated with excessive overloading of the musculoskeletal system".