Podcast 9

Is High-Intensity Strength Training Safe For Seniors Too?

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SHOW NOTES

Is it safe for seniors to perform high intensity strength training? The question is actually “is it safe for them not to?” Brian Cygan and Amy Hudson discuss the science behind strength training and why high intensity, whole effort exercise is one of the best ways to prevent the ill effects of aging, even if you are afraid of your joint pain or heart issues holding you back.

• A number of people are curious whether strength training is an appropriate exercise for them, especially as they get older. But the real question we should be asking is whether it’s safe for seniors to avoid strength training.
• The science indicates that there are a number of mortality benefits associated with strength training, and individuals who don’t engage in strength training over the long term are at a higher risk of premature death.
• For people in their 60’s, strength training has cognitive benefits, blood pressure and blood sugar benefits, and even bone density benefits.
• There are two levels of safety at the Exercise Coach, orthopedic safety and cardiovascular safety. Researchers have concluded that high intensity strength training, when done correctly, is safe for people into their 90’s. The benefits of performing strength training outweigh the risks of not doing so.
• Even older people with osteoporosis can benefit from strength training.
• High intensity strength training is safe and addresses directly the most important markers of healthy aging. From a cardiovascular standpoint, high intensity strength training has a positive influence on resting blood pressure. It’s common for Exercise Coach clients with high blood pressure to see their blood pressure normalize.
• Another study compared the impact of strength training versus traditional cardio in cardiovascular rehab. A large proportion of the people performing the cardio exercise as part of their rehabilitation experienced some kind of angina or chest pain, whereas the people in the strength training didn’t experience any.
• The slow and controlled nature of the exercises performed at the Exercise Coach is the key to making them safe for anyone to do. It’s possible to increase the intensity of the exercise without increasing undue stress on your joints or your bones with this method.
• The environment of the Exercise Coach is about as good as it gets from a Covid-19 perspective since it offers private sessions in a studio with a small number of people.
• Sarcopenia is the age-related loss of skeletal muscle mass and is really the root of a number of issues related to aging. It’s similar to the effects of muscle atrophy after an injury, and is linked to a number of the diseases of aging that we are most concerned about.
• The most effective way to combat sarcopenia is to engage in a meaningful strength training program. The data shows that whole effort exercise can reverse decades of muscle loss in a matter of 10 to 12 weeks.
• The more deconditioned somebody is when they start, the more profound the results they will see in a short period of time.

There’s so much research now that shows there are actually mortality benefits associated with strength training. Individuals who don’t engage in strength training long -term are simply at a higher risk for premature death.

You’re listening to the Strength Changes Everything podcast with the exercise coach, co -founder Brian Sagan, and me, franchisee Amy Hudson, where you’ll get up -to -date information about living a healthy lifestyle. Today, we continue our series called Ask the Exercise Coach. And today we are tackling the common question we get, is strength training safe for seniors? So welcome, Brian. How are you?

I’m doing great, Amy.

This is a super common question that we get. Is it ever too late to start exercising? Or the older I get, is strength training a safe form of exercise for me? So I’d love to hear your thoughts on this question.

Sure.

It’s definitely never too late. But I think the fact that what we’ve found to be so beneficial for people based on science is actually what’s known technically as high intensity strength training triggers that question from people. Is high -intensity strength training safe for seniors? And yes, it absolutely is. It’s safe for people from age 20 all the way up to age 90. But I really like to even throw that question back at people a little bit and say, in reality, we should be asking, is it safe for seniors not to do high -intensity strength training?

And my answer in that case, would be no. And that’s because there’s so much research now that shows there are actually mortality benefits associated with strength training. Individuals who don’t engage in strength training long term are simply at a higher risk for premature death. And beyond these studies, of course, we know of all kinds of benefits that are especially relevant to people in their 60s and beyond. And these would include cognitive benefits and blood pressure benefits and blood sugar benefits and even bone density benefits.

And it’s really not safe to age without engaging in high intensity exercise. strength training.

Yeah, and that’s a super compelling argument. We want to feel and function our best all the way till our last day. And I definitely understand the hesitancy when it comes to thinking about engaging in some kind of high intensity strength training exercise, the concern about safety. Will this hurt me? May I get injured by doing this? So can you talk a little bit about how the exercise coach workout if somebody were to decide to get started on a strength training program, walk into an exercise coach studio.

What is their experience like that keeps the physical exercise, that workout that they do safe?

Yes.

And there’s two categories that I like to think about and talk about when we discuss the safety of high intensity strength training or what we like to call at the exercise coach whole effort exercise. I like to think about things in terms of orthopedic safety. but then also cardiovascular safety. And when we think about orthopedic safety, what I’m really talking about is keeping exercise safe for the joints, the muscles, the connective tissue, and the skeleton or bones. And what I think is really compelling is the vast amount of research that’s been gathered actually looking at high -intensity strength training among senior populations.

And they have demonstrated that high -intensity strength training is safe for people into their 90s. In fact, researchers have concluded that, as I’ve said, the risks of not performing strength training far outweigh any risks involved in performing strength training. And when we look at some of the specific areas of research where we see researchers utilizing high -intensity strength training and doing so within senior populations, they include looking at strength training and osteoporosis. So seniors with osteoporosis performing high intensity strength training. And the researchers conclude it’s safe. So people with weakened bones, it’s safe for.

Or then there’s a whole another area of research, which is looking at people who suffer from low back injuries or chronic low back pain. And there are studies where researchers have applied high intensity, intensive strength training focused on the lower back muscles. And they’ve concluded it’s safe. It’s safe for seniors with back issues to perform high intensity strength training. And then there’s even studies that have combined these two and looked at seniors with osteoporosis and low back problems. And then there’s our experience of just decades of working with individuals in their 50s, 60s, 70s, and beyond very safely performing a whole effort exercise.

And that’s super encouraging, too, because how easy would it be to keep oneself on the sidelines due to a cardiovascular concern, due to an orthopedic concern? like having a weak low back or worrying about bone strength, and how The coolest thing I think is that how often do we see clients that experience dramatic shifts in their strength around those areas? We see bone mineral density increase all the time with our clients and their bone scans come back with way better numbers than they were before they began their strength training program. And we love to see those results and decreased joint pain all the time. As people get stronger around weakened joints, that pain or that weakness seems to subside and go away.

That’s right. Yep, that’s right. High intensity strength training is safe, and it addresses directly all the most important markers of healthy aging and enables an individual to positively impact those without engaging in something that is going to bring about injury or be unsustainable because it’s going to wear their body out. And then from a cardiovascular standpoint, just a couple things that I’ve always found compelling. One would be the positive beneficial impact of high intensity strength training on resting blood pressure. We see this in research and we even see research where individuals coming into the study have hypertension.

They actually have high blood pressure. They engage in strength training. Not only is it safe, but it normalizes their blood pressure. And in practice, we see this quite a bit with our clients. And it’s a result that occurs really pretty quickly. Sometimes just within a matter of a few weeks, people are coming back and saying, my doctor had to lower my blood pressure medication because of what I’m doing here.

And then another study that years ago I came across that is really compelling is one that looked at cardiac rehabilitation. And in this study, they actually compared the experience of those who utilize strength training in their cardiac rehab, and then those who use more conventional cardio style exercise, and in one study. a group of 42 individuals who went through the cardiovascular modality as their form of cardiac rehab. In that group, 30 out of the 42 experienced some kind of angina or chest pain during that cardiac rehab, whereas in a group the same size of those who performed strength training, they didn’t experience any of that angina. And what might explain the safety from a cardiovascular standpoint of high intensity strength training is what’s known as the hemodynamic response that occurs during strength training or weightlifting.

And this just means what’s happening throughout our body in terms of blood pressure and changes in the flow of blood throughout our body. And what one study found is that during a high intensity leg press, so much blood is actually returned to the heart during this activity, that the heart, even a compromised heart, might actually be in a safer, better position during that high -intensity leg press because it’s being fed so much blood from the lower body. So it might be a little bit counterintuitive, but performing high -intensity strength training might actually be safer than some just conventional forms of cardiovascular activity.

Wow, that’s awesome. That’s so cool to hear. And it’s super encouraging to think that even if you have some cardiovascular compromise or orthopedic concerns that it doesn’t discount you and it doesn’t exclude you from being able to safely strength train. And practically speaking, the high -intensity exercise that people perform at the exercise coach consists of these slow and controlled movements that are never jolting or jarring, where a bunch of load is placed really quickly on your muscle. That type of movement and that type of exercise can lead to injury, but because of the slow and controlled nature of the exercises that you’re doing with your coach, that safety is always first and foremost.

Exactly. The key to maintaining safety from an orthopedic standpoint is controlling the forces that someone’s exposed to. And there are in strength training and properly performed strength training, there are no impact forces. and there are really no excessive forces when performed properly. And so what’s possible is to really elevate the intensity of the exercise, but do so in a manner that focuses on the intensity of effort for your muscles without placing any undue stress on your joints or your bones. That’s just what’s so revolutionary about high intensity strength training.

And then when we do that, we’re actually applying a very profound cardiovascular stimulus as well that improves the health of our cardiovascular system and our metabolic health as well.

That’s great. And one thing else I just thought of to Brian here, you mentioned orthopedic safety. We mentioned cardiovascular safety when it comes to high intensity strength training for seniors. The other thing that some seniors may want to consider in this present day too, is COVID concerns. Safety of an exercise program that they’re looking at when considering visiting a fitness facility. What are your thoughts on that?

Yeah, good point. I think, yeah, that has to do with the environment. And as we’ve talked about a lot throughout 2020 and early here in 2021, our environment, a private strength training studio environment is really about as good as it gets from a standpoint of COVID concerns. And what I mean by that is just that there’s very few people in the studio. Our clients and our prospective clients basically get to come in and have their own private micro gym and work with a coach who’s wearing a mask while they’re wearing a mask and social distance during their whole experience. And since the workouts only 20 minutes, they’re not there for very long.

So just on numerous fronts. And then, and then of course we have the protocols in place that we have in place just to make sure that we’re maximizing safety. But those points alone really, I think just make it a really ideal place to visit.

And I’m thinking about one other reason that I definitely want us to mention today, too, when talking about strength training benefits for an older population. And that is the problem that we all experience starting in our 30s. It’s called sarcopenia. and it happens to all of us. And Brian, can you describe what that is and how strength training can impact the results of sarcopenia that we may experience if we don’t engage in any kind of strength training program?

Sure. Yeah, sarcopenia is really the root of the problem. When I say it’s not safe to age without performing high intensity strength training, that’s because not doing so will leave sarcopenia totally unmitigated. And sarcopenia is the age -related loss of skeletal muscle mass and the worsening of the biomarkers or markers of health and aging that are associated with sarcopenia. To give people a picture of sarcopenia, it would be like maybe people can relate more to when they’ve had an injury or someone’s had an injury and they’ve ended up in a cast for a number of months.

That arm comes out of the cast and it looks so much smaller than the other arm because it’s lost muscle from a lack of meaningful use of that muscle over time. That’s known as atrophy. Sarcopenia is really chronic long term atrophy of the muscles, but throughout the entire body, not just that one area.

And it’s this loss of muscle mass that is really linked to many of the diseases of aging that we are the most concerned about. And when somebody may be experiencing this and we hear people say all the time, they come in, maybe they’re in their sixties and they say, I just don’t feel like I used to feel. Even getting up off the floor is harder for me than it used to be. I’m having a harder time keeping up with my grandkids or doing things that used to feel easy to me. What they’re experiencing is that age -related loss of muscle. There’s nothing wrong.

They may not be doing anything differently in their lifestyle, but but they’re weaker because they’re losing muscle over time.

And so what can they do about that? Very straightforwardly engage in an effective strength training program. And what’s so, I think, inspiring is that when we look not only at the research that’s out there, but at the data that we have at the exercise coach, we’re really developing the case that we can help people with whole effort exercise reverse decades worth of muscle loss and do so really in a matter of about 10 or 12 weeks and we just see this time and time again and we have clients in their 20s and 30s and they get great results. as well. But people that have experienced long term atrophy or sarcopenia over many decades, the results that they get occur at just such a great magnitude and so rapidly that in let’s say the first 10 or 12 weeks, they start to catch up with people that are decades younger than them.

So after just 90 days or so of working out at the exercise coach, people in their sixties and beyond on paper, in terms of their strength, start to look almost indistinguishable from people in their thirties, which is just really exciting. Yeah. And actually I just thought of an example. This is a person that I mentioned in another episode, Brian Rob Hiller, but, and we shared his story once before, but he was the client who came in after having gone through three types of cancers, having gone through chemo radiation and had lost almost all of his strength to the point where walking to his mailbox and back to his front door was exhausting for him. And he lost all this muscle mass, but. His story goes in four months, we measured through our exerbotics technology and all of his muscle groups, the total effort he was able to generate.

And he tripled his strength. He tripled his strength quantified by our exerbotics in just four months.

And so the more deconditioned somebody is to start, the more profound results they see in just a short period of time like you said.

That’s why it’s never too late to start and in some ways it’s just that much more exciting to begin if you’re a little bit more out of shape. And so I would just like to challenge you if you’re listening to this and you think you’re a little bit older that you you maybe had some hesitancy about getting started on an exercise program but you would like to feel younger. You would like to function better. Or maybe you have a loved one who is a parent who could use to improve their balance to regain some lost strength. We would love to meet them.

go to exercisecoach . com and register for two free sessions for yourself or for a loved one. And we would love to show you with our certified coaches how our program works and how it’s designed to restore that lost strength that happens as we get older. So that concludes today’s episode for Ask the Exercise Coach.

Brian, what can our listeners expect next week? I think we are going to answer a question related to belly fat. We’ve got a question that is, what is the best way to lose belly fat?

So that is what’s coming up next. If you’ve been enjoying the strength changes everything podcast, we would love for you to share this episode with a friend, subscribe to the podcast and visit exercise coach . com for two free sessions. We’ll see you next time. And remember strength changes everything.