HHS HealthBeat (December 08, 2008)

Aging with power

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Older women can get stronger. The question is how they can make the strength work for them.

Researcher Dain LaRoche of the University of New Hampshire checked that among older and younger women who did eight weeks of training.

Both groups had about the same percentage gains in strength. But getting stronger is not enough. People need to use that strength fast to, for instance, catch themselves before a fall. That’s called power. LaRoche says the older people were short there.

LaRoche recommends older people work on fall-preventing power. For instance:

``You may exercise in the home, performing squat-type exercises while supporting yourself with a chair or the wall, lunges, rising from a seated position.’’ (9 seconds)

The study in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: December, 12 2008