Study: Progressive Resistance Strength Training Helps Older People In Daily Life

From ScienceDaily.com:

Progressive resistance strength training not only helps older adults
become stronger but also makes their everyday life easier, a Cochrane
Review suggests.

Muscle strength decreases naturally as people age. This reduction in
muscle strength could affect older adults carrying out daily
activities. Progressive resistance strength training is a type of
strength training that uses free weights, exercise machines, or
elastic bands to strengthen muscles. Key to this type of this
exercise is adjusting the resistance, or weight, according to the
person's progress. This exercise can be prescribed to help older
adults gain the strength necessary to carry out everyday activities
such as walking, climbing stairs, bathing or doing housework.

"Older adults seem to benefit from this type of exercise even at the
age of 80, and even with some type of health condition. The data
support the idea that muscle strength is largely improved after the
training, and the impact on older adults' daily activities can be
significant. Simply having enough strength to do things such as
carrying groceries would make a difference for seniors" says lead
researcher Chiung-ju Liu of the Department of Occupational Therapy at
the Indiana University at Indianapolis in the US.

The 121 trials reviewed in the study involved 6,700 people over the
age of 60, who trained two to three times a week. Training produced a
large improvement in muscle strength, a moderate to large improvement
in doing simple activities such as getting up from a chair or
climbing stairs and a small but statistically significant improvement
in doing complex daily activities, such as bathing or preparing a meal.

Severe adverse events were rare and most reported events were muscle
soreness and pain.

"We recommend older adults work with a health professional or an
exercise professional to do progressive resistance strength training"
says Liu. Because the long-term effect was not assessed in most
trials, the Cochrane Researchers did not know how long the effects
could last.
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