It’s not new news, but it may still come as a surprise. Americans are getting older. Soon the “over 40” crowd will outnumber the “under 40” crowd. And, soon the older crowd will begin feeling the effects of aging. Weak bones, poor balance, weight gain, multiple medications, a cornucopia of medical concerns. This is expected to create a tsunami of new people who will likely seek fitness programming. People who have spent the first half of their lives making money will now need to spend the rest of their remaining days seeking ways to turn back the clock.
everyone else in the world, battle muscle loss (sarcopenia), bone loss, weight gain and a host of other health-related problems. Strength training could prevent or at least slow these effects of aging. But before you get too excited at the prospect of marketing to all those would-be members, keep this in mind: fixed strength training, the traditional type of strength training used in most health clubs, while effective, may not be the best type of strength training for those older users. Fixed strength training fails to promote total-body integration, a necessary functional aspect of the human body. Unlike most textbooks that would have you thinking movement under resistance provides some pure form of isotonic contraction, the human body actually changes the type of contraction from one joint angle to another. In other words, muscle can easily change from stabilizer to prime mover and back to stabilizer again during any single movement. More interesting is a joint requires all of the muscles surrounding it to work in synergy to produce movement. Traditional fixed training machines promote isolation, something the body rarely needs. Perhaps this is why in our research we found exercisers who trained on a full line of integrated functional equipment improved strength 40 percent greater than their fixed counterparts, andA recent report by the Surgeon General warned us that by 2020, half of all American citizens older than 50 will be at risk for fractures from osteoporosis and low bone mass if no immediate action is taken.
In that report, although easy to miss, the word strengthening was used. It’s a fact strong muscles lead to strong bones, and strong bones defy osteoporosis. While this is not new news, the type of strength training people need may well be!
In a recent study my team and I submitted for publication in Research Quarterly it was determined that training on a full line of integrated functional equipment may be the only type of training that can provide a true maximum transfer of strength to real life. In other words, functional training helps people more in their everyday movements than fixed training. Aging Americans, as well as everyone else in the world, battle muscle loss (sarcopenia), bone loss, weight gain and a host of other health-related problems. Strength training could prevent or at least slow these effects of aging. But before you get too excited at the prospect of marketing to all those would-be members, keep this in mind: fixed strength training, the traditional type of strength training used in most health clubs, while effective, may not be the best type of strength training for those older users.
Fixed strength training fails to promote total-body integration, a necessary functional aspect of the human body. Unlike most textbooks that would have you thinking movement under resistance provides some pure form of isotonic contraction, the human body actually changes the type of contraction from one joint angle to another. In other words, muscle can easily change from stabilizer to prime mover and back to stabilizer again during any single movement. More interesting is a joint requires all of the muscles surrounding it to work in synergy to produce movement. Traditional fixed training machines promote isolation, something the body rarely needs. Perhaps this is why in our research we found exercisers who trained on a full line of integrated functional equipment improved strength 40 percent greater than their fixed counterparts, and improved their balance by 240 percent while lowering their pain levels some 30 percent.
But these results are not only for older people. One hypothesis of the research suggested Plyometric training is effective for strength gain only because it too promotes joint synergy. Imagine a world where both athlete and senior citizen can benefit from improved strength, increased bone density, better balance and preservation of the one thing people hold most dear; their independence. The real tsunami may not be the older markets, but the new training methods and equipment called integrated functional equipment.
Keith Spennewyn, MS, is the President of the National Institute of Health Science (NIHS). He can be contacted at 952.345.8829, or by email at nihs@comcast.net, or visit www.nihspro.com.
