Your secret weapon against frailty: muscle power

Muscle power begins to decline during our 30s, but it doesn’t have to. Now is the time to take back your power to prevent immobility and frailty.

By Paula Goodyer

Can you easily whisk a suitcase off the luggage carousel at the airport? Can you keep your balance to prevent a fall? And how are you going with the weekly grocery shop? One trip, two trips? Even more?

How strong we are is not just about the strength of our muscles, but their ability to move quickly and with force – and that’s known as muscle power.

“It’s muscle power that helps us get up out of a chair easily or quickly walk upstairs and, as with muscle strength, it’s important to hang on to muscle power as much as possible as we age,” says Dr Jackson Fyfe, Senior Lecturer with Deakin University’s Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition (IPAN).

Dr Fyfe notes that muscle power is one of the strongest indicators of how well people manage daily tasks as they get older. A recent study found that older people with low muscle power were almost 2.5 times more likely to experience falls and fractures compared to those with better muscle power.

Why do we lose muscle power faster than muscle strength?

“Muscle power starts declining in our 30s, and between the ages of 50 and 80 we lose around 5% of muscle power each year – then lose it faster once we’re over 80,” explains Dr Fyfe.

“It’s partly due to ageing itself, but the main reason is that as we get older we’re less likely to do activities that require explosive movements like running and jumping, or playing sports like soccer, netball or tennis.“

Activities like these use fast-twitch (also known as type 2) muscle fibres. This is the kind of muscle that helps with powerful, short bursts of energy – as much as 4 times more power than what other slow-twitch (type 1) muscle fibres produce.

While slow-twitch muscle fibre tends to stick around as we age, fast-twitch declines. Which means we need to train it to keep it. 

Ready to test your muscle power at home?

The sit-to-stand test is an easy way to test your lower body power. All you need is a chair without arms and a timer. Here’s what you do:

• Rest the chair against something sturdy (like a wall or table).
• Sit on the chair with your back against the backrest. Feet should be flat on the floor, and your arms folded across your chest.
• Stand up and sit down again five times, making sure your knees are fully extended when you stand and that you touch the seat when you sit down.
• Write down how many seconds it took to do the five repetitions.

The faster you can do the five repetitions, the more powerful your lower body muscles are.  If it takes you longer than the following scores, it’s time to boost your muscle power.

Age 50-59: no concrete data, but certainly less than 11.4 seconds

Age 60 to 69: 11.4 seconds or more

Age 70 to 79: 12.6 seconds or more

Age 80 to 89: 14.8 seconds or more

How can we improve muscle power? 

If your score didn’t make the grade, don’t fret. You can improve your muscle power at any age, even if you’ve never done strength training before. Even if you scored well on the test, adding resistance training into your day will help you hang onto your power. 

Start with resistance training

The first place to start is by strengthening your muscles. This could be through bodyweight exercises like push-ups or squats, or by adding weights such as dumbbells, barbells or exercise machines at the gym. 

You don’t need fancy equipment for resistance training to be effective. Bodyweight exercises like push-ups, squats, glute bridges and planks all challenge your body to build fast-twitch muscle fibres.

An exercise professional such as an Accredited Exercise Physiologist, physiotherapist or personal trainer can set you on the right track. Using their service might even be covered by your private health insurance.

“When you’re stronger, you can then progress to training for muscle speed too,” says Dr Fyfe. “There’s so much to gain from this type of training like a reduced risk of falls, a brisker walking speed and [even] better cognition - and you’re never too old to start.”

Remember to check in with your GP or other health provider before starting any new program.

Then take the stairs

That long line of people standing motionless on the escalator or gathered outside the lift don’t know what they’re missing out on. They’re skipping the chance to improve their muscle strength and power by walking up the stairs. Added bonus: climbing more than five flights of stairs a day can also reduce the risk of heart disease by 20%.

If you don’t usually encounter steps in your day-to-day life, seek them out. Take a detour on your daily walk up a long flight of stairs. Or make it a habit to use the stairs at the shopping centre instead of the escalator. You can increase your strength workout by taking two stairs at a time, or challenging yourself to move faster.

It’s okay to count both going up and coming down the steps, too. Studies have found that eccentric exercises like going down the stairs may be even more beneficial for building muscle than concentric exercise, or going up. Just remember to keep a hand on the stair rail to keep your balance steady.

Ace the sit-to-stand workout

This sit-to-stand activity follows on from the sit-to-stand test mentioned above. It’s simple but it can make a real difference to lower body muscle power, says Dr Fyfe. “Research last year found that doing three sets of five sit to-stand exercises three times a week improved muscle power by 29% in sedentary adults - and up to 38% in those who did ten repetitions.”

How to do the sit-to-stand workout:

• Sit on a chair with your feet hip width apart. 
• Cross your hands on your shoulders, stand up slowly and then sit down slowly. 
• Repeat this exercise five or ten times, then rest for a minute or two. 
• Repeat the same set of five or ten sit to-stand movements twice more. 

Add in a hop, skip and a jump

There’s no rule that says grownups can’t hop, skip, jump, leap, gallop or twirl. Done regularly, playful movements like these help improve muscle power and can help maintain bone density too.

Playing with young kids is one excuse to do this, but who needs an excuse? Have you ever noticed a young child on a walk? There’s not much ‘walking’ involved. Instead they will run to one next telegraph pole, skip to the next and bound to the one after that. Go on, have a go – it’s a simple (not to mention fun) way to add some explosive exercise into your day, but perhaps take a quick look around to see who’s watching first?