Lower Extremity Review
Here’s the impact of 12 months of exercise or inactivity on the physical function of older adults aged 70+. Like many things, the best time to start exercise was yesterday. But the next best time is now.
Holiday periods are when most fitness routines go off the rails. It’s a time when busy schedules and disrupted routines make many assume their progress will vanish. But it doesn’t have to.
When people say: “I don’t have time to exercise.” They’re not always talking about time. What they’re really often talking about is effort, inconvenience, and friction. That’s why the real benefit of making exercise more time-efficient isn’t actually saving time…It’s making exercise easier to start. Because when something feels easier to start, it usually becomes easier to repeat.
One of the most underappreciated benefits of being strong? It can help your endurance, too. We hear a lot about VO2max, which is one important pillar of endurance performance (and general health). But what most don’t realize is getting stronger can boost your endurance – even if your VO2max doesn’t change.
Research shows muscle loss happens about 5 times faster than muscle gain. One study found just 2 weeks of limb immobilization caused 3–9% muscle loss, which was similar to the 4–8% muscle gain seen after 10 weeks of resistance training in young men. Which means rebuilding is much harder than building in the first place. While it’s never too late to break this cycle, the reality is it’s easier when you take earlier action.
How much training do you need to get 50-60% stronger? It’s actually a lot less than you might think. A massive seven-year study modeled data from 14,960 people (average age 48, SD 11) who completed a “minimal-dose” strength training program once per week for up to 352 weeks (~6.8 years).
Between muscles, that is…We often blame ageing for muscle weakness, and think all muscles suffer the same. But in fact, that’s not the case.And that tells us something important about what’s really going on. Because the muscles hit hardest–our lower-body and stabilizing muscles (like those around the hips)–are the same ones we rely on most for daily movement. In other words, it’s not just aging. It’s inactivity. When we stop using these muscles as much, they…
Consistency is hard. We all know it matters – especially for long-term pursuits like exercise. But being consistent doesn’t mean never taking a break, either. Too often we beat ourselves up the moment we fall out of routine. Whether it’s a busy period, illness, low motivation, or life in general… even a short disruption and suddenly we tell ourselves we’ve “ruined” our progress.
Despite what many people think, the science says otherwise. Recent data shows older adults can get stronger using almost any resistance training approach – as long as the fundamentals are in place. A 2025 network meta-analysis pulled together data from 102 studies involving 4,754 adults around age 70. It compared different resistance training modalities and found something surprising.
A new study in pre- and post-menopausal women (aged 40-60 years) found 2 weeks of inactivity (<1,500 steps per day) was enough to drop strength by about 9% (and muscle mass by 2%). But here comes the good news. Not only did 12 weeks of resistance training restore these deficits, it further improved strength and muscle mass ABOVE starting levels.
New data using wearables shows 1 type counts up to 9× more. A team led by Emmanuel Stamatakis followed 73,000 UK adults from the UK Biobank study, tracking their movement with wearable devices and linking it to major disease and death outcomes 8 years later on average.
The new global exercise guidelines for healthy longevity in older adults are here. With exercise recommendations to address >14 chronic diseases, adverse outcomes, and geriatric syndromes including: falls, cancer, dementia, type 2 diabetes, depression and anxiety. A key focus is the need for personalized exercise prescription and translating the evidence to practice. “The ultimate goal is enhanced quality of life, regardless of age or initial state of fitness or frailty.”
Havers T, Held S, Schönfelder M, Geisler S, Wackerhage H. Effects of Skeletal Muscle Hypertrophy on Fat Mass and Glucose Homeostasis in Humans and Animals: A Narrative Review with Systematic Literature Search. Sports Med.
Superset training of multi-joint exercises hampered maximal strength gains somewhat compared with traditional-set training. However, there were very similar improvements in body composition, and strength gains were observed for all exercises in the superset group.
A lower activity in the muscles contributing to trunk instability (especially external oblique muscle and gluteus maximus) was observed in players with hamstring strain injury history, before and after ground impact during accelerated sprinting, compared to the healthy group.
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