Resistance training improves quality of life and psychological functioning for older adults

Resistance training can promote environmental quality of life and sense of coherence in older adults. This was observed in a study carried out at the University of Jyväskylä, Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, Finland, in co-operation with the Gerontology Research Center and the Neuromuscular Research Center.

25 nov 2017--"The importance of resistance training for the muscular strength and physical functioning in older adults is well known, but the links to psychological functioning have been studied less," says doctoral student Tiia Kekäläinen from the University of Jyväskylä.
The study included 104 healthy older adults aged 65 to 75 who did not meet the physical activity recommendations for aerobic exercise at baseline and did not have a previous strength training experience.
Participants were randomized to three training groups and a control group. The training groups participated in supervised resistance training for nine months. For the first three months, all training groups trained twice a week to become familiar with resistance training methods, and for the next six months they participated in progressive resistance training with different frequencies: once, twice or three times a week. Psychological functioning was assessed through physical, psychological, social and environmental quality of life, sense of coherence, and depressive symptoms.
Environmental quality of life improved after three months of resistance training. After nine months training, also sense of coherence increased, but only among those older adults who trained the whole nine months with twice a week frequency.
"The results suggest that older adults´ ability to manage their environment and life could be improved by resistance training. In the future, it would be interesting to investigate the stability of these changes over a longer period than nine months. There is also a need for further research on the frequency of training, as this study does not allow us to say whether the differences between training groups were due to training frequency or continuity," Kekäläinen says.
This study supports the findings of previous studies that resistance training has positive effects on the psychological functioning of older people. Consequently, regular resistance training could be recommended to older adults not only for physical benefits, but also for the promotion of psychological functioning.

More information: Tiia Kekäläinen et al. Effects of a 9-month resistance training intervention on quality of life, sense of coherence, and depressive symptoms in older adults: randomized controlled trial, Quality of Life Research (2017). DOI: 10.1007/s11136-017-1733-z


Provided by University of Jyväskylä

New AHA Statement Totes Benefits of Resistance Training for Cardiovascular Health

July 20, 2007 — A new AHA scientific statement summarizing recommendations for resistance training in people with and without cardiovascular disease (CVD) should serve as a reminder to clinicians that there are "singular" benefits to improving muscular strength in addition to regular aerobic exercise, experts say. Dr Mark Williams (Creighton University, Omaha, NE) who led the writing group, told heartwire that there is important new information in the statement, that updates the original resistance training guidelines of 2000.
Despite this being the second set of recommendations on this topic to come from the American Heart Association (AHA), Williams says physicians may still overlook resistance exercise — lifting weights, or exerting force against resistance — as part of cardiovascular (CV) fitness regimen.
"Telling someone to exercise typically does either directly or indirectly suggest that they should be doing more walking," he told heartwire. "I don't think resistance training is frequently thought of as part of an overall exercise program."
The statement was published in a rapid access issue of Circulation, July 16, 2007.
Resistance Training Additive to Aerobic Exercise
The statement reviews the health benefits of resistance training and its impact on the CV function. It also summarizes the role of resistance training in modifying CVD risk factors, its benefit in specific CVD populations, and provides recommendations on evaluating patients prior to starting a resistance training regimen and suggestions for how such a regimen could be prescribed.
Williams highlighted a table in the AHA statement that compares the effects of aerobic activities and resistance training on different parameters, noting that some clinicians may be unaware of the differential effects. For example, while aerobic exercise can have moderate effects on percent body fat, compared with merely a small effect of resistance training, resistance training has moderate effects on lean body mass, and major effects on muscle strength, while aerobic exercise has no effect, and minimal effects, respectively. By contrast, both aerobic and resistance exercise produce similarly small effects on high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, while aerobic exercise has greater effects than resistance training on triglycerides. Importantly, both forms of exercise can have similar effects on quality of life.
Williams pointed out that the importance of resistance training is now fairly well recognized in cardiac rehabilitation programs, but its benefits are less commonly appreciated in primary prevention. He also highlighted the role of resistance training in groups where it has been used the least: in older women, the elderly, and in patients with heart failure.
"People with heart failure have significantly dysfunctional hearts and as a result of that, their peripheral musculature and their ability to get around and do the things they need to do is significantly and negatively impacted by the fact that they have heart failure," Williams said. "We have been including patients with heart failure in our aerobic cardiac rehabilitation programs, but now there are data to suggest that patients, under appropriate evaluation and supervision, can improve functional capacity, physical strength, endurance, and quality of life by incorporating some resistance training into their exercise programs, too."
Just Do It — Correctly
Proper instruction and technique is essential for anyone beginning resistance training for the first time, but it is especially important for people with existing cardiovascular disease, Williams noted.
"Patients who come into cardiac rehabilitation programs typically get that kind of instruction, but people who are not participating in those formal kinds of programs should get in touch with an exercise specialist, or a physical therapist to provide some input on how to be doing resistance training properly. And the key there is that patients who do have cardiovascular disease need to identify themselves as such, so people don't assume they are healthy and give them instructions that would be inappropriate."
Of note, Williams added, in all of the research to date, there are almost no reports of significant adverse effects of resistance training, although these were all supervised, controlled studies where risk is minimized. "The downsides are there, but the upsides are greater, and the downsides appear mostly to be related to the fact that people do things they shouldn't be doing, or don't seek advice or evaluation prior to starting," he said.
The authors have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
Circulation. Published online July 16, 2007.

Resistance Training Improves Muscle Strength, Function in Patients With Metabolic Risk Factors

June 19, 2007 — In patients with high or low numbers of metabolic risk factors, resistance training improves muscle strength and the ability to perform activities of daily living, according to the results of a randomized study published online in the June 11 Publish Ahead of Print issue of Diabetes Care.
"There are limited data on the effects of resistance training (RT) on the capacity to perform activities of daily living (ADL's) and quality of life (QoL) for individuals with high number of metabolic risk factors (HiMF)," write Itamar Levinger, MSc, from Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia, and colleagues. "This study examined the effect of RT on the capacity to perform ADL's and QoL in individuals with HiMF and compared any benefits with individuals with low numbers of metabolic risk factors (LoMF)."
The investigators randomized 55 untrained individuals, aged 50.8 ± 6.5 years, to 4 groups: high metabolic risk factor training, high metabolic risk factor controls, low metabolic risk factor training, and low metabolic risk factor controls. Participants underwent anthropometric measurements and assessments of aerobic power (peak oxygen consumption), muscle strength, capacity to perform ADLs, and a self-perceived quality-of-life questionnaire at baseline and after 10 weeks of RT. A repeated-measures analysis of variance helped in evaluating the effect of training over time among groups.
Although training increased lean body mass in individuals in both the high metabolic risk factor training (P = .03) and low metabolic risk factor training (P = .03) groups, total fat content and peak oxygen consumption improved only in the low metabolic risk factor training group. Both training groups improved in muscle strength (P < .01). Time to complete ADLs decreased by 8.8% in the low metabolic risk factor training group (P < .01) and by 9.7% in the high metabolic risk factor training group (P < .01), but only those in the latter group reported improvement in quality of life.
Study limitations include less qualitative dysfunction in the low metabolic risk factor training group at baseline and possible sex bias between the high metabolic risk factor (male:female, 20:10) vs low metabolic risk factor (8:17) subgroups.
"RT improved muscle strength and the capacity to perform ADL's in individuals with HiMF and LoMF," the authors write. "RT improved QoL for the HiMF group, and this was independent of changes to body fat content or aerobic power. Longer training regimes may be needed in order to improve QoL in individuals with LoMF."
Diabetes Care. Published online June 11, 2007.