APPLIED PHYSIOLOGY OF STRENGTH AND POWER IN OLD-AGE

The loss of strength and power in old age has important implications f or health. Even with healthy elderly people, cross-sectional compariso ns imply a loss of strength at some 1.5 % per year and of power at som e 3.5 % per year (averaged across the age range 65 to 84). On the othe r hand, healthy, very elderly people are at least as responsive to str ength-training as younger adults. It is important to establish whether elderly people derive functional benefit from training-induced improv ements in strength and whether laboratory measurements of strength and power might be used to identify those elderly people most at risk of losing important, everyday functional abilities.