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Exercise intensity influences body composition in healthy older adults (2025)

maturitas.org

81–90 of 194 posts

Re: Exercise intensity influences body composition in healthy older adults (2025)

#81
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No joke. I go to the gym a couple times a week so that I'll maintain mobility and won't injure myself as I age - unfortunately 80% of my injuries come from the gym.

This is highly unusual. You shouldn’t be injuring yourself that frequently at the gym, especially if your goal Is just to maintain mobility and basic muscle mass as you age. This is such a strange thing to hear, as someone who also has gone to the gym a couple times per week for my life with a lot of different gym buddies. I would suggest considering a reset of your gym routine and gym knowledge, possibly with the he…

Only the 80% number was given. If he has been going to the gym for 30 years and had 5 injures at the gym, one outside that would be incredibly low for a total, and that level of carelessness at the gym is lower than I'd expect. If his routine was over 1 month then there are big problems.

Re: Exercise intensity influences body composition in healthy older adults (2025)

#82
post #76

I think it's important to note that this study, at least to my understanding, compared cardio training - not weightlifting or resistance training. Participants did 3 weekly sessions of either low intensity, moderate treadmill excercise or HIIT ( 4-min @ 85–95%, 3min 60-70% ). I get the feeling some commenters here are misunderstanding this as a lot of the discussions seems to center about weightlifting. Additionally…

HIIT is a borderline strength training. Consider Tabata protocol. It is supermaximal effort protocol, participants are required to exert maximum effort repeatedly. The duration of active phase of Tabata is 20 seconds, half of approximately 40 seconds after which maximum performance (power output) drops significantly, because body switches to a different energy system. In my experience, Tabata squats are done in range…

So that’s for building muscle, but what about if you wanted to lose a few kilos and increase endurance for long distance running? What would be the way to go to optimise your time?

Re: Exercise intensity influences body composition in healthy older adults (2025)

#83
post #80
post #75

One thing that I think gets looked past in studies like this is the “noob gains” effect. These participants are healthy adults but not highly trained. It’s pretty well known, in cycling at least, that hard interval training is super effective for untrained people or people coming back from a break, but the gains plateau relatively quickly, and the stress of doing this kind of work is hard to sustain for long periods.…

This study followed everyone for 6 months so they probably got past that factor.

I doubt it. In my experience (at least when it comes to lifting), newbie gains last at least a year. Good chance that if they've been untrained all their life (or the majority of it) that phase is gonna last a real long time.

Re: Exercise intensity influences body composition in healthy older adults (2025)

#84
> average age 72.0 years, body mass index 25.8

Careful before you assume you'll have the same outcomes. That's a group of people who are already fairly light compared to the American populace, and likely are suffering from sarcopenia of sorts and have low potential to gain much more muscle. (Protein absorption, hormone profile)

> Dietary intake was assessed using a 3-day food diary at baseline and analysed for total energy intake (kcal) and macronutrient intake (kcal) by a dietician dietary analysis software (Foodworks, Xyris®, AUS).

So this is both recall + ad libitum. The change could be due to hormone profile, the exercise itself, inadvertent changes in consumption, inadvertent changes in NEAT.

Re: Exercise intensity influences body composition in healthy older adults (2025)

#85
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the next 30 years, probably not, but mostly because you can get really strong really quickly, as most adults are really weak. It's not that unusual for people to pick up e.g. powerlifting past 50 and still get to levels well beyond what most younger adults can lift. I'm 51, and recently back into powerlifting after many years out of it, and I certainly expect to build back muscle and improving week over week for…

The time off from exercise is not a bad thing; even when forced due to holidays and being sick, life et al. As we age, we need more of that rest time. For those of us on the back 9, its critical to avoid those injuries because they set us back.

Rest time of a couple of days is good. I'm not talking about that.

But more than a week and you'll typically need to deload to avoid DOMS. More than a few weeks and it will start taking significant time to work back up, and a lot of injuries happens because people try to rush that recovery and add even more time to that.

If you regularly lose weeks at higher age, it quickly becomes tricky to avoid tipping over into lasting decline.

Re: Exercise intensity influences body composition in healthy older adults (2025)

#86
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This study followed everyone for 6 months so they probably got past that factor.

I doubt it. In my experience (at least when it comes to lifting), newbie gains last at least a year. Good chance that if they've been untrained all their life (or the majority of it) that phase is gonna last a real long time.

I stand corrected then.

Re: Exercise intensity influences body composition in healthy older adults (2025)

#88

> average age 72.0 years, body mass index 25.8 Careful before you assume you'll have the same outcomes. That's a group of people who are already fairly light compared to the American populace, and likely are suffering from sarcopenia of sorts and have low potential to gain much more muscle. (Protein absorption, hormone profile) > Dietary intake was assessed using a 3-day food diary at baseline and analysed for total…

Erm that's higher than the healthy BMI range, so not "fairly light". >25 is considered overweight.

Re: Exercise intensity influences body composition in healthy older adults (2025)

#89
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HIIT is a borderline strength training. Consider Tabata protocol. It is supermaximal effort protocol, participants are required to exert maximum effort repeatedly. The duration of active phase of Tabata is 20 seconds, half of approximately 40 seconds after which maximum performance (power output) drops significantly, because body switches to a different energy system. In my experience, Tabata squats are done in range…

So that’s for building muscle, but what about if you wanted to lose a few kilos and increase endurance for long distance running? What would be the way to go to optimise your time?

If you want to increase endurance for running I think the general suggestion is to hit the track and do running? Get your mile time down or similar.

In my personal experience I've found strength training better for losing weight than just cardio but any activity will help a bit. You'll really need to adjust your diet in some way for it though, or at least start counting and keep your calories steady as you do more activity. Trying to outburn what you eat takes like an hour of exercise a day otherwise, it's tough.

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