Many nights during the week, you will find our family playing basketball on the street – parents against children.
What I started to notice earlier this year, as I headed against my 14 -year -old son Gus, was that while he became more explosive with his athletic moves, I had gotten significantly less attractive.
While he could activate a penny to make a quick cut in the basket and effortlessly jump for a recovery, I found myself relying on my biggest body to slowly muscle in position for a shot.
I was definitely even stronger than Gus – I just couldn’t turn this power into power as quickly as possible. I felt like I had lost the tools for it.
We are very talking about the strength and profit of the muscles here at AOM. If you are looking to become bigger and stronger, you will find many articles on these topics.
But a gym area we have overlooked but now I am starting to appreciate more and more as I move to middle age, is muscle power.
What I am experiencing in my basketball for Gus was a decrease in this property.
Researchers have given the loss of age -related muscle strength: Powerpenia. And growing research shows that it is a key predictor of whether you will be able to lift your grandkid, climb a stairs or pick up your keister from the toilet when you are 70.
Here’s what you need to know about Powerpenia – and how to resist it.
The Reduction of TrIFECTA muscles: Sarcopenia, Dynapenia and PowerPenia
You have probably heard of sarcopenia – The loss of muscle mass with age. Typically it begins around the age of 40 and accelerates after the age of 60. Muscle mass usually decreases by 0.5-1% per year after 40th, sarcopenia leads to an old age, which makes it difficult for the elderly to get out of the chairs, let alone get up from the floor if they fall down.
Then there is Rigidity – The loss of muscle strength. Sarcopenia contributes to power, but there are other things that lead to a decrease in age -related muscle strength. Mostly it comes under our neuro-mythical system to become less effective in activating our muscles. Muscle strength decreases in a similar trajectory to muscle mass, with a loss of 0.5-1% per year after the age of 40 years.
Both sarcopenia and Dynapenia can be moderate and even reversed with regular power training, so we are great weightlifting followers.
In 2024, researchers introduced a third sector of concern: Powerpenia – The loss of muscle strength.
Muscle strength is the ability to appear quickly. It is explosiveness. Examples of muscle strength in action include jumping for recovery, sprint and punch. But muscular strength is not just useful in sports. Muscle strength is also what allows you:
- Sprint to catch your child running on the road
- Jump off the way of an object that is going to hit you
- Pick up something quickly
- Binded stairs two at a time
- Grab yourself during the fall
Powerpenia may be the muscular concern of young age in the block, but it seems to be the most important factor in maintaining our physical vitality. Indeed, A recent study He found that power – not power – is the best predictor of whether the elderly are able to successfully browse the activities of everyday life.
Interesting for muscle strength is that it actually falls faster than muscle size and strength – up to 2-4% per year after 40. This means that in the 1960s or 70s, you may still look stable enough and even try a dignified and dignified test,
Why the rapid decline? Three great reasons:
First, there is the loss of fast -paced muscle fibers. Fast timetable fibers are responsible for creating fast eruptions and speeds, and of course atrophy faster than slow contraction fibers as we age and do not call them.
Second, there are changes to our tendons due to inactivity. If you do not regularly do activities that require you to exhibit power quickly, your tendons become rigid and less effective in storing and releasing energy, making explosive movements harder. Degradation of tendon health explains why many middle -aged guys injure themselves when they decide to play basketball for the first time in a decade. So I got a bad case of tennitis a few years ago, when I decided to do a sprint training after years of no sprint.
Finally, as we age and do not call our muscles for rapid crap for explosive activity, our brain and nervous system become less effective in telling our muscles to contribute quickly.
How to compensate PowerPenia
After my incredible performance in basketball games against Gus and after reading the PowerPenia survey, I decided that I had to do something to offset the decline of the muscular power coming with middle age.
Fortunately, it’s not so difficult to do.
Here are some things I have begun to integrate into my physical training to prevent Powerpenia:
Pelometric
Petrometer exercises develop explosive strength by training your muscles and nervous system to react quickly.
You do not need to devote a whole workout to the wash. You can add one or two petrol exercises to normal strength training routines. Here I do:
Before my first training session of the week, I do the following petretic exercises:
- Skip the power. Run a normal detour, but jump and lift your knee as much as you can. I do this for 15 meters, three times.
- Box. Stand in front of a box or other appropriate platform. Try to find a box that is at least 18 “from the ground. Jump into the box. To avoid injury, step and not jump from the box. Make three sets of five jumps.
Before the second workout of the lower body of the week, I do the following:
- Wide jumps. Stand with your feet wide from the shoulder, turn your hands back, bend your knees, and then explodes as long as possible, using your hands to help you promote you. Gently land with your knees slightly bent to absorb the impact and maintain the balance. Make three sets of five jumps.
- Pogo hops. Stand with your feet together and start jumping straight as much as you can. When you land, start the next jump as quickly as possible. Make three sets of ten hops.
Before the first training of the upper body of the week, I do the following petmetric exercise:
- Plyometric push-up. Assume a normal push-up position. Lower yourself to the floor. With an explosive force, push the floor with enough force that your hands leave the ground. Make three sets of five push-ups.
Before the second training of the upper body of the week, I do the following petmetric exercise:
- Overhead Medical Ball Slam. Lift the drug ball over the head and beat as hard as you can. Do three sets of ten slams.
As I continue with these washings, I will probably rotate some of them and replace some of the petrontric exercises we have written here in my routine.
Hill Sprints
Hill sprints are one of the most powerful weapons against loss of power. They participate in a fast -paced fiber better than flat surface sprints, while reducing the effects on your muscles and tendons, thereby reducing the possibility of injuries. In addition to training for power, Hill sprints are a great HIIT exercise.
Find a 20-30 meter hill. After a warm-up, do 4-6 sprints on the hill with an effort of 80-90%. Walk slowly to recover. Rest 1-2 minutes between sprints. You just have to do this once a week.
For more tips on performing safe and effective sprints in general, read our big driver for the sprint.
If you are looking for another cardio/hiit exercise, the jump is a big one. We have a whole driver for that too.
If it has been a long time since you did the type of explosive exercises described above, you may be worried that their efforts will injure you. Start slowly and gently, to be sure. Doing things like giving up the box after your box and uphill sprint will help you reduce the risk of injury. And you can do things like broad jumps and hill sprints on softer surfaces such as grass.
But you have to firmly facilitate these movements to avoid a kind of Catch-22: Avoid staggering exercises from fear of injury and really increase the risk of injury when life suddenly requires an explosive movement.
The only way to safely rebuild this ability is to train it – gradually and consistently. And once you have it back, don’t stop. Keep training these movements in old age until the day you are really no longer able to do them.
Here’s the strong aging
I have done these power exercises for about a month now, and I am already noticing a difference.
I am not as explosive as my teenage son, but I can shift myself to these tools when facing the street stadium.
And knowing that the training for power will keep me strong and capable as I get older – not only in the game, but in life – is the real victory.
