Tue, Apr 14, 2026 page12

• How to supercharge your fitness regimen

  • By Kate Lloyd / The Guardian
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  Chasing after your dog, catching yourself before you fall, jumping over a big puddle. These activities all have something in common, and it’s not just that they’re the makings of a very bad day. They rely on power: the ability to generate force quickly. It’s an often overlooked part of the fitness menu that experts think deserves more attention.

  Mobility, cardio and strength all help us stay active and healthy as we get older. Strength training in particular has boomed in recent years, as the importance of building muscle mass to keep us strong, protect our bones and help us stay mobile as we age becomes more widely recognized. But when it comes to activities such as pushing yourself up from a chair or moving your arms quickly to break a fall, the size of your muscles will only get you so far. You also need power.

  Imagine throwing a shot put, says Oly Perkin, a researcher at the University of Bath specializing in exercise to improve health at all stages of life.

  

  FC Barcelona’s Marc Bernal on April 10 attends a training session of the team at Joan Gamper Sports City, Barcelona, Spain.

  Photo: EPA

  “You might have the strength to move the shot put from a start position to the top position. That’s largely down to your muscle mass. But to do that super quickly, to produce the force needed to propel the shot into the air, a different kind of strength is required.”

  That explosive force depends on how quickly the nervous system can activate those muscles — the speed and efficiency of the brain-muscle connection.

  For younger, active people, improving power can help prevent injuries. It can also help people who lift weights break through a training plateau. Where power training may matter most, though, is in reducing some of the effects of aging.

  “As you get older your muscles shrink and that is inescapable, irrespective of how active you are,” Perkin says. “If you make sure that the neural element is maintained alongside the muscle, your ability to maintain physical function across your life is much better. Even if you inevitably lose muscle mass, there’s good evidence that you can make better use of the muscle you have.”

  The challenge is that power tends to decline faster than strength. After the age of 40 people typically lose about 1-2 percent of muscle mass each year. Alarmingly, muscle power can decline earlier and much more rapidly. The encouraging news is that power can be trained.

  You build muscle by moving heavy weights a few times a week and increasing the load as it becomes manageable. The tension that the exercise places on the muscle fibers triggers a remodeling process that leaves the muscles better able to handle the stress next time.

  Power is built differently. Instead of lifting heavy weights you move lighter weights, or your own body weight, but as quickly as possible. This could mean plyometric exercises such as box jumps. It could also include weighted movements such as throwing and catching a medicine ball, weighted jumps, snatches (where you grab a dumbbell from the ground and pull it towards the ceiling) and kettle bell swings. Weight-wise, you want something at about a six-out-of-10 difficulty level.

  For older or less mobile people, power training can start with very simple movements. Try wall push-offs: lean diagonally with your hands against a wall, arms bent, and push yourself away at speed.

  Perkin adds that, although everyone can benefit from training power, it may be especially valuable for older adults who have already experienced a significant decline in muscle mass. When muscle loss reaches the point of immobility, rebuilding it becomes very difficult. But improving the nervous system’s ability to activate the muscle that remains is still possible.

  “Growing muscle when you’re old is hard. There are physiological limits,” he says. “But for most older adults the capacity to improve neural function is still quite good. Within three or four weeks you can start to see improvements in key markers.”
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