Exercise Interventions For Older Adults Flashcards
What are the main physiological declines associated with aging? What are their functional significance?
Reduction in lean muscle mass—> reduction in strength and power (3x greater than muscle mass). Means becomes totally or partially dependent on others, which can have negative psychological impacts such as feeling of shame or lower self-esteem, also safety issues (cannot avoid coming cars or cross the streets while traffic lights are green).
Gain in adiposity—> increased risk of mortality and morbidity (CVD and metabolic diseases).
Loss of BMD—> increases the risk of fractures e.g. osteoarthritis.
Decline in aerobic capacity: reduced SV (hardening of heart muscles), reduced max HR （since 220-age), so CO reduced. Vo2 reduces based on fick’s equations. Means value compared to younger people lower. Needs to take into consideration for Rx.
Reduced sight, proprioception and hearing—> increased chance of falls. Reduced balance.
Chronic diseases (insulin resistance, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, hypertension, dyslipidaemia)—> safety during exercise programs, limiting improvements.
Know the acsm and Australian guidelines for PA in older adults.
Refer to the lecture slides.
Interpret the mortality risk vs. physical activity graph in terms of what it means for people with different physical activity levels?
Biggest reduction in risk from doing nothing to doing something.
The rate of reduction in risk gradually decreases as P.A level transitions higher.
Too much physical activity leads to rebounds in risk.
But higher physical activities still have lower risks than lower levels.
What are some factors that have led to improvement in P.A levels?
- Use of relevant printed materials that incorporates pictorial and descriptive information of exercises. Also calendars to keep track of progress.
- Use of videos /audios that contains instructions of exercises.
- use of theory based interventions for example cognitive behavioral therapy. (Methods that targets psychological aspects of an individual to initiate changes in behavior. )
- Behavioral and cognitive interventions (behavioral includes goal setting, using pedometers, rewards, self-monitoring, cognitive includes counseling, motivational interviews, problem solving)
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What is the role for aerobic exercise in aerobic capacity, body composition and muscle strength?
- significant improvement in aerobic capacity i.e. vo2 peak. Also, max HR reduces, meaning SV increases. The greatest gain for non-trained.
- body composition: significant role in reducing body weight compared to resistance training. Significant effect in reducing visceral adiposity. No preservation of muscle mass during weight loss.
Muscle strength: no significant effect.
What is the role for resistance training in aerobic capacity, body composition and muscle strength.
Aerobic capacity: significant effect.
Body composition: may be limited in reducing visceral adiposity. But can reinforce loss of fat mass and visceral adiposity together with aerobic exercises.
Muscle strength: significantly increased. (Higher the load greater the gain). Power increased too. (Intensity do not matter much, only the speed at which weight is lifted matters.)
What role can both modes of exercise play in managing body composition during weight loss?
During weight loss, our body losses both fat and muscles. Doing aerobic training alone will optimize weight loss (great effect over visceral adiposity, central adiposity (waist circumference) and fat loss. However, it does not prevent the loss of muscle mass and BMD in elders. So they are minimized/prevented via resistance training. Also RT combined with RT means augmented fat loss.
How do the guidelines match with the evidence base for exercise in older adults?
Refer to lecture slides. Generally the Australian guideline is way more general and appears to be designed with over the top caution with elderly populations.
Suggest the best solution: choose high intensity resistance training or low intensity training in terms of gaining both strength and power?
Should choose high intensity while maintaining the speed of concentric contraction. Since greater load evidenced (in studies) to increase the strength gain, and speed (load does not matter) ensures power gain.
What are the differences in body composition between diet and exercise plus caloric deficit and exercise without energy deficit for weight loss?
- For diet only and diet plus energy deficit: the weight loss are the same (only fundamental thing for weight loss is caloric deficit, which is achieved in both cases), however, amount of muscle mass lost is greater in diet group, because rt preserves /minimizes it.
- for no diet plus resistance training group: since no caloric deficit, hence no weight loss. But body composition has slight changes i.e gain in muscles and loss of small amount of fat.
For an elderly to lose weight what is the best training plan?
-resistance training plus aerobic training, whilst maintaining caloric deficit.
Resistance training reduces muscle loss, increases strength and power (reduces disability risk, hence improves safety, dependency and adverse psychological effects), augments loss of fat (reduces metabolic disease risk factor and other death risks). Improves aerobic capabilities.
Aerobic training has significant effect over visceral fat and overall fat loss, improves aerobic functions.
