Improving healthspan and living longer is always a hot topic in the medical and fitness industry.
There’s been many different metrics: getting up off the ground with no heads, grip strength, steps/day, muscle mass amount, etc.
And all of these metrics are useful and seem reasonable.
However, recent research is showing that power might be more predictive than the rest of the variables mentioned above
A study of 4,000 adults for over 22 years and found:
Those in the lowest quartile of relative muscle power had 5–7× higher risk of death, even after adjusting for age, obesity, and chronic disease.
Strength, measured by handgrip, wasn’t statistically significant
“Powerful older people exhibited a reduced 9-year all-cause mortality regardless of BMI, waist circumference and BF%.”
Needless to say, it’s a powerful study (sorry).
How to Measure Power
There are many ways to measure power.
Remember physics class, it’s just P=W/t (power is work divided by time).
In the clinic the common tests are:
30-second Chair Stand
Timed Stair Climb
As a PT of over 15 years, I can easily see it when I watch someone simply get out of a chair or get on/off the table. Having adequate power is usually a prerequisite for quality movement.
The people that don’t have power will struggle with somewhat simple tasks like getting out of bed, stairs, going from sit to stand, etc. And when people struggle with movement, sometimes they avoid it. And when they avoid moving, frailty, weakness, and death can creep closer.
Another possible chain effect of poor power is more falls. You need to have power to be able to get your leg out quickly to prevent yourself from falling to the ground.
Summary
I was personally surprised to see power have greater effects on healthspan and mortality than strength.
But maybe because it’s more functional (preventing falls, maintaining functional independence) and is a better indicator of systemic health. Because you have to have a lot more systems working well to generate power versus just strength.
And with all of this healthspan stuff, the question becomes can you reverse engineer it by training power? Or is it a part of the aging process that is more of an indicator of overall systemic health.
Either way, adding some power training to your exercise regime is a great idea, especially if you’re over 40.