Leg press and chest press strength normative values by half-decades in older persons

Leg Press and Chest Press Power Normative Values by Half Decade in Older Women

ABSTRACT

Parrino, RL, Martinez, KJ, Konlian, JA, Conti, JM, and Signorile, JF. Leg press and chest press power normative values by half decade in older women. J Strength Cond Res 38(5): 991-998, 2024-Neuromuscular power is essential for the performance of most activities of daily living and the maintenance of functional independence throughout the aging process. Power declines rapidly in later life; however, this decline may be reduced or delayed with early detection and intervention. Therefore, this study provides leg press and chest press power normative values for older women. Women's power data for this analysis included 229 participants, 60-90 years of age. Power testing was conducted on Keiser A420 pneumatic leg press and chest press machines following a standardized protocol. Data were stratified into half-decade age groups and analyzed using a 1-way ANOVA. Descriptive statistics and quartile rankings are reported, and significant differences between age groups are outlined. There were significant differences in absolute and relative leg press peak power between the age groups ( p < 0.05). However, there were no significant differences in absolute or relative chest press peak power between the age groups. This research established normative values and quartile rankings for leg press and chest press power in older women 60-90 years of age, allowing comparative evaluations with patients and subjects by clinicians and researchers, respectively. These values should improve exercise interventions designed to improve power production by providing assessments of subjects' current status and allowing comprehensive monitoring of progress.

Effectiveness of elastic band training and group-based dance on physical-functional performance in older women with sarcopenia: a pilot study

BACKGROUND

Sarcopenia is a syndrome associated with aging that causes progressive loss of skeletal muscle mass and muscle function. In this pilot study, we compared the effectiveness of elastic band training regarding group-based dance on fat mass, fat-free mass, handgrip strength (HGS; dominant and non-dominant hand), leg strength, timed up-and-go (TUG) and walking speed in older women with sarcopenia.

METHODS

This is a randomized controlled trial, single-blind, repeated measures of parallel groups (elastic band group: EBG, n = 21; group-based dance: GBD, n = 19), and a quantitative methodology. Three 60-minute sessions per week for 12 weeks were dedicated to the interventions with pre- and post-assessments. A two-factor mixed analysis of variance (ANOVA) model with repeated measures was performed to measure the group×time effect.

RESULTS

A significant interaction revealed for fat-free mass (F1,16= 18.91; p < 0.001; EBG + 10.9% vs. GBD - 1.97%), HGS dominant hand (F1,16= 7.44; p = 0.014; EBG + 10.9% vs. GBD + 0.59%), HGS non-dominant hand (F1,16= 6.41; p = 0.022; EBG + 10.21% vs. GBD + 3.80%), leg strength (F1,16= 17.98; p < 0.001; EBG + 9.1% vs. GBD + 3.83%), TUG (F1,16= 7.52; p = 0.014; EBG - 14.7% vs. GBD - 1.0%) and walking speed (F1,16 = 6.40; p = 0.019; EBG - 7.6% vs. GBD - 4.35%) in favor of EBG.

CONCLUSION

Elastic band training produces significantly greater responses on physical-functional performance regarding group-based dance in older women with sarcopenia. On the other hand, the EBG revealed a significant improvement in fat-free mass and upper and lower limb muscle strength, as well as a significant decrease time in TUG, and walking speed. Elastic band exercise is a safe, easy, affordable, and effective physical activity strategy, according to the findings.

Incorporating Exercise Training into Cardio-Oncology Care: Current Evidence and Opportunities: JACC: CardioOncology State-of-the-Art Review

Cancer treatment-induced cardiotoxicities are an ongoing concern throughout the cancer care continuum from treatment initiation to survivorship. Several "standard-of-care" primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention strategies are available to prevent the development or further progression of cancer treatment-induced cardiotoxicities and their risk factors. Despite exercise's established benefits on the cardiovascular system, it has not been widely adopted as a nonpharmacologic cardioprotective strategy within cardio-oncology care. In this state-of-the-art review, the authors discuss cancer treatment-induced cardiotoxicities, review the existing evidence supporting the role of exercise in preventing and managing these sequelae in at-risk and affected individuals living after cancer diagnoses, and propose considerations for implementing exercise-based services in cardio-oncology practice.

Referent Values for Commonly Used Clinical Mobility Tests in Black and White Adults Aged 50-95 Years

OBJECTIVE

To estimate referent values for performance on clinical mobility tests conducted amongst racially diverse adults aged 50-95 years in the Southeast US.

DESIGN

This is an observational study of community-dwelling older adults from diverse racial groups who participated in observational and rehabilitative studies conducted from 2011-2019.

SETTING

Rehabilitation clinics around the greater metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia, region.

PARTICIPANTS

A total of 314 adults (N=314; 222 women). Individuals were predominantly Black (n=121) or White (n=164), with some participants from other racial groups (n=29).

INTERVENTIONS

Clinical and demographic data were collected at individual visits for each participant.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Four Square Step Test (FSST), timed Up and Go (TUG) test, dual TUG test, 6-minute walk test (6MWT), 30-second chair stand, and gait speed were all used as assessments in each cohort.

RESULTS

Performance slowly declines with increasing age, with a sharp drop in the ninth decade for preferred forward, backward, and fast gait speed; backward gait cadence; 6MWT, TUG test, dual-task TUG-Cognitive, and the 360° turn test. Declines were also seen in the eighth and ninth decades in the FSST. Among White participants, there were significant overall differences across age groups except in the assessment variable, preferred gait cadence. For Black individuals, there were significant overall differences across age groups for backward gait speed, fast gait speed, TUG-Cognitive, dual task, 6MWT, FSST, and 30-second chair stand.

CONCLUSIONS

These data enrich current referent values for brief, commonly used clinical tests in a diverse, older Southeast US cohort. These data include representatives of the oldest old cohort. This study will support race- and age-specific fall prevention and mobility-enhancing therapeutic application among older patients in clinical practice.

Validity and Reliability of the Seated Medicine Ball Throw as a Measure of Upper Body Power in Older Women

ABSTRACT

Strand, KL, Ly, AS, Barry, SS, Liscano, JA, Trebotich, TL, Martin-Diala, C, Martin, E, and Signorile, JF. Validity and reliability of the seated medicine ball throw as a measure of upper body power in older women. J Strength Cond Res 37(4): 902-908, 2023-In women, aging is associated with diminishing upper body power, which may increase the risk of falls and fall-related injury; however, the validity and reliability of clinical tests to evaluate upper body power need to be confirmed. The seated medicine ball throw (SMBT) is an upper body performance test used to monitor muscle function among older individuals. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the validity and test-retest reliability of the SMBT in older women. Thirty-five women (age = 75.15 ± 6.39 years) participated in this study. Subjects performed SMBT trials using common ball masses (SMBT 4lb and SMBT 3kg ) over 3 sessions. Familiarization with the SMBT and chest press 1 repetition maximum (CP 1RM ) was provided on the first day. On day 2, subjects repeated the tests, but data were recorded. On day 3, SMBT was retested followed by an evaluation of chest press peak power (CP PP ) values at 30-80% of CP 1RM . Significant correlations ( p ≤ 0.05) were found between the CP PP and SMBT 4lb ( r = 0.775, p < 0.001) and SMBT 3kg ( r = 0.734, p < 0.001), and SMBT distance showed expected declines with age ( r = -0.724 to -0.626, p < 0.001), demonstrating its validity. High reliability between testing days was found, and Bland-Altman plots showed few points that fell outside the limits of agreement. In conclusion, the SMBT is a valid and highly reliable tool that can be used by health professionals to monitor deficits in upper body muscular power to improve treatment protocols in older women.

Do people with musculoskeletal pain differ from healthy cohorts in terms of global measures of strength? A systematic review and meta-analysis

OBJECTIVE

It is currently unknown if people with musculoskeletal pain display different multi-joint strength capacities than healthy cohorts. The aim was to investigate whether people with musculoskeletal pain show differences in global measures of strength in comparison to healthy cohorts.

DATA SOURCES

A systematic review was conducted using three databases (Medline, CINAHL and SPORTDiscus) and Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines.

REVIEW METHODS

Studies involving participants with painful musculoskeletal conditions and multi-joint strength assessment measured at baseline were included. A meta-analysis was also performed to compute standardized mean differences (± 95% confidence intervals), using Hedge's g, and examined the differences in multi-joint strength at baseline between participants with painful musculoskeletal conditions and healthy participants.

RESULTS

In total, 5043 articles were identified, of which 20 articles met the inclusion criteria and were included in the qualitative analysis. The available evidence revealed that multi-joint strength values were limited to knee osteoarthritis, fibromyalgia, chronic low back pain, and rheumatoid arthritis. Only four studies were included in the quantitative synthesis and revealed that only small differences in both chest press (g = -0.34, 95% CI [-0.64, -0.03]) and leg press (g = -0.25, 95% CI [-0.49, -0.02]) existed between adult women with fibromyalgia and active community women.

CONCLUSION

There is a paucity of multi-joint strength values in participants with musculoskeletal pain. Quantitative comparison with healthy cohorts was limited, except for those with fibromyalgia. Adult women with fibromyalgia displayed reduced multi-joint strength values in comparison to active community women.

Sit to stand muscle power reference values and their association with adverse events in Colombian older adults

Recently, a valid method to assess lower-body muscle power based on a sit-to-stand field test (STS) has been published. Our study aimed to describe lower-body muscle power in older individuals aged ≥ 60 years and examine the relationship of muscle weakness with adverse events according to gender- and age-specific muscle weakness cut-off points. A total of 3689 Colombian older adults (57.6% women, age 69.1 ± 6.9 years) from the 2015 Survey on Health, Well-Being, and Aging in Latin America and the Caribbean (SABE) participated in this study. Lower-body muscle power normalized to body mass was estimated by the five-repetitions STS test. Anthropometric, physical performance and clinical characteristics were collected. Age-specific percentiles using the LMS method, cut-off points and association with adverse events were calculated. Lower-body muscle power was greater in men than among women (2.2 ± 0.7 vs. 1.6 ± 0.5 W·kg⁻¹, respectively; p < 0.001) at all ages. Muscle power ranked in the 50th percentile between 2.38 and 1.30 W·kg⁻¹ in men, whereas women ranked between 1.79 and 1.21 W·kg⁻¹. According to the cut-off points, lower-limb muscle power < 1 standard deviation  in men was associated with having dynapenia, poor gait speed, cognitive impairment and mental, visual, hearing and memory problems. While, women were associated with having sarcopenia, dynapenia, poor gait speed, cognitive impairment, mental, hearing and memory problems, dementia and hospitalizations of > 24 h in the last year. Overall, participants with poor lower-limb muscle power had a significantly higher risk of adverse events [in men: odds ratio (OR) = 1.51, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.19–1.91, p < 0.001; in women: OR = 1.52, 95% CI = 1.27–1.87, p = 0.001] than their stronger counterparts. This study is the first to describe lower-limb muscle power values and cut-off points among a nationally representative sample of Colombian older adults. In men, 7 of the 14 adverse events studied were associated with lower muscle strength, whereas in women, it was 9 of the 14 adverse events.