Abstract
The loss of strength and power in old age has important implications for health. Even
with healthy elderly people, cross-sectional comparisons imply a loss of strength
at some 1.5% per year and of power at some 3.5% per year (averaged across the age
range 65 to 84). On the other hand, healthy, very elderly people are at least as responsive
to strength-training as younger adults. It is important to establish whether elderly
people derive functional benefit from training-induced improvements in strength and
whether laboratory measurements of strength and power might be used to identify those
elderly people most at risk of losing important, everyday functional abilities.
Key words
Aged - aged 80 and over - muscles - strength - power - activities of daily living
- ageing physiology - human
