Why Strength and Power Matter More as We Age

Ageing is an inevitable part of life, but how we age is something we can influence.

One of the biggest factors thought to influence the way we age is the decline of muscle mass. We've been looking into the evolving conversation around sarcopenia and healthy aging. 

‘Sarcopenia’, a term first coined in 1989, refers to the progressive loss of skeletal muscle mass and strength with age.

Though research has traditionally focused on the loss of muscle mass and its impact on movement as we age, there has been a shift in recent years from solely focusing on muscle mass, towards an emphasis on neuromuscular function - muscle strength, power and coordination. ‘Dynapenia’, the age-related loss of muscle strength and power not caused by disease or injury, is a term that is gaining increasing traction in conversations about healthy aging. 

In contrast to sarcopenia, which refers primarily to the loss of muscle mass, dynapenia highlights the decline in neuromuscular function - how well muscles function, not just their size.

The real problem isn’t just shrinking muscle, it’s what we lose along with it: the ability to move well, respond quickly, and stay independent.

Neither the loss of muscle mass nor a decline in function are solely inevitable parts of aging. Much of what we dismiss as inevitable parts of aging are often the accumulation of sedentary behaviours. The loss of strength, balance, and mobility is not an absolute given, and it’s something we can prevent to a certain extent with the right kind of movement.

From muscle size to muscle function

Thanks to the latest global guidelines - including the 2018 EWGSOP2 (Cruz-Jentoft et al., 2019) and the 2023 ANZ consensus (Zanker et al., 2023) - we now know that muscle mass alone isn’t the best predictor of how well we age. It’s function - how strong, fast, and coordinated we are - that really matters.

We need to start prioritising muscle strength and functional performance as the key indicators of healthy ageing. By programming these skills into our training, we can improve our ability to carry out Activities of Daily Living (ADLs), such as getting out of a chair, climbing stairs or carrying groceries, which are central to maintaining independence.

A few useful points from the research:

• Muscle power (the ability to generate force quickly) declines faster than muscle mass or strength as we age.

• In a 3-year longitudinal study of adults in their mid-70s, muscle mass declined by ~4%, strength by ~6%, and muscle power by nearly 9% (Reid et al., 2014).

• Low muscle strength has been linked to higher hospitalisation risk independent of muscle mass.

• A gait speed under 0.8 m/s is associated with higher hospitalisation and loss of independence.

• Poor chair-rise performance is linked to recurrent falls.

By helping people improve their muscle function, we can help them retain independence, grow in confidence and keep moving - regardless of age.

Movement that builds function

The most effective exercise programmes incorporate different facets of muscle function - power, speed, strength, coordination and functional task practice - allowing the body and brain to work together to enhance real-world capacity.

At Nature Moves, we adopt a task-based, peer-supported approach that allows older adults to engage in physical activity at their own level, fostering agency, inclusion and enjoyment. Sessions take place outdoors across varied terrain, exposing participants to real-world demands in a safe, supportive setting.

Since sarcopenia is a lifelong process, preventative strategies are crucial. Starting in midlife (ages 40–60) may help avoid substantial loss later. That said, improvements in strength and power remain possible well into our eighth and ninth decades - so wherever you are in life, now is a good time to begin.

Training to age well

We can’t avoid aging. But we can train to maintain and improve our quality of life as we age - so we can continue participating in the things we love.

That means being able to:

• Rise from the ground without help

• Catch yourself if you stumble

• Walk to the shop with confidence

• Stay engaged, independent, and active - on your own terms

1. Progressive Strength Training

Resistance training - using bodyweight, bands, free weights or functional loads - improves gait speed, practical strength and quality of life.

2. Power Training

Power declines more rapidly than muscle mass with age. Training the ability to move quickly - such as rising from a chair quickly or reacting to a stumble - is critical. You could use power-focused tasks and reaction-based games that challenge timing and speed.

3. Balance & Neuromuscular Training

We love using outdoor sessions to expose participants to slopes, steps and uneven terrain. Adding in one-leg stands while you’re out walking, log or curb walking and gentle agility drills, and we can build fall resilience as a by-product of real-world movement.

4. Task-Specific Movement

Practise getting off the floor, carrying loads, navigating terrain and climbing - these directly translate to independence and quality of life.

Muscle Fibres, Strength & Ageing

Exercise scientist Jackson Fyfe, PhD (his newsletter is really worth subscribing to), has recently highlighted research exploring how ageing affects individual muscle fibres - particularly in the vastus lateralis muscle.

Classic biopsy studies (Lexell et al., 1988) demonstrated that total muscle fibre number declines with age, with fast-twitch (type II) fibres disproportionately affected. Some estimates suggest substantial reductions in type II fibre number between young adulthood and very old age, linked largely to motor neuron loss and incomplete reinnervation.

More recent reviews (e.g., Granic et al.) reinforce that type II fibres tend to shrink more than type I fibres with ageing - often by 25–35% in older adults - and that much of the decline in function relates to neuromuscular changes rather than muscle size alone.

Longitudinal work (Reid et al., 2014) further shows that muscle power declines more rapidly than strength, and both decline faster than mass - reinforcing the idea that muscle function, not bulk, is central.

Resistance training remains the most well-supported intervention for improving strength and power in older adults. Studies consistently show substantial improvements in strength (often 30–60% within months), alongside increases in type II fibre size (Nilwik et al., 2013). While some motor unit loss may not be fully reversible, training meaningfully improves the function of remaining fibres.

Taken together, this reinforces the message that even if you are already active, adding deliberate strength and power work provides adaptations that steady-state activity does not.

You don’t need much, for most people, two well-designed sessions per week can deliver meaningful improvements in strength, power and resilience.

Few interventions offer as much return for the time invested.

References

Cruz-Jentoft, A.J. et al. (2019). Sarcopenia: revised European consensus on definition and diagnosis (EWGSOP2). Age and Ageing, 48(1), 16–31. https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afy169

Granic, A., Simoes, D.C.M., Bowen, T.S., et al. (2024). Ageing of human myofibres in the vastus lateralis muscle: A narrative review.

Lexell, J., Taylor, C.C., & Sjöström, M. (1988). What is the cause of the ageing atrophy? Total number, size and proportion of different fibre types studied in whole vastus lateralis muscle from 15- to 83-year-old men.

Nilwik, R., Snijders, T., Leenders, M., et al. (2013). The decline in skeletal muscle mass with aging is mainly attributed to a reduction in type II muscle fiber size. Experimental Gerontology, 48(5), 492–498.

Reid, K.F., Pasha, E., Doros, G., et al. (2014). Longitudinal decline of lower extremity muscle power in healthy and mobility-limited older adults. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 114, 29–39. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-013-2728-2

Zanker, J. et al. (2023). Consensus guidelines for sarcopenia prevention, diagnosis and management in Australia and New Zealand. Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle, 14(1), 142–156. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcsm.13115