Move It, or Lose It

Todd Price: Welcome to Short Talks from The Hill, a research and economic development podcast of the University of Arkansas. My name is Todd Price. Today we’re talking with Michelle Gray, a professor of exercise science and the head of the Department of Health, Human Performance and Recreation. Her research focuses on aging, both the physical changes in our bodies and the cognitive changes in our mind.

The American population overall is getting older. Here in Arkansas, it’s predicted that by 2030, more than a quarter of the state’s population will be 60 or older. The goal of Gray’s work is to help older adults in Arkansas and beyond improve the quality of their lives.

Michelle Gray, welcome to Short Talks.

Michelle Gray: Thanks, Todd. It’s a pleasure to be here.

TP: We often talk about strength as the main measure of physical fitness, but I noticed in your work you talk a lot more about muscular power. How are they different?

MG: That’s a great question, Todd. And they’re very similar, but there are some nuances which make them different. So, muscular strength is just how much weight we can lift, which is very important. It’s important as a young adult. It’s also important as we age, because we need to pick up the grandchildren. We need to pick up the dog food. We need to pick up the gallon of milk, etc.

Muscular power is slightly different, because, while it incorporates strength, it also has a measure of speed. So, it’s very important when we’re talking about individuals that are walking across campus or are walking across their house, or across a parking lot, etc. Muscular power, if you happen to trip when you’re outside, you have to have a level of speed to get your foot out in front of you and a level of muscular strength in order to catch your body weight in order not to fall.

TP: Why is muscular power so important as we age?

MG: We have found that muscular power is very related to the ability to perform activities of daily living. Being able to live alone, live independently, get up and down out of the easy chair, drive your car, perform other activities of daily living like donning and doffing a jacket, cleaning the house, doing the grocery shopping, etc.

TP: So how can we improve muscular power?

MG: Well, that’s pretty easy. Move it or lose it, Todd. That’s the easiest answer to that question. And we have to incorporate both muscular strength and then speeded movement as well. And I’ve developed a couple of high velocity resistance training protocols that I’ve implemented both here in the state of Arkansas, specifically in northwest Arkansas, as well as at a previous institution in Oklahoma. And we found that those speeded movements, so lifting weights quickly, is very beneficial to improving muscular power, number one. But also it translates into being able to perform those activities of daily living as well.

TP: The exercises you’re talking about, are these for older adults or younger adults?

MG: They’re for everyone. All of us over the age of 18, I believe—as recommended by the American College of Sports Medicine—should be doing aerobic activity as well as muscular strengthening activities. We have been slow to adopt the idea that we should be performing muscular power activities. But again, if we do these high velocity resistance training protocols, like I explained earlier, that’s incorporating the muscular strength component as well as the muscular power component. And to go back and clearly answer your question, we should all be doing these types of activities.

TP: Often when we think about resistance training, we think about lifting weights, seeing how much you can bench press. You’re not talking about lifting as much as you possibly can. What kind of resistance training should people incorporate?

MG: Well, that’s a great question. Any amount of overload is going to have a benefit. So the American College of Sports Medicine recommends that we do a minimum of two days of muscular strengthening activities. And we do at least one set, up to three sets of 8 to 12 repetitions, to improve muscular strength. And we’re not going to get bulky. I want to be super clear. We’re not going to look like a football player. We’re not going to look like our student athletes that are across campus. But that’s enough to improve muscular strength in order to have the highest health outcomes that we possibly can.

TP: And is it ever too late to start resistance training?

MG: Absolutely not. I have started folks on a high velocity resistance training, as well as resistance training, up to 92 years of age. That is the oldest participant that I have personally worked with, and I have worked with folks that are 18 years of age. So at any age, we should be participating in muscular strengthening activities.

TP: And if we are doing resistance training when we’re younger, when we’re in our 20s, 30s, or middle age, will that pay off when we get older?

MG: Absolutely. Especially if you maintain that level of overload and that level of physical activity throughout the lifespan. But there is a little bit of research, and this is beyond my area of expertise, but there is some research that says if we exercise when we’re younger, then even if we take a bit of a break during our midlife, we can pick up later in life and not have to start from scratch. So we have this muscle memory, if you will, in our muscles that will help us improve much quicker if we have done some sort of muscular strengthening activities as a younger adult.

TP: Your research also looks at cognitive decline in older adults. Why is it sometimes hard to know that, say, our parents or an older relative are starting to have some cognitive decline? Why is it hard to detect?

MG: That’s interesting. It’s multifaceted. I’ll be completely honest. We have largely ignored the brain and these cognitive changes over the last 50 years, unlike the changes in muscular strength and the ability of our muscles to be able to function in everyday life, because it’s complicated. I will say that, number one. But sometimes we do these compensatory mechanisms that will help us function in everyday life. Though maybe we know, or maybe we’re ignoring, that we’re having declines in cognition. And instead of remembering what I need to pick up at the store, now I’ll write myself a list of what I need to pick up at the store. So, I’m still completing the task at hand, but I have this compensatory mechanism that helps me complete that task. So sometimes we’re masking that we have a decline in cognition, and sometimes we don’t actually realize that we’re having that decline in cognition. We just know we don’t recognize faces as well as we did. Or I need a list to go to the store. And we’re really not putting the two and two together.

TP: Do you think it’s harder for people to recognize that cognitive decline in themselves? I mean, if you can’t run as fast or you get winded easier, it’s hard not to notice that. But do people tend to overlook their own cognitive decline?

MG: I think so, and I think we don’t want to realize that we’re having cognitive decline. Changes in cognition are very scary. It’s similar to cardiovascular disease and cancer. We don’t want those things to happen, but we know there can be a cure. There can be surgery. There can be medications that help us live longer with those particular ailments. Right now, there’s nothing we can do about cognitive decline. There are some medications that are on the market. They are very expensive, and the question is how good are they for longitudinal improvements in cognition. That we don’t know yet, because they’re so new on the market. I said there’s nothing we can do about cognitive decline, but that’s once we have a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. We can do a lot to prevent and slow that negative trajectory before there’s actually a diagnosis.

TP: So we can exercise our minds in the same way as we can exercise our bodies. What sort of exercises can we do to keep cognitive decline at bay?

MG: Anything. And it’s all about overload. I talked about overload when we’re talking about the muscles earlier and getting stronger. Anything new. We can’t do the same Sudoku that we did five years ago. We have to graduate from the easy to the moderate to the hard. Learning something new. It doesn’t matter what that is. I’m an exercise physiologist, so I recommend maybe learning a new dance, because you’re incorporating something new. I have to learn the steps of the new dance, but I’m also being physically active as well. And you usually engage with a partner. That social engagement is important to hang on to that cognition for as long as you can.

TP: It seems like often we think of physical decline and cognitive decline as two separate things. I mean, so often we’ll say, well, he’s moving a little slower, but his mind’s still sharp. But is that true? I mean, how intertwined are the two?

MG: That’s a good question. And largely, over the last decade or so—well, forever—we’ve treated those two things completely separately. We want to study the physical decline. We want to study the cognitive decline. And never the two shall meet. But I’ve done a couple of projects over the last couple of years that show there’s an intermingling and intertwining between the ability to perform physical function and your cognitive function. Now, my question is, which is causing which, right? Is it the physical function that is causing a decrease in my ability to perform physical activity, which then decreases blood flow and some of those benefits to the brain. And is the decrease in physical function over time driving the decrease in cognition? Or is it the other way around? Because maybe I’m having decreases in cognitive function and cognitive decline, which is limiting my ability to remember to go to the gym, to know what to do when I go into the gym, etc. I don’t know which is driving which, but I do know that they are related to each other.

TP: Well, certainly, the idea of losing physical ability, losing cognitive ability, it can certainly be frightening for everybody, I think. And as someone who studies aging, who thinks a lot about it, how do you think about that and how do you encourage others as they get older to approach what will probably be an inevitable decline in some ways?

MG: Right, and we’re all aging. I want to make that point. I talk to my undergraduate students, who are largely 18 to 22 years of age, and I always ask the question, “Raise your hand if you want to age.” And no one ever raises their hand. And I said, well, what’s the alternative? Right. It’s not to age at all, which is to die now. And no one wants that either. But if we approach aging like we approach anything else, and we do everything in moderation, eating your fruits and vegetables in moderation, exercising in moderation, drinking alcohol in moderation, avoiding smoking, so forth and so on. The things that we know that are beneficial for one’s overall health are also important to maintain the physical function, as well as the cognitive function, throughout someone’s lifespan.

TP: Well, excellent. It’s been a great conversation. Thanks so much.

MG: Thanks so much, Todd. I appreciate it.