Why Older Runners Need Strength Training

Leg strength declines even when amount of muscle mass doesn't.

Monday, September 23, 2013, 12:00 am

People in their late 50s whose main form of exercise is distance running lose significant amounts of leg strength every year, even if they don't lose muscle mass, according to research that will published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research.

Researchers measured isometric knee flexion and knee extension strength in 59 men and 35 women. Isometric exercises involve contracting muscles while keeping muscles and joints static, in contrast to concentric and eccentric exercises, in which muscles are contracted while in motion.


At the beginning of the study, the average man was 58.6 years old, and the average woman 56.9. The participants said that distance running was their primary form of exercise.

When the participants were tested again almost five years later, their fat-free body mass hadn't decreased (i.e., they had the same amount of muscle) and their body fat had increased only slightly, by just more than 1%. But their performance on the strength tests declined dramatically. Knee extension isometric strength fell by almost 5% per year, and knee flexion isometric strength fell by more than 3% per year.

The findings strongly back the growing consensus that older runners should include regular strength training in their exercise program as a way to maintain stride length and stride rate, and to better stabilize the body to deal with running's impact forces.

As the researchers concluded, "Our data support newer exercise guidelines for older Americans suggesting resistance training be an integral component of a fitness program, and that running alone was not sufficient to prevent the loss in muscle strength (dynapenia) with aging."

The video below shows variations on one of the best all-around strength exercises for runners, the squat.