“I’ve Fallen and I Can’t Get Up” Doesn’t have to Happen

A commercial for a medical alert device company started running in 1987 and promptly went ‘viral’ throughout America. Well, as much as something could go viral in those pre-internet days.

The commercial was featured on everything from late night talk shows to casual conversations among people. There was a part of the commercial with a lady laying on the floor in the bathroom saying “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up”.

Falls can be a death sentence for elderly people. Many elderly people are too frail to have surgery after a fall. They become condemned to a life of pain or lots of painkillers. They also are at risk at the hospital of contracting pneumonia or another infection. Infections can be deadly in their weakened state.

That’s why it’s so important to stay as healthy as you can as long as you can.

I know I harp on exercise and a good diet a lot. Apparently there are a lot of people who don’t listen. So if you’ll indulge me I will keep harping. No other part of life can make you feel as good as being healthy.

Today’s backup data comes from a study of ‘High Intensity Strength Training in Nonagenarians’. Nonagenarians are people who have reached 90-100 years old.

Not exactly the demographic you’d expect to be doing high-intensity strength training.

Nevertheless, the researchers put 10 frail volunteers from a nursing home through an 8-week training program. They just focused on one exercise - a leg extension. This is where you sit on a bench and lift a weight by extending your leg from 90 degrees at the knee to extended out fully.

They took the one repetition maximum that each participant could do. Then for the first two weeks they did three sets of eight repetitions with 6-9 seconds for each rep. The amount of weight was 50% of their one rep maximum. They had a 1-2 minute rest period between sets.

After the second week, they raised the amount to 80% of the one-rep maximum.

They measured the one rep maximum every 2 weeks and adjusted the other sets appropriately if the maximum amount changed.

The researchers also monitored the nutrition of the participants and noted that the residents had an average daily protein intake of 1.3+/-0.1g/kg during the study.  This seems like a low amount to me, but we’ll go with it.

After 8 weeks the results were impressive. Average strength gain increased 174%+/-31%. In addition, the researchers saw a definite change in functional mobility. That’s the ability to do things like stand up from a chair and walk.

Several participants stopped using their canes to walk. They also saw gains in muscle size.

Imagine if these participants perform exercises for all of their bodies instead of just their quadriceps (legs).

Imagine if lots of elderly people worked out like this. Not just the participants of this study. It seems like the number of elderly people each year who say something like “I’ve fallen and can’t get up” could greatly decrease.

If you want to see the study, you can download a copy here. Have I convinced you to start exercising yet?