A MARTÍNEZ, BYLINE: The older you get, the harder it is to stay fit. Some even lose the ability to workout. According to the National Institute on Aging, about a third of adults over the age of 70 have trouble walking, getting out of a car or climbing stairs. This can make simple daily tasks difficult and increase the chances of falls. But one intense workout each week, lasting only 20 minutes, can make a difference. It's called slow strength training, and I wanted to give it a try.
MELINDA HUGHES: Basically, it's you're moving the weight very slowly, so you're eliminating momentum.
MARTÍNEZ: That's Melinda Hughes, owner of The Strength Shoppe in Los Angeles.
HUGHES: But the muscles, because we've worked them so intensely, they need a much longer recovery period. So the recovery period from this workout is five to seven days.
MARTÍNEZ: Seventy-four-year-old Gilda Haas (ph) is one of her clients. Haas and her husband are raising a 10-year-old, and she says she wants to be resilient for the people who depend on her.
GILDA HAAS: Where I hope to be is if I fall down, I won't break my hip. That's my goal, and also that I could keep up with a 10-year-old or a 15-year-old when I'm in my 80s. Yeah, that would be great.
MARTÍNEZ: She reclined a leg press machine as her trainer, Arjen van Eijmeren, coached.
ARJEN VAN EIJMEREN: Here we go again, pushing out. And so what we're doing is we're going for muscle failure.
MARTÍNEZ: That means you work your muscle to the point where you cannot move it anymore.
VAN EIJMEREN: Once that happens, we notice it. That's where the client stops. We still hold the weight there for an extra 10 seconds. That's right, here we go.
(SOUNDBITE OF DEVICE BEEPING)
VAN EIJMEREN: Ten, nine, eight, seven, six...
MARTÍNEZ: The weight machines here are different from what you'd see in most other gyms. They're often used in medical facilities for osteopathic and muscle rehabilitation. Another client, 87-year-old Fred Fragen (ph), says balance and strength are critical at his age.
FRED FRAGEN: One of the reasons that I injured my knee was because I didn't have good balance. I didn't have the strength that I had needed. So this has really helped, dramatically helped.
MARTÍNEZ: I was curious what slow lifting until failure could do for me. Van Eijmeren set me up in the leg press. I was a little nervous because these days, apart from running up hills, I rarely do any strength training for my legs. But I sat in the machine, put my feet up on the vertical platform in front of me, took a deep breath and went for it.
VAN EIJMEREN: Yeah, but you're using momentum there. Good. So we're going to slow that down. Maybe this weight is a little challenging for you.
MARTÍNEZ: About a minute into lifting 306 pounds, I was regretting my 10-mile run that morning, but I did make it to failure.
That was...
HUGHES: Surprising.
MARTÍNEZ: ...A lot more difficult than I thought, yeah.
HUGHES: Yeah.
MARTÍNEZ: To try and just keep and control the weight and do it slowly.
Over on the chest press, I needed a little extra motivation. And this gym doesn't allow music because they really want you to focus on the trainer's instructions.
I'm listening to Metallica in my head. I'm trying to get myself in the mindset.
HUGHES: What song?
MARTÍNEZ: "Enter Sandman."
HUGHES: All right, here we go. Pulling the shoulder blades down.
MARTÍNEZ: As I was lifting, Hughes began explaining what was happening physiologically.
HUGHES: So those are the muscle fibers, the muscle cells in your muscle that use oxygen to produce ATP, which is muscle energy.
MARTÍNEZ: I didn't hear a word you said.
HUGHES: OK, that's OK (laughter). You're getting close to muscle failure. Pull those shoulder blades down here.
MARTÍNEZ: Even though my muscles were at failure, I didn't feel like a failure. I was sweating and spent but felt good. The physical activity guidelines for Americans recommends that adults get at least 2 1/2 hours of moderate exercise each week, including strength training at least twice a week. So what about 20 minutes a week?
ROGER FIELDING: That makes sense to me that if you did one day a week at a very high intensity, you would still get strength gains and strength benefits.
MARTÍNEZ: Dr. Robert Fielding is a professor of nutrition and medicine at Tufts University and specializes in research on aging.
FIELDING: There are improvements in muscle strength when you do this kind of slow resistance program. Whether those improvements are better or less than they are with a more conventional resistance training program, I just don't think we have enough information to know.
MARTÍNEZ: But he says any exercise that's safe and enjoyable is a good exercise. As for me, I like running and I wouldn't want to wait a whole another week between workouts. But maybe 20 years from now, that kind of schedule will be exactly what I need.
(SOUNDBITE OF METALLICA SONG, "ENTER SANDMAN") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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