This review provides evidence that PRT is an effective intervention for improving physical functioning in older people, including improving strength and the performance of some simple and complex activities. However, some caution is needed with transferring these exercises for use with clinical populations because adverse events are not adequately reported.
Resistance training effects on muscular strength of elderly are related to intensity and gender.
The purpose of this study was to determine whether a high intensity (HI) versus a moderate (MI) or low-intensity (LI) training program would be more effective in improving the isokinetic knee extension muscular performance in healthy inactive men and women. Sixty-four participants, men and women, were randomly assigned to one of four groups: control group (C), LI (50% of 1RM), the MI group (70% of 1RM) and the HI (90% of 1RM). Participants exercised on three resistance exercise machines: leg extension, leg curls and leg press. The isokinetic testing method (concentric mode) applied prior to and at the end of the training period (16 weeks, three 3 times per week) to assess the knee muscular performance. MANOVA repeated measures revealed that the HI group demonstrated the most strength gains following a speed specificity pattern (most considerable improvement occurred at or near slow speeds from 7.3% to 11.2% for male and from 2.3% to 15.2% for female). In addition, males demonstrated a greater improvement of knee extension power output than females. In conclusion, HI strength training is proposed for elderly men and women as the most effective protocol. Furthermore only at low-velocity testing, women of the HI showed a greater change than men (p < 0.05). Regarding strength increase in relation to various testing velocities, a greater increase was found in HI at low velocities, with the other training groups exhibiting almost similar strength increase at all tested speeds.