Physical Skill #8: Power

Level up your muscle health

This week we are focusing on Physical Skill #8 - Muscle Power: The ability of muscles to apply maximal force in minimum time.

During mid-life, the changing estrogen environment along the transition to menopause results in a decline in muscle mass, strength, and power. Muscle mass is the amount of muscle tissue one has, and strength is how much load our muscles can move. Mitigating this natural decline with age and hormonal change becomes even more important during the 8th, 9th, and 10th decade of life when maintaining muscle health will enable us to continue to be independent through our twilight years.

Power is something we think less about, but it is just as important as muscle mass and strength. Power is the ability to move weight over time:

When we think of power, we think of more explosive movements like jumping, weightlifting, sprints - anything where your muscles need to act fast! In everyday life, muscle power is required for recreational sports, to break a fall and avoid obstacles. For tactical professionals such as firefighters, police, military, and paramedics, the job demands sprinting into action every time duty calls.

In addition to a decline in muscle mass and strength, the hormonal changes of midlife are accompanied by a loss in muscle power in part due to the shift away from Type II fast twitch muscle fibers which specialize in explosive, short-duration movements to Type I muscle fibers which support longer duration activity.

Mass, strength, and power are separate but interwoven aspects of muscle health. To learn more, check out this archived edition of Athletic Aging: Muscle Hypertrophy Strength and Power: The Keys for Thriving in Midlife.

This week’s workout targets power in hip extension. A classic example of hip flexion and extension is the air squat. At the bottom of the squat, the hips are fully flexed. As we move to a standing position, the hips fully extend. Jumping is when we apply power to hip extension where the hips are flexed right before the jump and then explosively extend with the body and feet lifting off the ground as the hips fully extend.

Warm Up

AMRAP 7 (As many rounds as possible in 7 minutes)

• 10 up-downs

• 10 air squats

• 10 easy push-ups (knees, toes or elevated on a stable box, bench or chair)

Movement Practice

Take 5-10 minutes to review the workout movement videos and options below and select your weights and movements for the workout.

The prescribed workout weight “RX” is noted below the workout for reference. These weights are for more advanced athletes. If you are a beginner or intermediate athlete, select movement options and weights that you can perform confidently where each set of 10 repetitions can be performed in no more than 2 sets with a brief rest in between. Once you have selected your weights/options, practice 3-5 repetitions of each movement in the order written in the workout to be sure you are comfortable with the flow between movements.

Movement options

• Push Press (Alternative: dumbbell push press)

• Kettlebell Swing (American) (Alternative: Swing to eye level; If no kettlebell, - Double dumbbell swing

• Box Jump - (Alternative: Weighted box step-ups or dumbbell thrusters).

Workout

AMRAP 20 (As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes)

• 10 Push presses

• 10 Kettlebell Swings

• 10 Box jumps

Score: Number of completed rounds and repetitions.

(RX for women 75# barbell, 35# kettlebell, 20-inch box jump)

TIP! Manage fatigue by slowing down your repetitions. This allows you to achieve some “rest” while continuing to accumulate repetitions.

*Be sure to document your movement options and weight choices so that you can replicate the workout for your “re-test”.

Cool Down

As an expert in the hormonal physiology of the stress response system, I cannot overstate the importance of a thorough cool-down after an intense workout such as this one. Yoga is my go-to because it promotes whole-body flexibility and mobility care as well as calming the mind and increasing the vagal tone needed for our stress response system to return to baseline.

Indulge yourself in this 15-minute full-body stretch yoga sequence to jumpstart your recovery! #dontskiptheyoga

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