Stronger with Age

Stronger with Age Evidence-based strength training programme for the promotion of healthy ageing

You *might* have noticed my passion for strength training...but how did I get here?1️⃣ I started in medical science at M...
03/06/2026

You *might* have noticed my passion for strength training...but how did I get here?

1️⃣ I started in medical science at McMaster University. I went on to work in cardiac artery bypass grafting surgery and pharmaceutical clinical trials. I met older adults at their most vulnerable. We asked people who had never been physically active to attend cardiac rehab after surviving one of the most invasive surgeries on offer.

This experience got me thinking: why do we wait until people become sick in order to intervene with life saving exercise ESPECIALLY when we know that people with poor self-reported health and no prior physical activity history are least likely to engage???

I NEEDED to do more.

2️⃣ I went to Auckland University of Technology with the goal of developing the very best preventative intervention I could offer people who wanted the very best chance at reducing their risk of age-associated disability and disease. I knew there was something special about strength training but even I didn’t expect the results we obtained. Older adults LOVED the heavy load, progressive programme and the depth and breadth of benefits they gained. It’s at this point I truly fell in love with stories - the stories participants had about how strength training changed their lives, forever changed me.

My question became: so, why aren’t more people strength training???

3️⃣ At The University of Manchester, I started from the beginning - what do people *actually* know about muscle strength, strength training, and the muscle-strengthening guidelines? Not what ‘boxes’ they tick on a survey but what they really know. Turns out, older adults were not quite sure what strength training means or how to do it. And some community-based exercise instructors just didn’t seem to value the benefits that strength training will have in later life...

Continued in comments…

Women want to strength train.Their voices get louder and louder every time I give a public seminar.And I love it and str...
02/06/2026

Women want to strength train.

Their voices get louder and louder every time I give a public seminar.

And I love it and struggle with it at the same time.

Women are recognising the need for and the value of strength training, especially as they hit ‘mid life.’

But where can they train, with other like-minded women, at the same life-stage without the fear of unsolicited advice about what they ‘should’ be doing or on what their bodies ‘should’ look like?

There’s simply not enough programmes and services catering to them, their needs, and their preferred way of training.

If we *really* want to move from sickness to prevention, from hospital to community, if we *really* want healthier ageing for all and higher levels of physical activity in an ageing society, why do they keep telling me that they are struggling to find an intervention that has one of the broadest reaches into our physical, mental, and social health and wellbeing?

The research is clear - people new to strength training need fully-supervised, structured programmes that get results, they thrive on social support, and people who start early *before* ill-health sets in are much more likely to adhere to strength training and physical activity long-term.

There’s a need…and we’re just not filling it fast enough.

📉Global investment in health-related research has yet to yield the expected or desired improvements in population-level ...
26/05/2026

📉Global investment in health-related research has yet to yield the expected or desired improvements in population-level health.

Despite over three decades of rigorously controlled research evidence and international consensus for muscle-strengthening activity participation, just 22% of healthy adults self-report to be meeting recommended guidelines. Some evidence indicates that number is more like 4% - especially when we are looking at women.

I can’t think of a more substantial research-to-practice gap.

Sustainable implementation of preventative strength training programmes into community settings is urgently needed but is hindered by a range of barriers. This has highlighted the need for an equally rigorous and theoretical approach to plan for sustainable translation of evidence-based practice into community settings from the earliest stages of development.

We think this is especially timely given the Healthy Ageing report released last week by UK’s House of Commons Department of Health and Social Care about embedding physical activity in society and the NHS NHS Greater Manchester desired shift from ‘sickness to prevention’ and ‘hospital to community.’

I’m named in the brand new UK House of Commons, Heath and Social Care Committee’s Healthy Ageing Report - I will be fore...
22/05/2026

I’m named in the brand new UK House of Commons, Heath and Social Care Committee’s Healthy Ageing Report - I will be forever pushing for STRENGTH TRAINING messaging to be aligned to the guidelines and evidence! No more ageism!! 🙅🏻‍♀️

🥳 Paper of the Year 🤯Our paper, ‘Antifrail: Why Muscle (Power) Matters in Aging’ has been awarded PAPER of the YEAR by ...
29/04/2026

🥳 Paper of the Year 🤯

Our paper, ‘Antifrail: Why Muscle (Power) Matters in Aging’ has been awarded PAPER of the YEAR by !!

ACSM is the largest sports medicine and exercise science organisation in the world 🌍 ACSM’s Health & Fitness Journal is written to fulfil the information needs of health and fitness professionals. Its mission is to promote and distribute accurate, unbiased, and authoritative information on health and fitness.

This award reflects our collective commitment to promote accurate and up-to-date information on health and fitness to the frontline health and fitness workforce, especially those working with older adults.
 
AND

The latest evidence indicates that power training enhances physical performance, lowers the risk of falls, and improves quality of life - yet, power training is severely underutilised in ageing populations.

We need to train older adults to move quickly. Power training should be a part of every healthy ageing strategy.

If you haven’t read the paper yet, check out the link in my bio.

❌We don’t have an evidence problem❌We have seen that even frail older adults benefit from strength training. Known as th...
10/04/2026

❌We don’t have an evidence problem❌

We have seen that even frail older adults benefit from strength training. Known as the no nonresponder effect of resistance training - EVERYONE, always gets stronger, and this strength carries over to many other outcomes of interest in older adults (for example, physical performance). I mean, just look at Figure 5 in Churchward-Venne, 2015 🤩

We have also seen that lifelong strength trained master athletes are actually STRONGER than young recreationally active college students (Unhjem, 2016).

AND

We have seen, time and time again, and in all sorts of chronic conditions, that strength training is SAFE and likely only takes a few weeks of training to restore decades of strength loss (see the excellent argument and references presented by Toien, 2015).

BUT

Just turn to your social media platforms or even the BBC, and we see older adults sitting around hitting a balloon or shuffling their legs back and forth and people claiming that this is exercise, muscle-strengthening, or effective for falls prevention?! 🤯

So, why is it that the more evidence we have, the less we seem to apply?

Why hasn’t all that research been translated to practice?

What uncomfortable questions do we need to be asking to move this field forward? But most important, what are the solutions?

With approximately four decades of evidence, resistance training research has become quite nuanced. Yet, despite all the...
09/04/2026

With approximately four decades of evidence, resistance training research has become quite nuanced.

Yet, despite all the funding and publications, most people do not participate in any resistance training at all.

AND to anyone attempting to add resistance training to their routine, the choice of variables can be overwhelming.

I’ve seen all these possible variables lead to ‘decision paralysis’ - the inability to make a decision or act on intention due to the overwhelm caused by too many options and fear of making the ‘wrong’ choice.

That’s why American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) newest position stand aims to take resistance training back to basics.

They found that most anything works and the best thing people can do is go from doing no resistance training to doing ANY resistance training - but that still leaves A LOT of decisions.

So, if you or someone you know is looking to get started, but the options just lead to overthinking and inaction, I’ve stripped strength training down to its very bare essentials - 5 steps to your *first* strength training session!

The ‘deadlift’ sounds really scary to people who are looking to try strength training for the first time. To make matter...
06/04/2026

The ‘deadlift’ sounds really scary to people who are looking to try strength training for the first time.

To make matters worse, most exercises have multiple names they can go by.

I found that showing people that they are already doing the movement in their daily life to really resonate and put people at ease.

Do you pick things up off the floor? Great, you’re halfway to a deadlift.

Do you actively avoid picking things off the floor because you struggle to get back up? Great, we have an exercise you can do to get better at that 😉

So if you’re educated and working in this space please keep in mind, until exercise terminology becomes familiar, it’s really confusing - or worse, just straight scary!

What do you do to help people with exercise terminology?

How can strength training help to reduce the risk of everything from dementia to cardiovascular disease to cancer? Turns...
03/04/2026

How can strength training help to reduce the risk of everything from dementia to cardiovascular disease to cancer?

Turns out, our muscles are for far more than playing sport or looking good by the beach.

Every time we contract our muscle during resistance training, our muscles secrete hundreds of myokines (muscle-derived signalling proteins) that communicate with almost every organ in the body, including our brain, fat tissue, bone, gut, vascular system, and even our skin.

As a result, our muscles are like our own free little pharmacy. Participating in strength training helps our pharmacy deliver our weekly dose of myokines to keep us strong, healthy, and resilient, helping to reduce our risk of a number of non-communicable diseases.

So, let’s ditch the ‘I don’t want to build muscle because it’ll make me look big and bulky’ narrative and teach people to build, protect, and value their muscle! It’s worth its weight in gold!

Ps. STRENGTH TRAINING AWARENESS DAY is TOMORROW, 04.04.2026

Stay strong and spread the news 💪🏻

Let’s help everyone get

Only ever providing ‘light’ or ‘gentle’ physical activity or exercise because we are fearful of injury in older adults i...
31/03/2026

Only ever providing ‘light’ or ‘gentle’ physical activity or exercise because we are fearful of injury in older adults is probably an oxymoron.

While going from zero to 100 kg without preparation may lead to an increase in injury risk, chronically under-dosing or under-training may equally increase that same injury risk.

*However*

When people are accustomed to high loads it appears to have a PROTECTIVE effect against injury.

We should be aiming to increase strength and resilience by exposing older adults to increasingly intense training to prepare people for the expected and unexpected activities in daily life.

Your low loads aren’t the help you think they are. Wrapping older adults in bubble wrap will not help them stay independent. Utilise the progressive principle of exercise prescription if you want to truly reduce injury risk.

Stay strong my friends 💪🏻

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