Body Composition and Fitness during Strength and/or Endurance Training in Older Men

Abstract

Waist circumference and skinfold thickness seem to reasonably assess changes in percent body fat during training. However, only DXA was capable to separate small differences between the groups in training-induced changes in lean body mass. Combined strength and endurance training is of greater value than either alone in optimizing body composition or improving physical fitness in older men.

How to simultaneously optimize muscle strength, power, functional capacity, and cardiovascular gains in the elderly: an update

“…Using similar training volumes for strength training and concurrent training groups, Karavirta et al (2009Karavirta et al ( , 2011 observed similar isometric (14-20 %) and dynamic strength gains (approximately 22 %) and similar improvements in maximal concentric power (approximately 16 %) in the study groups after 21 weeks of training twice per week in 40-67-yearold men. In other studies using similar training periodization, including intensity, volume and weekly frequency, similar strength, and power gains were observed in the strength training and concurrent training groups in older men (Holviala et al 2010(Holviala et al , 2011Sillampää et al 2008Sillampää et al , 2009a) and older women (Sillampää et al 2009b). It should be noted that in these abovementioned studies (Sillampää et al 2008;Holviala et al 2010;Karavirta et al 2011), the strength and endurance training were performed on separate days, which may have prevented the influence of the residual fatigue of one type of exercise on the subsequent performance of the other.…”

“…The majority of the studies reported that concurrent training induced similar strength adaptations using two sessions per week of each modality on separate days (i.e., strength and endurance) when compared with strength training alone (Holviala et al 2010;Sillampää et al 2008;Karavirta et al 2011). However, concurrent training sessions three times per week can result in an interference effect in the elderly, because greater strength gains are observed in the strength training group when compared with the concurrent training group when this weekly frequency is performed (Cadore et al 2010).…”

“…Twelve original research studies that investigated the effects of concurrent training in the elderly were included, and their results were described. From these studies, 10 compared the effects of concurrent training with strength training and endurance training that were performed alone (Wood et al 2001;Izquierdo et al 2004;Sillampää et al 2008Sillampää et al , 2009aCadore et al 2010Cadore et al , 2011aHolviala et al 2010Holviala et al , 2011Karavirta et al 2009Karavirta et al , 2011, and two studies compared different types of concurrent training (Cadore et al 2012a, b).…”

“…This phenomenon may occur due to the negative influence of endurance training performance on strength training-induced neuromuscular adaptations (Dolezal and Potteiger 1998;Kraemer et al 1995). Although several studies have focused on concurrent training in young populations García-Pallares and Izquierdo 2011;Izquierdo-Gabarren et al 2010;Cadore et al 2012c;Silva et al 2012), a limited number of studies have explored the effects of concurrent training on strength and endurance performance in older individuals (Izquierdo et al 2004;Cadore et al 2010Cadore et al , 2012aHolviala et al 2010;Sillampää et al 2008;Karavirta et al 2011). Certain studies have recently examined the influence of volume and intensity manipulation and the effects of the intra-session exercise sequence on concurrent training adaptations (Izquierdo et al 2004(Izquierdo et al , 2005Cadore et al 2010Cadore et al , 2011aCadore et al , 2012a.…”

Heterogeneity in resistance training-induced muscle strength and mass responses in men and women of different ages

“…At each ultrasonography measurement, two consecutive measurements were taken and then averaged for further analyses. The ICC 1,1 of two repeated US muscle thickness measurements for thigh muscles has been shown to be 0.92 (Sillanpää et al 2008). …”