It’s Time, Train for Power

Most active women, myself included, love to move. We love to walk, bike, yoga, swim, lift, swim, ski and more to break a sweat, be outside, be in our bodies, enjoying the mental and physical benefits of it all.

But here’s the thing I see that is getting overlooked: power training.

Band assisted explosive push-ups.

There are some myths around this such as a concern of getting bulky (rather outdated myth), no time, or simply not knowing where or how to start a resistance training program-especially a power based training program. Women may have their reason for not power training, but it’s missing and needs to be addressed.

Why?

Our power declines the fastest as we age which is critical to performance, longevity, and vitality.

As Dr Stacy Sims writes in her book Next Level, we need to “lift heavy shit.” She has been advocating this LHS training over the years supported by an ever growing body of scientific research. Researchers have known for a while the benefits, increased muscle mass and strength of resistance training, but now we can add that power lifting (moving a heavy weight quickly) has even more impact on long-term health outcomes.

Speaking from my own personal experience I find this to be, surprisingly, true. I say surprisingly because once I added the power training to my strength program-which I have been doing for years-at the age of 59ish I really noticed a difference in my performance, especially when cycling. My legs felt forceful on the pedals with a lot of return for my effort. I was surprised at what I didn’t know, I didn’t know I was missing and didn’t know I could get it back.

Here’s the difference between strength and power: strength is exerting force and power is how quickly that force can be applied. A good example of a strength move is a dead lift while a power move would be a fast kettle bell swing. Our power declines faster than our strength through the years if we are not addressing it in an ongoing, continuous program.

A report published in Mayo Clinic found that women with a more power based program showed lower all-cause mortality. Bottom line: moving the weight fast (power based) mattered more than volume or duration.

If you are an endurance junky like me, as women we are already efficient at endurance, we recover faster, oxidize fat effectively, and can get to it more often. But as endurance based women we can also lose muscle and power faster if we don’t train for it.

When we train for power, running economy and cycling efficiency improve. We can maintain or improve on explosive strength and speed-think sprinting capacity. Neuromuscular coordination and resistance to fatigue decline with age but if we focus on power based it doesn’t have to. And what I find most important is improving injury prevention by building joint and tendon resilience. All combined power based training is an investment in our fitness 401k.

If this hasn’t got you fired up to shift your training to power focused, it also boosts levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor which has to do with brain plasticity, learning, and (there it is again) resilience.

In other words, improved cognitive function, mood and emotional regulation, balance, reaction time, memory retention and focus all improve. Who wants to keep their brain sharp? We all want this!

If you are still not sold on power training, how about stopping sarcopenia, loss of muscle and strength. No muscle = loss of reactive time which increases your risk of falling, which is linked to fractures which can then lead to a loss of independence. What a cycle. No one wants this.

But the upside is you can do something, power based training, to maintain the muscle and bone mass, improve your balance and coordination, preserve metabolic health all to help increase lifespan and healthspan. We want quality of life as well as a long life.

If you are ready to get started, start with a trainer. Power based training is advanced, so you want to have foundational skills in the strength realm before stepping up to power. If you have been consistently lifting and seeing improvements you may be ready to step it up.

Contact me for a session to get you started with either your foundational program or start your power based training. It would be an honor to support you.