Many people think getting weaker is just a natural part of getting older. It’s something we all expect—like having gray hair or wrinkles.
But new research from Ohio University shows that this might not be the whole story. In fact, your brain and nerves could play a much bigger role than we ever thought.
The study was led by Brian Clark, a professor who wanted to know why people lose strength as they age. His team worked with 66 older adults who were all in their 70s.
They asked each person to push as hard as they could using their leg muscles, specifically the ones that help straighten the leg. This gave the team a measure of how strong each person was.
But they didn’t stop there. After the strength test, the researchers used something called electrical stimulation. This means they gave the muscles a small electric signal to help them move.
If the muscle worked better after this signal, it meant the muscle itself wasn’t broken or too weak. Instead, the problem was likely how the brain and nerves were telling the muscle to move.
And that’s exactly what they found. The people who were the weakest at first showed the biggest improvement after the electrical stimulation. Their strength increased by 14.2%, which was twice as much as those who were already strong. This is a big clue that the real problem might be the nervous system—not the muscles.
So what does this mean for older people who want to stay strong? It means exercise is still very important, but not just any exercise. Activities that help both your muscles and your nerves work together—like balance training or coordination exercises—might be the best.
These kinds of movements require your brain to send messages to your muscles, which keeps your nerve pathways healthy.
In the future, doctors and therapists might use nerve stimulation to help older people stay strong. They could also design new workouts that focus on brain-to-muscle communication. These treatments could help people stay independent and active as they age.
Right now, the best thing to do is keep moving. Regular exercise helps keep your muscles and nerves working well together.
But thanks to this new research from Brian Clark and his team, which was published in the journal JAMA Network Open, we now have a better idea of how to help people stay strong as they get older. It’s not just about building muscle—it’s about keeping the whole system healthy.
This fresh look at aging shows us that getting weaker doesn’t have to be a normal part of life. If we take care of our nervous system and keep moving, we might all have a better chance of staying strong well into old age.
If you care about health, please read studies that vitamin D can help reduce inflammation, and vitamin K could lower your heart disease risk by a third.
For more health information, please see recent studies about common exercises that could protect against cognitive decline, and results showing this MIND diet may protect your cognitive function, prevent dementia.
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