Sex-specific Adaptation to Resistance Training in Older Adults

Summary

In general, men and women experience differing degrees of age-related decreases in physical function, with women having a greater prevalence of functional limitations and disability. A key predictor of this decrease in functional capacity is the reduction in leg muscle maximal power (product of force and velocity), which can be improved with exercise training. However, the development of exercise interventions to optimally improve skeletal muscle function in older adults has been difficult, in part because we now know that men and women respond differently to the same exercise training stimulus. In fact, the fundamental mechanisms by which habitual exercise improves physical function in older adults are still not well understood. The proposed studies are designed to address these knowledge gaps by examining the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the response to two distinct exercise training paradigms, and determining how these responses differ between older men and women. The investigators hypothesize that molecular, cellular and whole muscle contractile performance will be most improved in men by traditional low-velocity, high-load resistance training, and in women by high-velocity, low-load power training. Moreover, sex-specific structural responses in myofilament remodeling, protein expression and post-translational modifications will explain these sex-specific performance adaptations to each modality. To test these hypotheses, data will be gathered from 50 healthy, sedentary older men and women (65-75 years) prior to and following a 16-week unilateral exercise training program in which one leg undergoes resistance training and the other power training. The Specific Aims of this project are to identify the sex-specific effects of low-velocity resistance training versus high-velocity power training on: Aim 1) skeletal muscle function at the molecular, cellular and whole muscle levels, and Aim 2) protein expression and modification as well as size at the molecular and cellular levels. The within subject, unilateral intervention design provides a powerful model to minimize the effects of between-subject variability, and the translational approach will take advantage of our unique expertise with state-of-the-art measures from the molecular to whole body levels.

Conditions

• Biological Aging

Interventions

OTHER

Resistance exercise training

16-week exercise training program, wherein one leg undergoes traditional low-velocity, high-load resistance training and the other leg undergoes high-velocity, low-load power training.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Vermont

  collaborator OTHER

• National Institutes of Health (NIH)

  collaborator NIH

• National Institute on Aging (NIA)

  collaborator NIH

• University of Massachusetts, Amherst

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Mark S Miller, PhD · University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Study Design

Allocation

NA

Purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Masking

NONE

Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age

65 Years

Max Age

75 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2018-01-01

Primary Completion

2024-03-31

Completion

2024-03-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations