But developing our capacities to recover from falls can help us avoid injury, which is essential for enjoying other activities. I used to squat and deadlift, now I'm more interested in quickstep dances and other footwork exercises." He's also added elements of grip-strength training for when he needs to quickly grab a tree branch or stair rail when he stumbles.ĭespite the increased risk of falling that comes with age, McGill does not think that fitness for seniors is just training to avoid falls. "Hip power and agility have become a much more important part of fitness for me.
With this in mind, McGill has tuned his fitness regime to this new demand. It's pure mechanics." Older people fall more easily because they have lost the hip muscle power to get their foot out in front of them, together with the mobility in the hip that allows them to do it easily.
To arrest your fall, it has to be ahead of your centre of mass. "When you're stumbling, your job is to get your foot out in front of you. Therefore, says McGill, one of the key physical demands for aging people is "to maintain the ability to recover from a stumble." He takes a very practical view of the problem. He adds that it's essential to "work within your capacity, and increase your health and injury resilience without crossing a tipping point that causes injury."Īccording to the Public Health Agency of Canada, falling is the leading cause of injury-related hospitalizations among seniors in Canada. Tune the body to efficiently meet a specific demand," says McGill. "Fitness programming is like tuning a vehicle. As such, he recommends we change our training accordingly. And the reality is that physical capabilities change with age as do the specific risks. He says that most often they're either overtrained or undertrained. McGill is blunt about this: "Many people have back pain because they are an office worker training like an NHL hockey player, when they should be focusing on addressing the physical stresses from prolonged sitting, then build fitness for resilience." Playing squash, working at a desk, or being a firefighter all call for different forms of physical fitness, and individual training should reflect that. A training approach should be designed to develop the capabilities that the individual needs but currently doesn't have.ĭemands, of course, vary with each individual. Tuning your body to meet the demands of your lifestyleĪccording to McGill, the key to designing a fitness regime is to first understand the specific demands of a person's job and lifestyle, then measure the person's ability to meet the demands. We asked him to explain how the demands and capacities of our bodies change as we age, and to take us through the seven-day training cycle that he uses to stay strong and mobile into his later years.
Now in his 60's, with hip replacement, McGill is focusing more and more on adjusting fitness regimens to enhance function in an older body. He's both a researcher and clinician, and he's worked with everyone from desk workers to elite athletes to help them live and perform without pain. Stuart McGill is professor emeritus in Spine Biomechanics at the University of Waterloo and founder of Backfitpro Inc. Many have vague ideas about shifts from hockey to golf or from CrossFit to aquafit, but can we be more specific? How should our approach to fitness change as we age?ĭr.
It's obvious that the appropriate fitness regime for an average 20-year-old may not suit the average 60-year-old.
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