Progressive overload principles can be applied to frail elderly individuals, leading to significant functional improvements in as little as 12 weeks.

“in fact when I was at uh University of Illinois where I was in the department of nutritional Sciences right across the street in the exercise physiology department they were conducting a study on um frail elderly so people who basically almost couldn't couldn't really walk like they could but it was very tough for them uh and they just started progressively overloading them and that looked like basically squatting to a really high chair to start right and what they saw was incredible in like 12 weeks they actually had people who could squat down to like a below parallel chair and come back up which may not sound like much for the average person but when you're talking about somebody who's you know frail elderly the difference in functionality and their lifestyle is going to be incredible in terms of what they can do”

“and they just started progressively overloading them and that looked like basically squatting to a really high chair to start right and what they saw was incredible and like 12 weeks they actually had people who could squat down to like a below parallel chair and come back up which may not sound like much for the average person but when you're talking about somebody who's you know frail elderly the difference in functionality and their lifestyle is going to be incredible in terms of what they can do”

“and then I think like you also see with like running there's kind of like a j-shaped curve part of me thinks that just the people that take it so far whether it be powerlifting running whatever that it's not that their sport makes them more prone to more to early mortality but more so that they probably have other behaviors of being an extremist that probably contribute to that yeah interesting um but as far as strength goes I mean really what we're talking about is Progressive overload I mean that that is the most important core principle and it actually really applies to a lot of things in life to be quite honest but when it comes to lifting weights a lot of people hear Progressive overload and they just think weight on the bar and that is the most simple way to explain it right so if you come in you've never done some sort of squat movement before and you do 95 pounds uh for five reps and then the next week you come in you do 100 and the next week come in and do you to 105 at the same number of reps at the same number of reps right you know that is a form of progressive overload and most people when they enter the gym that's kind of their experience they don't need to increase that number they don't need to really they can increase the Reps but for the most part when you first start going to the gym you're just going to be able to put more weight on the bar pretty much every week and that is a perfectly reasonable way to progress and I mean even you know I know we haven't gotten here yet but people will say well you know I'm postmental pusle woman or I'm a 75-year-old male like it's too late for me no it's not it now is the best time um in fact when I was at uh University of Illinois where I was in the department of nutritional Sciences right across the street in the exercise physiology department they were conducting a study on um frail elderly so people who basically almost couldn't couldn't really walk like they could but it was very tough for them um and they just started progressively overloading them and that looked like basically squatting to a really high chair to start right and what they saw was incredible and like 12 weeks they actually had people who could squat down to like a below parallel chair and come back up which may not sound like much for the average person but when you're talking about somebody who's you know frail Elder the difference in functionality and their lifestyle is going to be incredible in terms of what they can do so what I'll tell people is what you can learn from powerlifters is that Progressive overload one in terms of weight on the bar but nobody's able to increase weight on the bar forever that that's just it's not going to happen and the the longer you get into it the more nonlinear it's going to be it's going to be you're going to go”

“they started them sitting down to a high chair and doing reps with that after I think it was 12 or 16 weeks I can't recall the specific details of the study they saw significant increases in lean mass cross-sectional area muscle quality you know it's imaged by an MRI um they got so much more functional some of them were able to squat down to like a a chair like this and stand up or even lower”