Health Farm

Power = strength x speed. Most gym goers focus on brute strength, adding weight to the bar as they get stronger. But new research shows good reasons to speed up your repetitions.

A study involving 3,878 non-athlete Brazilians aged between 41 to 85 years discovered that people with greater muscle power tended to live longer.

Power vs. strength

Muscle power and muscle strength are terms often used interchangeably, but they’re quite different. Lifting a weight requires strength, but lifting it several times as quickly as possible requires power. Unlike power, strength doesn’t require quick movements or coordination to produce force.

Lead researcher Professor Claudio Gil Araújo said earlier studies examined the benefits of increasing muscle strength in relation to life expectancy. But functions such as rising from a chair in old age and kicking a ball with the grand kids depend more on muscle power than muscle strength.

The study determined each participant’s maximal muscle power and drafted individuals into one of four groups based on power output. After six years of observation, during which time 247 men and 75 women died, researchers found that those whose maximal muscle power was above the median for their gender survived longer than participants packing less power.

Keep lifting, but make it snappy.