{"id":189503,"date":"2025-04-07T09:53:27","date_gmt":"2025-04-07T14:53:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=189503"},"modified":"2025-11-07T08:58:50","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T14:58:50","slug":"powerpenia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/health-fitness\/fitness\/powerpenia\/","title":{"rendered":"Fighting Powerpenia: How to Keep Your Explosive Strength as You Age"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/p>\n

Many evenings during the week, you\u2019ll find our family playing basketball in the driveway \u2014 parents vs. kids.<\/p>\n

Something I started to notice earlier this year, as I went head-to-head against my 14-year-old son Gus, was that while he was becoming more explosive with his athletic moves, I had gotten significantly less springy.<\/p>\n

While he could turn on a dime to make a quick cut to the basket and effortlessly jump for a rebound, I found myself relying on my larger body to slowly muscle into position for a shot.<\/p>\n

I was definitely still a lot stronger than Gus \u2014 I just couldn\u2019t turn that strength into force as quickly as he could. It felt like I had lost the gear for it.<\/p>\n

We talk a lot about strength and muscle gain here on AoM. If you\u2019re looking to get bigger and stronger, you\u2019ll find plenty of articles on those topics.<\/p>\n

But an area of fitness that we\u2019ve overlooked, but I\u2019m now starting to appreciate more and more as I move into middle age, is muscle power<\/em>.<\/p>\n

What I was experiencing in my basketball match-ups against Gus was a diminishment in this capacity.<\/p>\n

Researchers have given the age-related loss of muscle power a name: powerpenia<\/em>. And growing research shows that it\u2019s a key predictor of whether you\u2019ll be able to pick up your grandkid, climb a flight of stairs, or hoist your keister off the toilet when you’re 70.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what you need to know about powerpenia \u2014 and how to resist it.<\/p>\n

The Muscle Decline Trifecta: Sarcopenia, Dynapenia, and Powerpenia<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

You\u2019ve likely heard of sarcopenia <\/strong>\u2014 the loss of muscle mass with age. It typically begins around age 40 and accelerates after age 60. Muscle mass typically declines by .5-1% per year after 40. Sarcopenia leads to frailty in old age, which makes it hard for old people to get out of chairs, let alone get up from the floor if they fall down.<\/a><\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s dynapenia <\/strong>\u2014 the loss of muscle strength. Sarcopenia contributes to dynapenia, but there are also other things going on that lead to age-related declines in muscle strength. Mostly it comes down to our neuro-muscular system becoming less efficient at activating our muscles. Muscle strength declines along a similar trajectory as muscle mass, with a loss of 0.5\u20131% per year after age 40.<\/p>\n

Both sarcopenia and dynapenia can be mitigated and even reversed with regular strength training, which is why we\u2019re big fans of weightlifting.<\/p>\n

In 2024, researchers<\/a> introduced a third area of concern: powerpenia<\/strong> \u2014 the loss of muscle power.<\/p>\n

Muscle power is the ability to display strength quickly; it\u2019s explosiveness. Examples of muscle power in action include jumping for a rebound, sprinting, and punching. But muscle power doesn\u2019t just come in handy in sports. Muscle power is also what lets you:<\/p>\n