Although awareness of the detrimental impact that sedentary behavior has on skeletal muscle and cardiometabolic health has increased over the last 20 years, more than 60% of older adults remain sedentary for greater than 8 hours per day. Moreover, 80% to 90% of adults 60 years of age or older do not meet the current public health guidelines for aerobic exercise (AE) or resistance exercise (RE) based physical activity (PA). Collectively, these adverse health behaviors contribute to the development of multiple chronic medical conditions commonly afflicting older adults, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, sarco/dynapenia, frailty, and premature mortality. Emerging evidence suggests that breaking up sedentary time with light intensity PA (LPA) improves muscle and cardiometabolic health. Recent data also suggest that RE combined with moderate intensity AE effectively improves muscle and cardiometabolic health in older adults. However, the impact that RE combined with LPA breaks in sedentary time has on muscle and cardiometabolic health in older adults remains unknown. The overall objective of this pilot study is to determine the effect of 16 weeks of RE alone or RE combined with LPA breaks in sedentary time on muscle and cardiometabolic health.
What are the effects of resistance exercise (RE) alone or RE plus low intensity physical activity (LPA) breaks in sedentary time (ST) on skeletal muscle health in older adults?~What are the effects of resistance exercise (RE) alone or RE plus low intensity physical activity (LPA) breaks in sedentary time (ST) on skeletal cardiometabolic health in older adults?