Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/jBofMI-f1Kw A long, healthy life with continued mobility depends on healthy, toned muscles, and many turn to weight lifting to achieve that goal.  Turns out, though, that not all types of weight lifting exercises do the trick. A study presented just last week at the congress of the European Society of Cardiology shows muscle power rather than muscle strength is the important skill to develop.  Muscle strength is the mere ability to lift or move a given weight while muscle power is that ability plus the capability of moving the weight quickly and efficiently. Brazilian researchers studied more than 3800 non-athletic persons 41-85 years of age.  Using a rowing exercise test, they determined the maximal muscle power in watts per kg that each subject could exert.   Then each subject was observed over time for health issues.  During the average 6.5 year followup period, those with better than average muscle power had the best survival.  Those with below average muscle power were 5 to 10 t