Walking Faster May Help Reverse Frailty

Frailty extends beyond mere slowing down as one ages; it represents a medical condition posing risks for sudden health deterioration, with higher odds of complications following common surgeries and swift declines post-infections or falls. Indications of frailty encompass slow walking and prolonged performance of the "timed up-and-go test," which involves rising from a chair, traversing a short distance, and returning to a seated position (exceeding approximately 13 seconds often signals frailty).

Researchers posit that physical activity can mitigate frailty. A recent investigation published in the journal PLOS ONE revealed that brisk walkers exhibited a greater propensity to enhance frailty scores compared to those who ambled leisurely, yet both cohorts experienced advantages.

Margaret Danilovich, a physical therapist and instructor at Northwestern University and a co-author of the study, acknowledges that encouraging seniors to move at a leisurely pace may seem logical, yet this perspective is misguided. Seniors are often under the impression that exerting themselves excessively is detrimental, yet this assumption is erroneous; older individuals are often more capable than perceived.

In the current research, Danilovich and her team established exercise cohorts in 14 retirement communities. Assessors evaluated participants' frailty before and after the intervention, providing guidance during several months of weekly walking sessions in the retirement community hallways. The groups engaged in comparable walking exercises—forward, backward, with walkers, and without—yet one group ambled leisurely while the other was motivated to walk considerably faster, engaging in activity exceeding 70% of their maximum heart rate.

Standard scripts guided the pace throughout the walk; research assistants offered verbal encouragement to walk more rapidly if individuals faltered. Fast-paced walking yielded more pronounced improvements in frailty scores, with 70% of those in the high-intensity walking group showing improvement in at least one category, versus 46% in the leisurely group.

However, a higher dropout rate from the high-intensity group compared to the leisurely group complicates the generalizability of the findings, as noted by Dr. Kenneth Rockwood, a professor of medicine at Dalhousie University in Canada (uninvolved with the study). Nonetheless, any meaningful research in this domain is laudable. Rockwood adds that the study's findings are noteworthy as they suggest that high-intensity exercise can be safe for this demographic, with only a solitary fall reported throughout the trial, indicating that exertion may not be as perilous among older adults as commonly perceived.

Dr. Sara Espinoza, a geriatrician at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles (uninvolved in the research), cautions that translating these findings into practical application may prove challenging due to limited healthcare reimbursement for such high-intensity exercise training. Despite this, the researchers aim to broaden their study to healthy older adults equipped with smartwatches, hoping to decipher optimal strategies to motivate walkers to accelerate.

Ultimately, future interventions encouraging high-intensity exercise to counteract frailty could potentially become accessible to anyone utilizing such devices and responding to prompts to pick up the pace.