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Introduction
Maintaining the ability to carry out everyday tasks and live independently is often described as a cornerstone of healthy ageing. But what actually happens to muscle strength, power, and functional ability as we get older? And how inevitable is their decline?
At what point do changes in muscle function really begin to matter for day-to-day life? Is loss of strength an unavoidable consequence of ageing itself, or does it reflect something more modifiable? If declines are not fixed, what kinds of training or lifestyle interventions genuinely make a difference, and how strong is the evidence behind them?
In this episode, exercise physiologist Dr Brendan Egan examines these questions through the lens of both epidemiological data and controlled training studies in older adults. What do we learn from short-term resistance training interventions lasting just a few months? Do the gains persist once supervised training ends? And what does this tell us about the practical challenges of maintaining functional capacity over the long term?
The conversation also explores the idea of “use it or lose it” in muscle function, the role of resistance training in extending healthspan, and how exercise programmes can be designed to support independence later in life. Ultimately, the episode asks a simple but crucial question: what does the evidence actually say about staying strong, capable, and functionally independent as we age?
Related resources
- Join the Sigma newsletter for free
- Subscribe to Sigma Nutrition Premium
- Enroll in the next cohort of our Applied Nutrition Literacy course
- Studies mentioned:
- Timmons et al., 2018 – Comparison of time-matched aerobic, resistance, or concurrent exercise training in older adults
- Timmons et al., 2020 – Exercise Maintenance in Older Adults 1 Year After Completion of a Supervised Training Intervention
- Yin et al., 2025 – Short bouts of accumulated exercise: Review and consensus statement on definition, efficacy, feasibility, practical applications, and future directions
- Dr. Egan’s previous appearances:
- Related episodes:
- #289 Ciaran Fairman, PhD – Exercise Interventions in Cancer Treatment
- #501: Sex-based Training Recommendations: Evidence-based or Hype? – David Nolan, PhD
- #571: Is Zone 2 Training Actually Best for Health? – Prof. Brendon Gurd
- #524: Strength & Fitness Levels for Reducing Chronic Disease Risk & Promoting Health Ageing – Jordan Feigenbaum, MD
- [03:49]Understanding functional capacity
- [05:56]The importance of muscle strength and mass
- [14:09]Epidemiology and strength training
- [25:07]Concurrent training in older adults study
- [31:05]Barriers to strength training in older adults
- [34:18]Misconceptions about older adults and exercise
- [39:13]Exercise snacking and SBAE
- [51:04]Key ideas segment (Premium-only)
Guest Information
Click through to your app of choice to listen and subscribe:
Currently, he is Associate Dean for Research in the Faculty of Science and Health.
His current research investigates skeletal muscle function and adaptation across the life course, with special interest in the synergy between nutrition and exercise interventions ranging from athletes to older adults.
His research group performs human trials involving both acute and chronic interventions for outcomes around performance (physical and cognitive), recovery and adaptation, and have employed a wide range of experimental designs.
Before joining DCU, Dr. Egan spent several years at University College Dublin after spending two years of post-doctoral training with Prof. Juleen Zierath’s Integrative Physiology group at the Karolinska Institute, Sweden. He is also currently a Visiting Research Scientist at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, Pensacola, FL USA, and a Principal Investigator at the National Institute for Cellular Biotechnology at DCU.
Danny Lennon has a master’s degree (MSc.) in Nutritional Sciences from University College Cork, and he is the founder of Sigma Nutrition.
Danny is currently a member of the Advisory Board of the Sports Nutrition Association, the global regulatory body responsible for the standardisation of best practice in the sports nutrition profession.
Introduction to this Episode
Maintaining the ability to carry out everyday tasks and live independently is often described as a cornerstone of healthy ageing. But what actually happens to muscle strength, power, and functional ability as we get older? And how inevitable is their decline?
At what point do changes in muscle function really begin to matter for day-to-day life? Is loss of strength an unavoidable consequence of ageing itself, or does it reflect something more modifiable? If declines are not fixed, what kinds of training or lifestyle interventions genuinely make a difference, and how strong is the evidence behind them?
In this episode, exercise physiologist Dr Brendan Egan examines these questions through the lens of both epidemiological data and controlled training studies in older adults. What do we learn from short-term resistance training interventions lasting just a few months? Do the gains persist once supervised training ends? And what does this tell us about the practical challenges of maintaining functional capacity over the long term?
The conversation also explores the idea of “use it or lose it” in muscle function, the role of resistance training in extending healthspan, and how exercise programmes can be designed to support independence later in life. Ultimately, the episode asks a simple but crucial question: what does the evidence actually say about staying strong, capable, and functionally independent as we age?
About the Guest
Dr. Brendan Egan is an Associate Professor of Sport and Exercise Physiology the School of Health and Human Performance at Dublin City University. Currently, he is Associate Dean for Research in the Faculty of Science and Health.
His current research investigates skeletal muscle function and adaptation across the life course, with special interest in the synergy between nutrition and exercise interventions ranging from athletes to older adults.
His research group performs human trials involving both acute and chronic interventions for outcomes around performance (physical and cognitive), recovery and adaptation, and have employed a wide range of experimental designs.
Useful Terminology for this Episode
- Functional Capacity – An individualʼs ability to carry out the physical tasks and activities of daily life (such as walking, rising from a chair, climbing stairs) with adequate performance and without undue fatigue or risk. It represents how well various physiological systems (musculoskeletal, neuromuscular, cardiovascular, respiratory) work together to support real-world physical function, not just isolated lab measures.
- Sarcopenia – Sarcopenia is the age-related loss of muscle mass and quality, often accompanied by declines in strength and function.
- Dynapenia – Dynapenia refers specifically to the loss of muscle strength and power that occurs with aging, which is not always proportional to the loss of muscle mass. In fact, strength and power tend to decline faster than muscle size due to changes in muscle fiber type, neuromuscular function, and motor unit activation.
- Progressive Overload – Progressive overload is a fundamental training principle meaning that to continue improving strength or fitness, one must gradually increase the training stimulus.
- 1RM (One Repetition Maximum) – The maximum amount of weight a person can lift for a single repetition of a given exercise – a standard measure of strength.
- RIR (Repetitions in Reserve) – A self-regulation metric where a person gauges how many more reps they could have done after finishing a set. For example, “3 RIR” means stopping when you feel you had about 3 reps left in the tank.
- Exercise “Snacks” – Exercise snacking is the concept of breaking physical activity into brief, frequent bouts (just a few minutes at a time) spread throughout the day.
