Time Efficient Exercise to Reverse Sarcopenia and Improve Cardio-metabolic Health

Participants will be 60-80 y men and women who vary their physical activity (steps/day) while their lipid metabolism is studied (n=24). Thereafter, another group (n=60) will perform 6 months of exercise training focused on developing maximal cycling power, during which their changes in muscle mass and practical function will be carefully measured.

Study Overview

• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Conditions: Exercise Training and Sarcopenia
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Exercise

Detailed Description

In a society that is growing in the number of older adults who are also becoming more sedentary, it is critical to identify the types of exercise that harness significant health benefits. First, we hypothesize that older adults (60-80 y) need a certain background level of physical activity, judged by number of steps per day. This is important, especially to fat metabolism. Secondly, because older adults claim they don't have time to exercise, we have developed a time efficient program (10 min/day) that has shown promise for offsetting sarcopenia and significantly improving cardiovascular function.

Our Aim 1 is to determine the range of daily step counts in older adults (60-80 y; n=24) that is needed to prevent acute impairment of post-prandial fat metabolism, measured the morning after exercise. We have recently shown in young adults that when their level of background physical activity drops below the range of 5,000 - 8,500±500 steps/d, that they don't adapt positively to an acute 1 h bout of exercise (i.e.; 'exercise resistance') that normally improves fat metabolism.

Our Aim 2 is to determine the ability of a time-efficient 24-week program of exercise training for both maximal neuromuscular power and aerobic power to counteract sarcopenia and declines in aerobic power and functional tests in men and women 60-80 y. We have recently found in a preliminary study of older men and women (50-70 y) that performing multiple maximal 4 s sprints of rapid acceleration cycling bouts for only 8 weeks, eliciting maximal power, displayed significant (p<0.05) increases in muscle thigh volume (MRI), whole body muscle mass, maximal neuromuscular power and peak oxygen consumption. We now propose to train older men and women (i.e.; 60-80 y; n=60) for longer durations (i.e.; 24 weeks) and describe the time course of adaptations. We will additionally monitor their background levels of daily physical activity and determine if it correlates with improvements in neuromuscular and cardiovascular function.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Anticipated): 60
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Texas
    • Austin, Texas, United States, 78712
      • University of Texas at Austin Human Performance Laboratory

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 60 years to 80 years (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• relatively healthy

Exclusion Criteria:

• relatively unhealthy

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Exercise; Six months of power training	Other: Exercise; Walking and Power Training

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Muscle mass	MRI determined changes in thigh muscle volume	six months
Post-prandial lipemia	The elevation of plasma triglycerides after a meal	one month

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Texas at Austin

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Anticipated): January 1, 2021
• Primary Completion (Anticipated): December 31, 2025
• Study Completion (Anticipated): December 31, 2026

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 17, 2020
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 17, 2020
• First Posted (Actual): November 23, 2020

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): November 23, 2020
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 17, 2020
• Last Verified: November 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Nervous System Diseases; Neurologic Manifestations; Neuromuscular Manifestations; Pathological Conditions, Anatomical; Muscular Atrophy; Atrophy; Sarcopenia
• Other Study ID Numbers: UTexasAustinKHE

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: No

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No