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In this episode of the Keiser Human Performance Podcast, the conversation explores the concept of powerpenia, the age-related decline in muscular power, and why it may be even more critical than strength when it comes to maintaining function and independence.
The discussion breaks down how loss of power impacts everyday movements like standing up, walking, and preventing falls, and why traditional strength training alone may not be enough. Emphasis is placed on training with intent, speed, and explosiveness to preserve and restore power as we age.
This episode highlights the growing importance of power-focused training in both clinical and fitness settings, offering practical insights for coaches, practitioners, and anyone looking to maintain performance and quality of life over time.
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All right, welcome back to the Keiser Human Performance podcast. I'm here with Sandro
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Friotas. Sandro, how are you my friend? Thank you. I'm good. And you, Gabe? I'm doing awesome. I'm
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doing great. So, first things first, we have the Powerpina conference coming up in July in Lisbon,
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Portugal. Do you want to take a minute to talk about this event? Yeah, this event where we will
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go in deep uh about uh PowerPI uh concept which is a very recent concept that was proposed in
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literature in fact just has two years. But right now is being spread worldwide and because of the
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global interest on the concept we decided to organize here a conference in Lisbon
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uh at the faculty where I work uh in the a very beautiful time of the year because it will be
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summer with very nice good food and weather. So if people don't like the conference at least
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they would like the country. Maybe they can uh come to Lisbon do some surfing at the very Yeah,
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you can do surfing. You can do both activities in in land and in the sea. So, you have plenty
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of offer for someone who maybe has never been to Lisbon before. The go-to culinary experience,
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what food, what dish do they need to have if they're coming there? They have plenty. Like,
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do you know uh typical dishes, one of the typical dishes is made with codfish. And in Portugal,
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we don't capture directly codfish. So, we import codfish. So we are specialized and in importing
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and cooking the codfish because most of coffish they come from the north of the globe and the
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Iceland and then they sent to here and I think that we are the country that best makes codfish
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food. What a fun fact. There you go. Well maybe we'll have to have a separate episode on on food
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in Portugal. But um another fun fact actually one of the keynote speakers for this powerpina
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conference Dr. Tanaka was actually one of my professors when I was at grad school at University
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of Texas. Oh, that's awesome. I never met him in person. I he had I had opportunity to talk
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with you first time virtually in the first seminar that we did about Por opinion when we launched the
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concert which was two years ago in Brazil. Yeah. I mean sounds like you're going to have some smart
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people there. So if anyone uh is available in the summertime, you want to go out to Portugal,
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have a nice time, learn a little bit, uh take part in a great conference, make sure you check
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that out. We'll drop a link to the conference in the episode notes. Yes. By the way, in fact,
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we have limit um places for people to watch here at the conference. So, unfortunately,
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we cannot attend all the people. But because of that, we decided to create virtual registration.
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So, people can assist globally from any spot of of the world. They can just register and assist the
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event online and part participate online also to submit abstracts and works online which is a nice
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opportunity to give a contribution. So we can better understand the powerpina concept. Okay,
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great. So let's dive into it then. Let's dive into the discussion today and that is powerpina. So to
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start for someone listening today who maybe is unfamiliar with this term, why don't we just
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start with a simple definition of the term. Yes, powerpina the word itself it's anism which means
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that the prefix comes from angloaxonic from the the English and the the suffix comes from the
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Greek. So we have power and power everyone in the world understands what is power like you go
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because we use very commonly power in different cultures. So they understand although power can
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have different meanings even in Portuguese uh but globally they know what is power not the power to
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act the social power which is al also power but the mechanical power pen is means loss uh power
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pin is a concept which means age related loss of mechanical uh power of motor power uh but also
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uh uh disease and physical inactivity related loss of uh mechanical power. Thank you for the simple
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definition. My understanding is in the last few years right with your team this really became a
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central focus. So explain how this research project how this research that was published
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in 2024 really came together. Yeah. In fact uh normally when people become aware of the problems
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they try to start the Olympic solutions to for the problems and back in 2020 more or less I I
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started made making research on this topic um and collaborating with the research groups and
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and more close to to 2024. In fact, it was 2023 where the first time that I thought together with
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my colleagues on this idea on power opinion. The numbers um uh at that time made me to think in a
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strategy and something to to fight against for like when I born in 1984 there was more or less
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5 billion people in the world. Nowadays there is like uh I think more this this number that
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you are showing is not updated. It's like 8.5 billion people but in 2026 at least 10 billion
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people will exist. Oh 2650. So there's an error like in in in 2050 there will be around 10 more
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than 10 billion living. And when you look to the percentage of people age more than 60 years it is
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in it will increase a lot. So there will be very stress among the the dem demographic dynamics and
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the infrastructures and we have to have a target to fight against the the unhealthy behaviors and
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the the difficulty to to to get health. So that's why we we decided to give a name for the marker
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that probably better represents life like vitality which we name it polyropenia because we we have
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noted that with age you lose mass. In fact when you born you have more or less the day you born
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you have more or less 25% of muscle mass in your body and you may increase during your lifespan
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uh until 40%. It depends if you train or not but let's say 35 if you are man or women but
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um when you you look to streng you can you have strong ability for instance babies they can grab
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uh grip the their hand grasp do the palmer reflex and they can support their own eight so they have
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a lot of strength in their their hands but when you look to power the power reserve is low when
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you born like because you cannot produce work at a faster rate which mean that when you born
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you have very low reserves And then with your lifespan, you get your peak very early with
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um of power. Later you get the peak of your strength and then later you get the peak of
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your mass but you start sooner to lose power. Then you start losing strength and then you start to
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losing mass but in the end the day that you die you still have mass muscle mass in your body.
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You can still produce strength with rigor mortis okay but zero power. So power is a key marker of
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your health especially when you are aging and in fact it means that the the rate loss of power with
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with chronological age is is very high compared to strength and muscle mass and we are living in days
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where we talk about sarcopenia. So it's a medical concept since uh 2016 but no one talks in medical
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community about parenia. So that's why we decided to give a name because we we wanted to target
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uh our enemy let's say like this. So you brought up a ton of great stuff and right sarcopenia,
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dopenia, muscle mass loss, strength loss, these are very familiar terms. Um why do you think
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powerpia up until 2024 was so overlooked or not not appreciated to the full extent in which yeah
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let's say let's let's look to the history when did sarcopenia born when there was sufficient evidence
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showing that muscle mass was relevant when didorn when there was sufficient research showing that
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strength is important when did power born when There was not enough but already some minimal
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research very conf convincent showing that power is really a good marker of health and vitality
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more than health vitality because if you become unhappy depressed for instance you lose power you
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don't lose muscle mass depressed people what they don't have is power they they have muscle mass but
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depressed people like uh you have Olympic medals that they have a lot of muscle mass and strength
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and sometimes They don't have power. If you get you if you get acute disease like you get um
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I don't know how do you call it in English. second now I forgot to say in English but if
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you get a grip like uh let's say in Portuguese co okay um you you lose quickly power but you don't
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lose mask power is very sensitive like let's suppose you don't sleep like last night lose
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strength you don't lose those muscle mass you lose power is very sensitive marker of your vitality so
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let's dive into this phenomenon and understand it better powerpia at the at the physiological
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level. What are the main drivers of power decline as we age? Yeah, let me ask you Gabby, can you
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move for the the slide? Yeah, before moving to the to the mechanisms just to explain because this is
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the main picture. This is the main tactical model of parenia. It's the comparison between power,
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strength and muscle mass which has which which are correlated to sarcopenia dilipina parenia.
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Although power sarcopenia nowadays it is formally determined using strength and not
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um mus muscle mass itself. So which is a little bit confusing nowadays even among the community
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um uh the medical community. So there are key features of this model. So we lose to mass but
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we lose with much faster rate power and with less compared to to power strength and the one set of
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decline occurs first for power and the the decline accelerates later at some points in life and there
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is a curious fact that there is some tasks that people they stop doing during their lifespan of
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power. For instance there are people living worldwide that they can walk but they cannot
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jump anymore. So those people they gave the last jump in life at certain point in life you know so
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they will not go back again. Maybe some of them if they really do some training they can recover
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their ability to jump but some they they will not and they al and and and and we have to take
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care of the those people because although they are not able to jump which implies that probably
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their running will also be very difficult. they can walk and we can train them to increase their
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quality of life and giving capacity to be included on society. So power we lose much faster than
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uh strength and mass. What is the the the physiological mechanism? We decided I I
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prepared some slides if you could could move further I think um a little bit more just to
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show you a thing. No, I I think it's before. Yeah. Uh it's a study that we did with very
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old people. No, it's not this. Go go go go go go. Maybe the Yeah, this one. Okay. So,
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what is this? This is data from a study which she did. We I collaborate with a Brazilian group
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which is leaded by professor hon in Brazil and professor Kerlin Padesh that they they
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quantified muscle mass with DEXA. They quantified strength of the extension and flexors and rate of
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first development during the extension. So rate of force development is not power because you
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are quantifying force in a zometric mode and you have to have displacement to quantify power. Rate
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of first development is a very close parameter to to power production and we we they tested
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people with more than 90 years old. So the more old people person was 104 years. So and living
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living with more than 19 years it's very rare in the world. You know people die normally before
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that and then try to see what was the perimeter that was associated with chronological age. Among
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those sample of individuals with more than 19 years there was no association with muscle mass,
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no association with strength but there was association with rate of force development.
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What does that mean? That mean that you lose the ability to to contract in a fast manner. And
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um to contrast fast, it's very complex because you need fundamentally neural variables that allow to
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to to input on the muscles a very high discharge rate of the motor units, but al also coordination,
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intramuscular and intramuscular coordination to make the the muscul contract very quickly. So in
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the end, the soldiers, let's says, they no matter if how bad they are, you can still produce power.
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What you need really need is a good general. So if if we just rewind for a second, I want to take
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a look at this graph here and we start talking about power poin. You talked about, you know,
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power falling off before muscle mass, before strength. For the average person that maybe hasn't
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done a lot of training in their life, just the normal person, at what point do they start to see
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or experience a more significant decrease in power in their lifespan? Right? In this graph here, we
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have the age right from right in this x-axis. When can we expect some more significant declines in
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power as we age? Okay, let's make I will present you in this manner. Most fastest guy running using
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Bolt. He reached his world record when he was 22 years old. The strongest man which I can not
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remember his name because yeah which he he the snatch and the clean together he lifted almost
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500 kg. So he reached the alltime record when he was 28. Last year Mr. Olympia he reached he he had
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a lot of muscle right like muscal and he was 32. So the onset that you can be logical like train
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and and and get your record in life occurs with in this manner. Okay. First power then strength
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and then muscle mass. Okay. So you can first train for top power then give up go for competition of
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strength and then give up go for competition of Mr. Olympia you can steal. So the opportunity to
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increase your tank occurs very early in life. So you can reach your tank very early you know and
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then what you have to do to keep your power up is to manage well. So and then is not just a matter
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of power training and normal people just think on power training. If you go to slide 14 for please
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you can see like what is the the model that I'm promoting right now together with my colleagues.
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uh this is a ba very basic epothetic model of motor power development and also conserving
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conserving sometimes you don't need to train you just have to sleep well sometimes you don't need
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to train you just have to have good nutrition and sometimes you just have to manage your stress
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because no stress at all sometimes it's not good okay you have to have very low level of stress to
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make you increase your tonus okay your motivations because you when you don't have nothing to do you
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get bored so you get depressed you know and that's not good to to produce power. So and I think the
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key is to give training according these valuables. I should train when I have good patterns of sleep,
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good patterns of nutrition and good patterns of mental stress. So that's why uh I I I normally
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say be careful with the power concept because you should not train power every day. But that's not
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the key. It's always a multicomponent you know and some people may may need more and some people may
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need less although uh there is evidence that's showing that if you do supervised program and
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oriented program with a professional you don't get hurt but still the risk increases when you do
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power training of course. So we think really until your mid20s to late 20s that is your time up until
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that point to build up as much power reserve as you can. Yeah. Yes. So, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
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Because let's say it's good to things to have a big tank but also to have full. Okay. Right. So,
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people may have a low tank but they can have a lot always full you know. So, and what is fuel? Fool
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is a combination of training, sleep, nutrition and mental stress. Right. Right. So, really the goal
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would be to increase the tank as big as you can though. But once you get the tank to that size,
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being able to fuel the tank as time goes on. Yes, having a good reserve is good or I would
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not say to have the maximum reserve as you can. I think there is optimal level of reserve because
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it's very challengeable to have very big big big reserve like us and bolt have and to preserve that
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level of reserve because if you get if if in your young age you have very big levels of power the
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rate loss with with chronological age will be much higher compared to other people. For instance,
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the wi women they have less power than men, but they manage better than men, you know, with life.
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Women women left live more than men, you know, right? So, if you have a larger tank, there is
00:17:29.680 --> 00:17:35.920
then a significant drop off and you really need to view that within the context of your life and life
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habits to determine if that is a significant issue or not. Yeah. Yeah. So, like have a reserve, have
00:17:43.120 --> 00:17:49.040
a good tank, a lot of fool. Sometimes fool is more important than the tank. All right. If we think
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about attenuating the loss of power over time, what are the key ingredients that somebody needs
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to consider in order to put themselves in the best position possible to not lose power as they age
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or to help slow down the rate of loss? As I said like basing with this model like this is a model
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of conserving and developing like or developing and conserving motor power you know. So I have to
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rewrite there on the topic because I will write a a manuscript to help people to understand at least
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share my view how people can conserve better their power with life. As I said is not just a matter of
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training. Sometimes people should not train and slip. Okay? Because I we have when we train we
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have to have motivation. We have to have the risk of injury has to be low because and they have to
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and people have to have the wish of training you know is is this is motivation right? Yeah.
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Because if you don't have you it's not you you you can have a personal trainer pushing him like say
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okay let's do as fast as you can but but in the end he is not giving the the best help. So there
00:18:54.640 --> 00:19:00.720
is certain conditions so people can make power training which helps two things increase the
00:19:00.720 --> 00:19:08.640
tank and also put the fuel inside. For instance if you just eat and you eat and and you train
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you will put much more fuel inside in your body cells okay than just eating. So that's why food
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is not just a matter of nutrition. The training is a trigger to increase fool to your body cells.
00:19:21.600 --> 00:19:28.240
So and you have a lot of issues and methodological considerations for instance like uh the focus when
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you are training if you are thinking your body so having internal focus in your body is not
00:19:33.440 --> 00:19:40.080
the best approach you you must have external you know focus because in that way you will be faster
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methodological aspects like this may potentiate your gains. Awesome. Let's let's pivot here to
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assessing power. Okay. And maybe the best ways to go about assessing power. How should practitioners
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be thinking about assessing poweria, assessing power in a practical setting today? Okay. Nowadays
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there is a common test which is sit to stand that normal people apply to old people. Sometimes young
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people they're already old. Okay. People with 50 years they are already old. But this test has some
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limitations. And a particular limitation of this test is twofold. First there is a ceiling effect
00:20:19.440 --> 00:20:25.520
when you do the sit to stand and you have a lot of variation 5 seconds sit to stand or 30 seconds or
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60 seconds and depending your life stage sometimes one test is better than another and I can give
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recommendations about that but moving forward this test has another limitation with this is this is
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a submaximal test so a sub submaximal task you do not approach the limits of power you know and
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that's why uh and in the end the test itself it's a performance test. It's not a power test because
00:20:49.280 --> 00:20:56.160
we don't quantify velocity and force directly. So we furer from from the the performance. So these
00:20:56.160 --> 00:21:03.120
three main limitations put us like still a good approach because this test has relation depending
00:21:03.120 --> 00:21:09.360
on your physical condition and your chronological age. It it has some meaning like to to recommend
00:21:09.360 --> 00:21:14.560
people okay you're good you're not good to say but you want to be more specific and especially
00:21:14.560 --> 00:21:22.400
if you are more physical cap with more physical capacity and uh also more than physical capacity
00:21:22.400 --> 00:21:31.360
uh if you're younger you can modify the test for instance you can easil um this lady which is my
00:21:31.360 --> 00:21:40.000
mom okay um so that's that's a business. Let her go. Yeah. Look. So, she was at this this time that
00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:47.280
we did this video, she was 72. I she's now uh 75. And it was interesting because at that time she
00:21:47.280 --> 00:21:54.080
was diagnosed with cancer. And and I said, "Mom, now you will pay me attention or you train or you
00:21:54.080 --> 00:22:02.640
die. So, shoes, okay? Or you lose your son because I will get mad." And and now and she she started
00:22:02.640 --> 00:22:08.800
making training and she got very success because six fourth she did she was doing the training
00:22:08.800 --> 00:22:15.440
together with the treatment hormonal and chemical therapy treatment and the tumors they disappear
00:22:15.440 --> 00:22:21.680
which were on their monitor system so lymphatic system and in fact but but taking talking about
00:22:21.680 --> 00:22:28.320
this test like here she's giving her best and I can put the encoder and I can quantify velocity
00:22:28.320 --> 00:22:34.720
which is not power but okay it's a good driver of power and I can see how good she is and this test
00:22:34.720 --> 00:22:40.080
fores is better than the other one. If people are not able to do the the seat to jump test,
00:22:40.080 --> 00:22:45.360
they can move back and they can just do the seat to stand. Now it's a suitable and there is no
00:22:45.360 --> 00:22:51.200
ceiling limit and probably people uh performance is approaching more more or less their maximal
00:22:51.200 --> 00:22:56.320
limits physiological limits. But for instance, let's suppose you want to make because right
00:22:56.320 --> 00:23:01.600
now I'm working with other colleagues. We have a big network and we are finding trying to find
00:23:01.600 --> 00:23:07.680
solutions for large scale solutions and one approach was developed by my friend in Chile
00:23:07.680 --> 00:23:15.680
Carlos Montisenos Montenos Cruz that um that that was just saying okay let's see how many people
00:23:15.680 --> 00:23:22.400
can jump or not in the world you know and if you move forward one slide he I I can show you a very
00:23:22.400 --> 00:23:28.800
nice data so he just quantify he did a binary test about the ability to jump unilaterally on
00:23:28.800 --> 00:23:36.000
the non-dominant limb for three times like three consecutive jumps and he he noted in a a Chilean
00:23:36.000 --> 00:23:42.880
sample that uh starting more or less at 50 their 50s people start losing the ability to jump on
00:23:42.880 --> 00:23:48.400
one leg like for instance when you reach 75 just half of the sample is able to jump and when you
00:23:48.400 --> 00:23:53.760
just compare like what is the difference between people are able to jump and not able to jump so
00:23:53.760 --> 00:23:59.440
Carlos is now proposing that every doctor should ask their patients are you able to jump? Okay.
00:23:59.440 --> 00:24:05.520
And what he founds I I can show you the data on the next slide that um people that were not
00:24:05.520 --> 00:24:13.360
able to jump they had like with less 60 years they have less strength less knensor strength
00:24:13.360 --> 00:24:19.360
less power with sit to stand. And when we look to people that was older than 60 years like you can
00:24:19.360 --> 00:24:25.280
go move the the slide the same. So every time you are not able to jump overall your physical fitness
00:24:25.280 --> 00:24:30.720
is already bad. So you have a very simple test just to identify people that really need help.
00:24:30.720 --> 00:24:37.280
Okay? Because otherwise theorically they will die sooner and they will have until there less quality
00:24:37.280 --> 00:24:42.640
of life. So there's a plenty of approaches and of course you can use gold standard equipment like
00:24:42.640 --> 00:24:49.600
Keiser because Keiser is I must say I don't have a quiser a Keiser equipment until now but uh Keiser
00:24:49.600 --> 00:24:55.680
it's probably the brand that most promotes power by their equipment. So and the equipment has very
00:24:55.680 --> 00:25:01.600
good quality and that's why very renowned brands like and clubs like Barcelona like
00:25:01.600 --> 00:25:07.280
Palmas worldwide they they have their equipment because it's it's good if they are buying it's
00:25:07.280 --> 00:25:12.080
because it's good okay so it looks like you have a number of assessments right and that is a very
00:25:12.080 --> 00:25:16.720
simple question right can you jump can you land and then from there you have your sit to stand
00:25:16.720 --> 00:25:22.400
which you mentioned you also mentioned you know a progression of that would be a sit to jump so you
00:25:22.400 --> 00:25:25.680
know I'm curious to know more about the other progressions that you have and what would be
00:25:25.680 --> 00:25:29.520
appropriate for different ages. Can you expand on the different assessments that are available
00:25:29.520 --> 00:25:35.520
for people for better understanding powerpia or power? Yeah, this is complex because when
00:25:35.520 --> 00:25:40.080
you have a lot of tests and their progressions and aggressions so it depends of the type. So it's we
00:25:40.080 --> 00:25:44.000
are talking about champions but there are humans that don't have legs you know and some we have
00:25:44.000 --> 00:25:49.360
to have solutions for them. Another issue about the testing is to have a large scale and feasible
00:25:49.360 --> 00:25:56.640
approach. Right now myself and my my colleagues my network we have been working since from a while on
00:25:56.640 --> 00:26:02.960
to identifying a large scale solution to SAS power opinion and I will present that on the conference.
00:26:02.960 --> 00:26:08.880
So I have a solution a proposal at least reser reserve your seat and tune in online and you can
00:26:08.880 --> 00:26:18.000
find yeah I can I can let you say like this people we like the solution. So as we look at powerpina
00:26:18.000 --> 00:26:24.880
and power on a grander scale, what are some of maybe the mistakes or misconceptions when training
00:26:24.880 --> 00:26:30.560
power in aging populations? One of the concerns is like the safety you know we have published
00:26:30.560 --> 00:26:37.120
like years ago with uh I with some colleagues me my colleagues I was not the first author. This was
00:26:37.120 --> 00:26:44.960
a invitation from a Brazilian group leaded by pro professor hon which uh we wrote um and a letter
00:26:44.960 --> 00:26:52.480
to to sports medicine showing evidence that there it is safe because when we search the studies that
00:26:52.480 --> 00:26:59.280
have examined power training and they did some training with with individuals the incidence or
00:26:59.280 --> 00:27:06.080
at least the reporting of uh adverse consequence was really very very low. Which means that when
00:27:06.080 --> 00:27:13.440
you do supervised exercise, you you can put this sentence in your head. Power training is safe
00:27:13.440 --> 00:27:19.680
when supervised and done with the professionals. Of course, if you don't know to do the exercise
00:27:19.680 --> 00:27:25.040
and you just do it, you go fast and you don't warm up and a lot of stuff, you can get hurt,
00:27:25.040 --> 00:27:31.520
of course. But I think the first message to pass all over communities is if you are with trained
00:27:31.520 --> 00:27:37.040
professionals, power training is safe. And how do you think as an industry we start shifting
00:27:37.040 --> 00:27:43.360
more towards a power penentric a power centric focus over strength for a large scale population
00:27:43.360 --> 00:27:47.920
right I'm not talking about specific athletes or or people who specifically need just strength but
00:27:47.920 --> 00:27:53.840
just in general what do you think will help us value that more as a community in performance
00:27:53.840 --> 00:28:00.960
okay three main drivers not the only but three main drivers first political they must understand
00:28:00.960 --> 00:28:07.040
what is the real impact of exercise overall on health of humans because when they understand
00:28:07.040 --> 00:28:13.600
they will spend less money on disease if people are really doing exercise probably they will pay
00:28:13.600 --> 00:28:19.360
attention. The second is the medical community. The last consensus on sarcopenia the consensus
00:28:19.360 --> 00:28:24.160
which main was mainly composed by medical doctors they excluded power from the concept.
00:28:24.160 --> 00:28:31.840
So they they don't understand the the power of power let's say the power of power you know like
00:28:31.840 --> 00:28:37.600
um how much power feels and the meaning of of of this variable and the third is
00:28:37.600 --> 00:28:43.840
um the media we have to put this on the newspapers and journalists have to talk about this because
00:28:43.840 --> 00:28:49.840
they are also not aware like uh I gave two weeks ago an interview and which will come on the news
00:28:49.840 --> 00:28:55.600
on the next week to talk about opinion sarcopenia and that stuff and I think most interviews like
00:28:55.600 --> 00:29:03.280
this have to be on on the TV. Nowadays, we see things on the TV that don't do not have so much
00:29:03.280 --> 00:29:08.640
value and I think this has value. So, we have to put very strategically on media. Yeah. You know,
00:29:08.640 --> 00:29:13.520
people talk about not wanting to lose their balance as they age. They talk about wanting to
00:29:13.520 --> 00:29:19.120
avoid falls. I think you even see things on TV and advertising to help people avoid that. And so much
00:29:19.120 --> 00:29:24.000
of it is tied to strength, right? this idea of I have to keep my strength or my muscle mass. But,
00:29:24.000 --> 00:29:28.320
you know, I would say very rarely do I hear people say, well, I have to keep up my power,
00:29:28.320 --> 00:29:33.200
right? I have to keep my power reserve. So, it's interesting because I think certainly out in the
00:29:33.200 --> 00:29:37.200
community that is what we hear is we have to keep strength, strength, strength. And none of us are
00:29:37.200 --> 00:29:41.360
saying that strength isn't an important factor and muscle mass is not an important factor. Those are
00:29:41.360 --> 00:29:47.600
obviously very important things, but we've yet to have this shift into valuing power, right? Yeah.
00:29:47.600 --> 00:29:55.600
Yeah. Uh making analogy. of can people understand let's say like this if I have just very slow
00:29:55.600 --> 00:30:02.800
soldiers I cannot win the war if I have slow slow soldiers but strong with a good general I have
00:30:02.800 --> 00:30:09.680
some some some chance of winning the war if I have a good general with very fast soldiers I can win
00:30:09.680 --> 00:30:16.240
the war yeah simple way to think about that I like it um so in thinking about now all the research
00:30:16.240 --> 00:30:21.680
that you've seen all the time you've put into this any just general General recommendations. I know
00:30:21.680 --> 00:30:25.680
you said it's got to be safe, right? Is thereation about how somebody should approach training for
00:30:25.680 --> 00:30:32.960
power? Yeah, it's like uh yeah, I would say like this. Sleep well, eat well, have smallest level of
00:30:32.960 --> 00:30:38.800
stress and don't forget to train. So, what you're saying is these lifestyle behavioral factors have
00:30:38.800 --> 00:30:44.240
a ton of value in this entire equation. Yeah. Because I can say the foot like the feet are very
00:30:44.240 --> 00:30:50.400
important, but if I don't have hips, I don't have feet. you know like it's always a multicomponent
00:30:50.400 --> 00:30:58.400
but because power let's say uh to train as I said before you can have good levels of power you can
00:30:58.400 --> 00:31:03.520
have full in your tank if you sleep well if you don't sleep and if you train very well you don't
00:31:03.520 --> 00:31:11.920
get full you know so so it's all a good component and let's now promoting Keiser I'm being invited
00:31:11.920 --> 00:31:17.920
I can promote Keiser Keiser helps you to know the level of food you have in a tank and the size of
00:31:17.920 --> 00:31:23.280
your tank that says. So people have to know their numbers. They they cannot know the numbers let's
00:31:23.280 --> 00:31:29.680
say but they have to they have a conscious of their body how it is and how to manage you
00:31:29.680 --> 00:31:37.520
know the four cornstones are always this sleep stress and train. Has your group developed any
00:31:37.520 --> 00:31:42.160
recommendations or leaned into anything related to upper body power? Right. Someone who maybe has
00:31:42.160 --> 00:31:46.960
a limitation of the lower limbs. What tests have you been looking at from an upper body perspective
00:31:46.960 --> 00:31:51.920
to maybe give somebody indication of power or powerpia? Yeah, very simple. You can make uh
00:31:51.920 --> 00:31:59.760
like in fact a very recent um research made from a Brazilian group which was leaded by claou has
00:31:59.760 --> 00:32:07.840
shown that the upper body pull like had a much stronger correlation um association with death.
00:32:07.840 --> 00:32:15.600
Okay. So it was a longitudinal study then strength the strength of your hands and your body mass. So
00:32:15.600 --> 00:32:21.280
let's say like if you upper body is a particular region of your body compared to lower limp in
00:32:21.280 --> 00:32:28.160
which you have much more motor units of bigger motor units which means that probably biological
00:32:28.160 --> 00:32:34.160
the region that you will lose more biological power because you you can mask that with with
00:32:34.160 --> 00:32:41.120
training is your upper body. Okay. uh but we don't know in fact I h we have we had published a paper
00:32:41.120 --> 00:32:48.160
in British journal to to to call for attention for this because there is not so much research showing
00:32:48.160 --> 00:32:54.640
showing that uh that which is the bad body region not to detect which is the region which is has
00:32:54.640 --> 00:33:00.800
more meaning functional meaning but has more biological meaning uh regarding power levels
00:33:00.800 --> 00:33:06.880
and maybe could be the the upper limb because master athletes who who don't stop training,
00:33:06.880 --> 00:33:12.240
they eat well, they they sleep well, they have good levels of stress, not too much, not too low.
00:33:12.240 --> 00:33:18.080
They they lose more power in their upper body tasks than the lower lobby, the lower body uh
00:33:18.080 --> 00:33:26.560
uh tasks. So maybe depending of your physical activity or lifespan pattern, the region could be
00:33:26.560 --> 00:33:33.280
different. If you could go for the last slide, the 19 I think the 19 like this is what happens like
00:33:33.280 --> 00:33:38.960
when you are healthy, when you get good lifestyle, you train, you eat, you you are on the top and you
00:33:38.960 --> 00:33:44.400
will lose with age of course, but you can still be on the top. Let's look to Cristiano, okay,
00:33:44.400 --> 00:33:49.600
Portuguese footballer. He takes care of himself. He sleeps well, he eats well, and probably he
00:33:49.600 --> 00:33:54.800
doesn't train so much like others, okay? Because he has to manage, okay? And he's on the top. He's
00:33:54.800 --> 00:34:00.320
on the top. His tank has decreased a little bit. Not too much, but decreased a little bit, but not
00:34:00.320 --> 00:34:06.000
too much. Again, probably he's the the footballer, the most older footballer with the less poropinia,
00:34:06.000 --> 00:34:11.600
you know, because poropinia is athletic concept. And but if you are not healthy, you are unhealthy,
00:34:11.600 --> 00:34:16.800
you don't eat well, but without disease, at least diagnosed and you don't feel still you don't feel
00:34:16.800 --> 00:34:23.840
in your body, you will decrease with age your skeletal muscular motor function with faster rate.
00:34:23.840 --> 00:34:29.920
And if you are with disease you accelerate and the difference between unhealthy and a disease pattern
00:34:29.920 --> 00:34:35.200
lifestyle let's say it's very close in fact because the probability you get a disease it's
00:34:35.200 --> 00:34:41.760
much higher the secret is always the same sleep well eat well good levels of stress not too much
00:34:41.760 --> 00:34:47.520
not less but also the type and don't forget to train and I think the goal here right would be to
00:34:47.520 --> 00:34:54.000
have this with age stay as high as possible right have this bar stay up as high as possible and then
00:34:54.000 --> 00:35:00.160
fall off like a cliff. Yeah. So other people can suffer from our death, not us. Not the people they
00:35:00.160 --> 00:35:05.840
they they died, you know. Right. Right. Have you started to look into have you started to take any
00:35:05.840 --> 00:35:11.200
of this research and start to look at disease populations or has this mainly been a focus on
00:35:11.200 --> 00:35:16.560
healthy populations? Yeah. Yeah. We are starting right now in Portugal a very big project. Let's
00:35:16.560 --> 00:35:23.040
translate the project calls vabella. Let's say like life is beautiful project you know and we
00:35:23.040 --> 00:35:29.520
are starting doing some some ch some uh programs with the community to get and we'll also get
00:35:29.520 --> 00:35:36.720
data our focus is to provide their low levels of parenia so decrease porpia as most as possible and
00:35:36.720 --> 00:35:42.800
uh and we'll also get some data to analyze and we may publish or not because in Portugal
00:35:42.800 --> 00:35:49.280
we have good food so easy to eat sometimes the stress is also okay if you man you manage Okay,
00:35:49.280 --> 00:35:54.240
the sleep. Yeah, you have to choose. You don't you don't you don't do the work and you go to sleep,
00:35:54.240 --> 00:35:58.880
but not training too much. Okay. Yet. So, the job is to put them to train because the rest
00:35:58.880 --> 00:36:05.600
they are doing already. And in fact, Portugal has a longevity still considerable. So, the Portuguese
00:36:05.600 --> 00:36:08.960
people in general, they live more than for instance Americans. I was going to say you should
00:36:08.960 --> 00:36:14.240
come bring that research over to uh America. Yeah. Waiting for the invitation. Cool. I mean, that's
00:36:14.240 --> 00:36:19.040
it's very fascinating. Is there is there anything that we have not discussed about power pina or
00:36:19.040 --> 00:36:23.600
about anything that you would like to hit on? Everything we did not discuss. That's what we were
00:36:23.600 --> 00:36:29.200
organizing this conference to discuss more and we are calling all the researchers worldwide to
00:36:29.200 --> 00:36:35.440
participate and now they have no excuses because they can either participate in local they can join
00:36:35.440 --> 00:36:41.840
the codfish the sea the surf and all that that good stuff and just have a good contribution for
00:36:41.840 --> 00:36:47.600
the the conference but they can also participate virtually they can submit their ops right abstract
00:36:47.600 --> 00:36:54.880
will be indexed by frontiers in aging with um Quart one journal. So very nice journal and give a
00:36:54.880 --> 00:37:01.200
contribution for discussion and to find solutions for the world the world needs. It's fantastic that
00:37:01.200 --> 00:37:06.400
this that this event is being put on and I'm sure with every single year this will continue to grow
00:37:06.400 --> 00:37:13.680
and grow and grow and really be an impactful event for the world. This this event which people can
00:37:13.680 --> 00:37:20.640
watch on powerpin.com is being sponsored by Keiser and we really thank to Keiser. It it has giving a
00:37:20.640 --> 00:37:27.280
good help to to organize but we what we need is registrations from people here to participate
00:37:27.280 --> 00:37:32.480
because the benefit of the event is comes from people that are here and they give their
00:37:32.480 --> 00:37:37.920
contribution. Uh if they give the contribution everyone will love probably will bring the most
00:37:37.920 --> 00:37:44.240
powerful man living in hurt. He's he lives in Portugal and we will test his power levels with
00:37:44.240 --> 00:37:50.800
the Keiser equipment. He's 54 years and for Ghage I have no doubt that is the most powerful man in
00:37:50.800 --> 00:37:57.440
earth's his origin is from Cape Ver which has people living until 20 120 years which is very
00:37:57.440 --> 00:38:02.960
nice locally in the world the the women not the men because the men they just take risky
00:38:02.960 --> 00:38:08.400
risky behavior so they don't live to too long they drink they do a lot bad stuff let's say so
00:38:08.400 --> 00:38:15.280
they die sooner but the women know the women they are smart they they live longer they live 110 115
00:38:15.280 --> 00:38:21.440
They're way smarter. Yeah, man are dumb. Yeah, I I have no doubts. Like we did a a study on football
00:38:21.440 --> 00:38:26.880
here. We we we study all the football teams in in in Portugal together with the football federation.
00:38:26.880 --> 00:38:33.120
And I found a very interesting thing like we asked to the to the people in charge of the recovery
00:38:33.120 --> 00:38:37.840
after the games. What was the the recover method that they they gave most valable they consider
00:38:37.840 --> 00:38:44.080
more important and what was the method that they they classify as import as important like like
00:38:44.080 --> 00:38:49.120
what you use more what is more important let's say like this we and we we did analysis for
00:38:49.120 --> 00:38:55.760
uh women teams and men teams uh men the most important thing to recover is to sleep okay
00:38:55.760 --> 00:39:02.400
what you do more I eat so there was no correlation what the men say that was important and what they
00:39:02.400 --> 00:39:08.800
do the women the correlation was almost 0.97. So it was a line. Men say it's important to sleep,
00:39:08.800 --> 00:39:13.600
I sleep. Second thing is important to eat, I eat. So they do the this and this progression and they
00:39:13.600 --> 00:39:20.480
are right. So women are much clever than men. And the future is for women of course. Okay. Any any
00:39:20.480 --> 00:39:25.200
other resources, social media websites that you want to share? I'm happy to put this in the notes,
00:39:25.200 --> 00:39:29.680
but maybe for someone listening right now the time. I think like right now the conference we
00:39:29.680 --> 00:39:35.120
are on the second edition pinput.com but we will advance sooner with uh more information
00:39:35.120 --> 00:39:41.760
on the website because uh people can maybe can stay to to connect through that website we will
00:39:41.760 --> 00:39:48.000
keep the website just to put the the information there. So uh all the news good and the bad news
00:39:48.000 --> 00:39:54.080
we'll put there and the next good news it's the conference two and three of July 2026 either in
00:39:54.080 --> 00:39:59.680
local or online. Okay Sandro thank you so much. If I can recap all of this, eat well, sleep well,
00:39:59.680 --> 00:40:03.520
don't be stressed, and if you can train a little bit, train a little bit on top of that. No, no,
00:40:03.520 --> 00:40:08.000
you should have stress a little bit. Okay. Not much. Just a little bit. Yeah. Otherwise, if you
00:40:08.000 --> 00:40:12.880
don't have stress, you get depressed. Okay. No power. And if you're going to have some codfish,
00:40:12.880 --> 00:40:17.520
go to Portugal and join the cod there because it's the best in the world. Yeah. To capture the best
00:40:17.520 --> 00:40:23.280
place is new land in in Canada, Charles Finland. You capture them, you bring on the plane, you take
00:40:23.280 --> 00:40:28.000
it to cod fishing, we cook it for you. Okay. If there's one takeaway about today's conversation,
00:40:28.000 --> 00:40:31.840
it's that Sandro, thank you so much for taking the time to join me on the Keiser Human Performance
00:40:31.840 --> 00:40:38.080
podcast. We totally appreciate all the hard work that you and your colleagues have dedicated
00:40:38.080 --> 00:40:42.560
uh to PowerPIA and uncovering the importance of this. I'm really excited to see where this
00:40:42.560 --> 00:40:47.360
goes and how big this conference will get and and really how the community begins to
00:40:47.360 --> 00:40:51.200
accept and really appreciate everything there is to know about Power Penis. So,
00:40:51.200 --> 00:40:54.880
thank you so much. I can't wait to talk again soon. Can't wait to hear how the conference
00:40:54.880 --> 00:41:01.120
goes and and for anyone listening again conference you can do it virtually notes will be include the
00:41:01.120 --> 00:41:05.520
link to register make sure you do yourself a favor and do that so Sandra thank you so much we really
00:41:05.520 --> 00:41:10.720
appreciate it no thank you and thank you Keiser for the opportunity also thank you for helping in
00:41:10.720 --> 00:41:15.760
spreading the word yes yes absolutely all right my friend thank you and we'll talk soon bye-bye bye
About Our Guest
Connect with Sandro and Register for the Powerpenia Conference (July 2nd-3rd) - info below:
Powerpenia Conference in July : www.powerpenia.com
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At 70 years old, Pat VanGalen delivers a message backed by both science and personal experience: "We can change the way we age. It is so malleable." This isn't wishful thinking. Pat conducted a nine-month study with sedentary postmenopausal women that produced remarkable improvements in both function and biomarkers.

Why Power Training Matters for Fall Reduction
Many communities actively run fall prevention programming that incorporates resistance and balance training. And yet, despite these efforts, falls remain the leading cause of injury-related death among adults aged 65 and above.
This is not due to lack of care or commitment. So, let’s talk about two lesser-known culprits: dynapenia and powerpenia, which may be quietly undermining your fall prevention efforts.
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