Galileo Research Fact Sheet #26: Can Galileo Therapy improve muscle power significantly even in the aged?

It is always astonishing how little is quite often needed with Galileo Training to achieve positive effects: In this early Galileo study published already in 2000 the patients simply stood with legs slightly bent for 3x3 minutes, at 27Hz, position 2, 3 times per week over 8 weeks on the Galileo.

The used frequency (27Hz) in principle should help to build up muscle (#GRFS29) but the used posture hardly addresses the muscle of thighs and gluteus muscles which are used for the Chair Rising Test (CRT) as the outcome parameter. Nevertheless the time for CRT improved by 20% in many even up to 36%. This translates into a significant improvement of muscle power, because a value of 10 seconds for 5 repetitions as fast as possible means already an impairment for every-day living and fall-risk) while on the other hand a value of 5 seconds is already the shortest possible without cheating.

According to up to date knowledge an exercise like 2 to 3 sets of the skiing-squat at 27 to 30Hz and a time per set of 60 to 90 seconds would have been more effective because it specifically targets thigh and gluteus while the training time would have been cut half (Exercise 41 or to make it even harder exercise 22 or exercise 44).

The Chair Rising Test (CRT)

This test is one of the most common test in geriatric research and practice to evaluate the muscle power of the upper legs and the gluteus. The reason why it is used so often is it is extremely simple to test and at least for unfit individuals it offers significant information.

PROTOCOL: Rise 5 times as fast as possible from a chair (without using the arms, arms crossed in front of the chest) and immediately sit down again. Get up all the way and sit down all the way (no cheating!).

MEASUREMENT: Simply use a stop-watch to take the time for all 5 repetitions.

RESULTS: Roughly fit individuals will take about 5 seconds (faster is caused by cheating). Starting from about 10 seconds there is already a significant impairment of muscle power for every-day living and fall-risk increases. Use this test for initial measurements and follow up of unfit individuals (since they can easily do the test themselves later on to see training effects).

After intensive training (e.g. 3* per week, skiing squat (exercise 41) to exhaustion within 60 to 90 seconds, if no complete exhaustion after 90 seconds use extra weights or harder exercises like exercise 22 or exercise 44) you should see an improvement of the chair rising time after 3 weeks.

Therapy - Muscle Power  
#GRFS26 #GRFS