Grandview Terrace fitness coordinator selected to present research findings at the International Council on Active Aging 2017 Conference
By Shanna Hogan
Six years ago, Grandview Terrace Fitness Coordinator Katherine McDonnell proposed a question: Is it possible for someone in their 80s to gain muscle?
In October, Katherine will present her findings answering that question at the International Council on Active Aging annual conference in Orlando, Florida. Her presentation, “Turn Back the Clock,” was selected from among 400 submissions.
Rhonda Zonoozi, Sun Health Center for Health & Wellbeing exercise physiologist, will join Katherine at the conference to talk about sarcopenia -age-related muscle decline. For example, after the age of 30, inactive people can lose 3 to 5 percent of their muscle mass each decade.
Katherine first asked that question in 2011, when she was hired by Sun Health Senior Living to coordinate fitness programming for residents of the independent living communities in Surprise and Sun City West. Around this time, her department received a new machine called the “InBody230,” with technology that calculates a person’s body composition, including percentage of fat and muscle.
“I was tasked with developing a program to use this machine,” Katherine says. “That’s when I decided to use it as the core for developing the program.”
Katherine began by testing the body composition of the residents at Grandview Terrace in Sun City West. Over a two-year period, the results were eye-opening.
“I noticed a trend that almost everybody was ‘over fat’ and ‘under muscled,’” she says. “I kept an eye on that trend, and wondered if there was anything I could do with that information.”
“Sarcopenia was rampant among my seniors,” she adds.
After consulting with her mentors, Katherine developed the thesis.
“I wondered if it were even possible for someone in their 80s to change that,” she says. “That was the question I asked myself: ‘What would happen if I developed a program that would prove or disprove that?’”
When she first implemented the study in 2016, 14 residents volunteered.
After measuring their body composition, the volunteers were instructed to gradually increase the intensity of their workouts over an eight-week period. The residents had access to group fitness classes and the on-campus gym.
At the end of those two months, Katherine used the InBody machine to retest their body composition and compile the data.
“Much to my surprise, I found, at the end, that it was actually possible for someone in their 80s, in as little as two months, to put on muscle weight,” Katherine says. “It was shocking to me. You figure by the time you get into your 80s, what you’ve got is pretty much what you’ve got to work with. And that’s just not true.”
According to Rhonda, “The less muscle mass older adults have, the less they are able to do activities of daily living. And they tend to lose their independence if they have sarcopenia and don’t do anything about it.”
Katherine spent months applying to professional conferences to present her results before being selected by the International Council on Active Aging. She hopes that by sharing her findings, other octogenarians will be inspired to exercise, while more communities can learn to develop their own sarcopenia programs.
“I thought, ‘If I can do it for my residents, certainly someone else can do that for their residents,’” she says. “I think this is an exciting program, and people can learn from it.”
Sun Health is offering a class about sarcopenia on Aug. 25. Class details can be found at the top of page 13.
