High-Intensity Resistance Training + Self-Talk in Older Age
Study finds resistance training with positive self-talk provides more health benefits.
When training clients, you may want to encourage them to use positive self-talk phrases that they find personally motivating. A new study finds that using motivational self-talk with a high-intensity progressive resistance training program for older adults can significantly improve functional performance. Researchers from the University of Genoa in Italy, compared two groups of healthy older men and women (28 total adults). Investigators divided subjects into a resistance training group and a resistance training group with self-talk. Both groups trained for four weeks.
“Although the prescribed progressive resistance training alone resulted in significant gains in maximum strength for both groups, the addition of positive motivational self-talk yielded sustained benefits in functional performance that have a major impact on maintaining the individual’s autonomy in ADL,” noted study authors.
Study findings are reported in The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research (2025; doi: 10.1519/JSC. 0000000000005115).
Shirley Eichenberger-Archer, JD, MA
Shirley Eichenberger-Archer, JD, MA, is an internationally acknowledged integrative health and mindfulness specialist, best-selling author of 16 fitness and wellness books translated into multiple languages and sold worldwide, award-winning health journalist, contributing editor to Fitness Journal, media spokesperson, and IDEA's 2008 Fitness Instructor of the Year. She's a 25-year industry veteran and former health and fitness educator at the Stanford Prevention Research Center, who has served on multiple industry committees and co-authored trade books and manuals for ACE, ACSM and YMCA of the USA. She has appeared on TV worldwide and was a featured trainer on America's Next Top Model.
