Faster, higher, stronger – older. Talk by Dr Ros West – University of Exeter, NHS Royal Devon University Healthcare.
People often assume that as we get older our muscles weaken and we lose strength. It is nowhere near as much as you think. Have we reached a point where a 60-year-old marathon runner is considered special and not the norm? A 70-year-old weight-lifter an outlier? Or is an 80 year old rowing an ocean just crazy? And do we have it in us to do more than we think?
Ros will talk through the evidence of what happens to our muscles as we age, why muscle quality rather than quantity is one of the most important aspects of maintaining independence and how the ability to build muscle never really stops. She’ll talk from her experience of treating patients recovering from injury, through to running a marathon, to lifting weights and rowing across oceans and what we should all be doing to live strong happy lives.
Ros is a Specialist Musculoskeletal Physiotherapist at NHS Royal Devon University Healthcare. Her post-doctoral research focused on healthcare technology diagnostics in Parkinson’s Disease. She has a PhD from the University of Exeter, 2024 with a thesis entitled: Healthcare technology and muscle physiology
She was the Safety Officer for the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge, Ocean rowing. She has rowed the Atlantic and tried to ski across Greenland!