Join a clinical trial to uncover the health benefits of exercise in older adults

Published 1.23.25

Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) is recruiting people 60 years and older for a seven-month trial to better understand the health benefits of exercise. Results of the trial are aimed toward personalizing exercise prescription to maximize the health benefits attained for each older adult.

This clinical trial — supported by a National Institutes of Health award to Dr. Marcas Bamman — is a collaboration among IHMC, the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation and the University of Florida. Recruitment of 250 participants is under way in both Pensacola and Oklahoma City. Learn more and complete the prescreening process here.

It is precisely the kind of project that IHMC’s new 40,000 square foot Healthspan, Resilience, and Performance Research Complex was designed to support, says Bamman, the Principal Investigator and Senior Research Scientist who leads that team.

“Exercise is a potent treatment with the promise to mitigate most aging hallmarks, but there is substantial variability in individual exercise responsiveness,” Bamman says. “We believe this trial will help us learn more about why that variability occurs, along with strategies to boost responsiveness.”

The trial is called Multidimensional Modeling to Maximize Adaptations to Exercise (M³AX). This individual response variability was first identified in the context of endurance training and later was established with resistance training by current members of the IHMC team nearly 20 years ago. M³AX is the chance to build upon that finding to learn more.

Age-related functional declines are thought to be caused by biological processes that ultimately compromise healthspan and quality of life. Low cardiorespiratory fitness and low functional muscle quality are both manifestations of the deterioration in the cellular hallmarks of aging. And both metrics can be modified with endurance and resistance training.

M³AX will test the hypothesis that factors central to aging itself – protein metabolism, cellular energetics, inflammation and circadian rhythms — are contributors to what determines whether someone experiences clinically important improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness and functional muscle quality through exercise training.

Senior Research Associate Craig Tuggle will manage the project.

Key to the success of the trial will be the recruitment of 250 people willing to commit to a highly structured 23-week exercise training regimen.

“It is a big commitment we are asking of participants but based on past experience with clinical trials in this age group, we think they will enjoy participating,” Tuggle says.

In addition to the exercise training 3 times per week, participants will undergo several clinical and performance assessments, learning more about themselves while contributing to scientific discovery.

“The trial is an exciting opportunity to advance science while further exploring the many health benefits of exercise training,” Bamman says.

IHMC is a not-for-profit research institute of the Florida University System where researchers pioneer science and technology aimed at leveraging and extending human capabilities. IHMC researchers and staff collaborate extensively with the government, industry and academia to help develop breakthrough technologies. IHMC research partners have included: DARPA, the National Science Foundation, NASA, Army, Navy, Air Force, National Institutes of Health, IBM, Microsoft, Honda, Boeing, Lockheed, and many others.