Contrary to popular belief, among many trainers and even some scientists, healthy individuals in their 60s, 70s, and even beyond can safely start lifting weights and gain significant muscle mass, strength, and mobility.
A recent study on resistance exercise by the elderly population has revealed that people in their 80s and 90s who had not previously engaged in weight training experienced substantial gains after starting a supervised program of lifting weights thrice a week.
Tommy Lundberg, an exercise researcher at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, who was not involved in the study, says, “It demonstrates that healthy elderly individuals can indeed respond to resistance training, revealing that their muscles are still flexible.”
Dr. Lundberg further says that research demonstrates that older people can still benefit significantly from lifting weights, regardless of age. According to him, they can not only increase their muscle strength but also their muscle size.
Most of all, the study infers that the perceptions of what’s physically possible in old age need updating.
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Aging muscles can grow
Luc van Loon, a professor of human biology at Maastricht University and the senior author of the new study, states that it is commonly believed that people who are 80 years or older are unlikely to be able to build muscle strength and mass.
This theory became popular due to the insufficient study of the oldest old. Previous research on weight training usually limited the age of volunteers to around 75 because of concerns that elderly individuals might not be able to cope with the training or that their muscles would not respond even if they could manage to lift the weights.
Van Loon and his colleagues remained skeptical. If muscle tissue is constantly turning over as long as we live, then why shouldn’t the muscles of an octogenarian strengthen and grow like those of a 65-year-old?
In order to examine the theory, the author and his colleagues enrolled 29 healthy elderly men and women. The research comprised two groups. The first group, referred to as “younger old,” consisted of 17 individuals between the ages of 65 and 75. The second group, known as “older old,” comprised people who were at least 85 years old. All participants lived independently and did not have any serious illnesses.
None of them had been regularly weight training before.
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Growing stronger at any age
The researchers conducted a study to measure the current strength and muscle mass of the participants. After the initial measurements, the participants were introduced to weight training using gym machines such as the lat pulldown and leg extension. They followed a basic full-body resistance routine and lifted weights thrice for 12 weeks. The training sessions were supervised, and the weights were set to as much as 80 percent of their full strength.
The program was more intense than what some people might expect, and it was assumed that the elderly may find it challenging to handle. However, the volunteers who participated in this intervention loved it, according to Gabriel Nasri Marzuca-Nassr, an associate professor at the University of La Frontera in Chile, who led the new study. Attendance was high during the program, and injuries were very rare.
The study found that both the “younger old” and “older old” groups responded positively to exercise, surprising the researchers. While they had anticipated that the oldest participants would gain strength and mass to a lesser extent than those aged 65-75, they found that both groups showed powerful results.
After three months, it was found that people aged 85 and above gained more strength and muscle mass proportionally compared to the younger group. On average, the older group added 11 percent to their muscle mass and 46 percent to their strength, whereas the younger volunteers added 10 percent more muscle and 38 percent more strength.
The oldest individuals improved their ability to move around by about 13% compared to 8% in younger groups, as measured by a chair-rise test.
The researchers believe the older group’s greater relative gains can be partly attributed to their extra decade of declining muscle size and strength compared to the younger lifters. As a result, they started from a lower baseline.
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About Author: Renu Bakshi, AKA Fitness Buffhq, is an ISSA Certified Elite Trainer. He
passed the Personal Fitness Trainer Course, Nutrition Health Coach course & Specialist Exercise Therapy course from ISSA, USA, obtaining + 97% marks. He shares his experience and knowledge about nutrition and effective workouts to get you in the best shape of your life, no matter how old you may be. The author says, “Age is just a number!”
IMPORTANT LEGAL INFO This article is general and for information only because it doesn’t consider your health requirements or existing medical conditions. That means it’s not personalized health advice and shouldn’t be relied upon as if it is. Before making a health-related decision, you should determine if the information is appropriate for your situation and get professional medical advice.
