Age Well with Weight Training

Do you think you are too old to *lift weights*? Think again! Weight training* by older people may build not only *strength and muscle mass* but also motivation and confidence, potentially spurring them to *continue exercising. 

People are worried that they might be too old or inept to start *resistance training *but feel they should perhaps try it, to see how their bodies and minds respond.

We have plenty of evidence, of course, that *weight training* can help us *age well*. By our early 40s, most of us are *losing muscle mass*, at a rate of about 5 percent a decade, with the decline often precipitating a long slide toward frailty and dependence.

But older people who *lift weights* can slow or reverse that descent, studies show. In multiple experiments, older people who start to *lift weights* typically *gain muscle mass and strength* as well as *better mobility, mental sharpness and metabolic health*.

But *lifting weights* helps only those who try it, and statistics indicate that barely 17 percent of older Americans regularly *lift weights*.

So, as part of a larger study of *weight training* and the elderly, scientists at the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland recently decided to see if they could discover how *weight training* changes the minds as well as the *musculature* of people who had not done it before.

To start, they turned to 81 older men and women who were part of their *health* database and who had agreed to begin *resistance training*. These volunteers were all between the ages of 65 and 75 and, like many Finns, *healthy and physically active*. But they did not *lift weights*.

For the full study, they began a twice-weekly program of supervised, full-body *resistance training* at the university to familiarize participants with proper technique and build a base of *strength*.

After three months, the group was randomly assigned to continue *training once, twice or three times a week*, while a separate, un*trained* group served as controls. Periodically, the researchers checked the volunteers’ *strength, fitness and metabolic health, and also their attitudes about the *workouts, including whether they found them daunting or inviting and how difficult it was for the volunteers to find the time and resolve to show up.

This routine lasted for six months, by which time the people *lifting weights* had almost all *gained strength and improved various markers of their health*, even if they had lifted only once a week.

But then, after the months of *supervised lifting,* the *exercisers* abruptly were on their own. The researchers explained that they could no longer have access to the university facilities and provided them with information about low-cost, suitable *gyms* in the area. But any subsequent *training* would be at their own volition.

The researchers waited six months and then contacted the volunteers to see who was still *lifting weights *and how often. They repeated those interviews after an additional six months.

They found, to their surprise, that a year after the formal study had ended, almost half of the volunteers still were *lifting weights *at least once a week.

We had estimated a rate of 30 percent. Also surprising, the researchers discovered little direct correlation between *muscle and motivation*. The people who had gained the most *strength or muscle mass* during the study were not necessarily those most likely to stick to the *training.*

Instead, it was those who had come to feel most competent in the *gym. If someone’s self-efficacy, which is a measure of confidence, had risen substantially during the study, he or she usually kept *lifting weights.

In effect, people who discovered that they enjoyed and felt capable of completing a *weight-training session* subsequently sought out and joined a *new gym* and showed up for *workouts*, despite no longer receiving nudges from the researchers or encouragement and companionship from their fellow volunteers.

They found out that *resistance training *is their cup of tea, so to speak.

Most of them also told the researchers that *weight training* had provided them with renewed confidence in their *physical abilities beyond the gym*.

They could do things that they thought they could not do before.

Of course, about half of the volunteers had told her and the other researchers that they preferred other types of *exercise* and those men and women, for the most part, no longer *lifted weights*.

For now, people interested in starting to *lift weights* should look for classes or *St. Louis personal trainers specializing in beginners and learn to lift safely*.

The overarching lesson of the study, is that to discover how you feel about *weight training, you need to *weight train.

For more information on *aging well by lifting weights*, contact *Maurie Cofman, CMES, CES, TBMM-CES, Personal Trainer, Certified Medical Exercise Specialist, Health Coach and Corrective Exercise Specialist in the St. Louis, Brentwood, and Clayton, MO area.*