Strength Training and Aging

Examples of muscle strengthening exercises include yoga, "bodyweight" exercises (push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups), and resistance training using elastic bands and/or free weights or weight machines.

Pull-up Push-up Sit-up

The American College of Sports Medicine, the American Heart Association, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) recommend engaging in muscle-strengthening activities targeting all major muscle groups, at least two days a week.

Gaining more muscle mass through resistance training has many benefits, and is an essential element if you want to prevent weakening of the bones (osteoporosis), age-related muscle loss (sarcopenia), limited movement, aches, and pains.

Strength training can actually be more important for older adults and seniors than aerobic exercise. Furthermore, strength training is an excellent form of aerobic exercise, because, in order to access your cardiovascular system, you actually have to perform mechanical work with your muscles.

It is important to realize that by the time you are in your 70s, your strength and muscle tone will have decreased by about 25 percent from what you had in your early 30s. You will lose up to 50 percent once you approach your 90s.

Light walking will not be enough if you want to preserve muscle tone, bone health, balance, and posture as you age. If you are not engaging in strength or resistance training, the chances of you becoming increasingly less functional with age increase dramatically, which will possibly compromise your quality of life.

Interestingly, strength training still has a beneficial impact on your gene expression. Not only has it been shown to slow cellular aging, but it can actually return gene expression to the levels of your youth. In seniors who perform strength training, the genetic clock can turn back up to a decade!

Although diet accounts for the majority, about 80 percent, of the health benefits you reap from a healthy lifestyle, physical exercise is a crucial and adjunct component. Strength training, in particular, from this point of view, acts as a force multiplier, being the main leveraging agent…

Few adults engage in muscle-strengthening activities

Unfortunately, less than 25 percent of Americans over the age of 45 engage in strength training exercises, according to a recent survey. This is actually a decrease from the previous survey, in which 29 percent of adults reported meeting the government's strength training recommendations. As noted by the study authors:

“Muscle-strengthening activities are essential for maintaining health and physical function. This fact is of particular importance in the aging population, given the high association between aging and decreased skeletal muscle size and function…

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