Lifting weights at retirement age keeps legs strong years later, research shows

Research shows that lifting heavy weights three times a week around retirement age can dramatically preserve your leg strength into the later stages of life.

People naturally lose muscle function as they age, and experts say faltering leg strength is a strong predictor of death in the elderly.

Previous smaller studies have suggested that resistance training, which can use weights, body weight or resistance bands, can help prevent this.

Now, researchers led by the University of Copenhagen have found that 12 months of heavy resistance training around retirement age preserves vital leg strength years later.

“In well-functioning older adults of retirement age, one year of vigorous resistance training may produce long-lasting beneficial effects by preserving muscle function,” the researchers wrote.

Their findings were published in the journal BMJ Open Sports and Exercise Medicine.

Researchers studied 451 people around retirement age who were involved in the Live Active Successful Aging (Lisa) study, a large randomized controlled trial.

The participants were randomized to undergo one year of vigorous resistance training, one year of moderate intensity training, or one year of no additional exercise beyond their usual activity.

Those in the weights group lifted heavy weights three times a week. People in the moderate-intensity group did circuits such as bodyweight exercises and resistance bands three times a week.

Each exercise in the heavy weight group involved three sets of six to 12 repetitions at between 70% and 85% of the maximum weight the person could lift for one repetition.

Bone and muscle strength and body fat levels were measured at the start of the study and then again after one, two and four years. After four years, full results were available for 369 people.

At the end of the study, people were on average 71 years old and 61% were women.

Those in the heavy weight group had maintained their leg strength over time, while those who did no exercise or moderate-intensity exercise had lost strength, the results showed.

Leg strength was maintained at the same level in the resistance training group with heavy weights, possibly due to changes in the nervous system in response to resistance training, the researchers suggested. This difference was statistically significant, she added.

The researchers said that the people in the study were generally more active than the population as a whole (walking an average of almost 10,000 steps per day) and so were not necessarily a representative sample.

However, they concluded: “This study provides evidence that heavy-load resistance training at retirement age can have long-term effects over several years.

“The results therefore provide tools for practitioners and policymakers to encourage older people to participate in vigorous resistance training.”