There’s a commonly held belief that getting older means an inevitable decline in physical conditioning. While this is usually true if one ceases most physical exercise and activity, it is possible to prevent much of the physical decline of aging.

There are things that tend to change in the body as we reach our 60’s, 70’s and beyond which make us susceptible to muscle mass and strength loss.

One issue is that nerve endings that connect with muscles tend to pull back from the muscle tissue, making the neuromuscular connections less efficient. There’s also the age-related loss of what are called satellite, cells which are a sort of stem cell that can provide components to muscle cells for regeneration.

So, aging does have effects that naturally weaken muscles, but this does not mean that exercise is rendered ineffective.

In fact, a recent study found that resistance training enhanced muscle mass and increased muscle strength by as much as 38% in older people not previously doing strength training in as little as 12 weeks!

But what age group are we talking about?

Well, the first group in the study was individuals who were between the ages of 65 and 75. I think it’s quite impressive to see those types of results in that age group – especially in just a few months.

But there was a second group that the researchers looked at to see what the effects were of continued advancing age – people 85 and older (some in their 90’s). It turns out that the muscular enhancements were essentially the same as with the first group. Now, the older group was starting at a point of lower muscle mass and strength, but the percentage improvements in the 12 week strength training program were approximately the same as for the 65 to 70 year olds - who were 15 to 20 years younger!

So, for those of you who were thinking you were too old to benefit from exercise, that simply isn’t the case. Yes, because of certain physiological changes that occur with aging (a couple of which were discussed earlier), it takes longer to build muscle as we age. It’s also usually necessary to train a bit differently as we age to allow for more recovery time between workout sessions and to be more careful with what exercises we do and how we do them in order to avoid injury.

For example, while it may work to do moderate to intense resistance training 5 or 6 days per week when you’re 20, you may need to back it off to 3 or 4 days when you get a bit older. Overtraining is a legitimate concern and the potential for it grows as you get older.

It may also be necessary to modify what exercises you do and/or how you do them. High-impact exercises like jumping up onto platforms can put undue stress on joints and irritate arthritic conditions. Resistance exercises like deep squats may need to be transitioned to partial squats to reduce pressure on aging joint surfaces. But in most cases, modifications can be made that will allow you to continue exercising and getting good results in muscle strength and conditioning without risking injury or aggravation of underlying degenerative conditions.

With rare exceptions, exercise in general and resistance training specifically are not only still options for people or all ages, but are highly recommended for avoiding many of the physical limitations that older individuals commonly experience.

Until next time…

George F. Best, D.C.