Unlocking the Benefits of Resistance Training for Aging Adults: A Comprehensive Guide
Written By: Chris Toland, Sport & Exercise Scientist (ATH/HM) M.S. CSCS, USAWL1, CFNP
SUMMARY OF BENEFITS:
- Increases skeletal muscle mass and strength, enhancing quality of life and metabolism.
- Boosts bone density, disease prevention, cognition, cardiovascular health, and mental well-being.
- Prevents age-related muscle loss and sarcopenia, improving daily function and reducing premature mortality.
- Enhances protein synthesis, promoting muscle growth and repair in all ages.
- Employ the FITT Principle to get started: Train 2-3 times per week with moderate to high intensity, focusing on compound movements for 30-60 minutes per session.
AGE LIKE A FINE WINE
It is no secret as we age out of our prime years our bodies start to progressively decrease in skeletal muscle mass. Everyone wants to feel young and is searching for that fountain of youth. The answer to your questions does have a fountain in it. Even though it may not be as majestic and mythical as the one Ponce De Leon spoke about, the answer you’re looking for is RESISTANCE TRAINING. Resistance training will help increase skeletal muscle mass and strength which greatly impact your quality of life, decrease mortality rates and improve your metabolism. Outside of strength and muscle building, other benefits consist of improving bone mineral density, disease prevention, improved cognition, improved cardiovascular health, help with anxiety and depression, and the list doesn’t end there!
LET'S DIVE INTO SOME MUSCLE PHYSIOLOGY, SHALL WE?!
Skeletal muscle makes up 30-40% of our body mass and becomes more and more compromised as we age. Declines in muscle mass approach nearly 10% per decade when we reach our thirties and are accelerated with progressing age. Loss of muscle mass is particularly concerning, given its important roles in physiological processes including movement, metabolism, disease and infection resistance.
Furthermore, declines in muscle health have been associated with premature mortality among community-dwelling older adults. As a result, exercise training interventions that save muscle mass and function have enormous potential to improve the experience of aging and reduce the incidence of age-related conditions that deteriorate quality of life. Progressive resistance exercise training represents the most widely recognized strategy to combat age-related muscle atrophy and improve overall muscle health on multiple levels: 1) muscle mass, 2) neuromuscular performance (e.g., strength and power), and 3) cellular and subcellular adaptations.
USE IT OR LOSE IT!
Muscle atrophy is inevitable to start around the fourth decade of life. Declines in muscle mass approach nearly 10% per decade and are accelerated with advancing age. Resistance training can combat this issue and not only maintain muscle mass, but also gain muscle tissue as you grow in age. Our muscle consists of different types of muscle fibers. Each myofibril (muscle fiber) type (Ia, IIb, IIx) has its own role and capacity for different types of exercise.
- Type Ia for long duration slow twitch exercise like marathon running, gardening, or your other regular activities of daily living
- Type II(b&x) fibers for fast explosive fast twitch movements like sprinting, jumping, and throwing a baseball.
These fibers start to atrophy and convert from fast to slow, which not only effects our performance in the weight room, during sporting activity with friends and family, but also has a major effect on activities of daily living and can greatly affect our health. Furthermore, If you stop training (or never start) you’ll see these effects much more rapidly.
Severe muscle mass decrease is what physiologists call sarcopenia. However, sarcopenia describes severe muscle loss that strays from the norm. Sarcopenia affects your gait, balance, and overall ability to perform daily tasks. However, moderate to high-intensity resistance training has been shown to greatly improve strength, neuromuscular function, mobility, and muscle hypertrophy – and more so in Type II fibers.
Another effect of resistance training is its relationship with protein synthesis. You might be asking yourself, what in the world is protein synthesis? All you have to know is protein synthesis in simple terms is the ability to make proteins and you want a positive net of protein synthesis to breakdown ratio. Proteins are extremely important and are responsible for a lot of cool functions in the body. They are involved in transport, structure, catalyzers for cellular action, and they protect the body from infection and disease. We need proteins to live and you are making them right now as you read this blog. But as we age protein synthesis declines and the ability to grow muscle and strength is impaired if we don’t train. After resistance training protein synthesis is elevated for 48 hrs. Protein synthesis (which is the process of building up new proteins after breaking down current proteins in muscle, this happens after exercise) has an increased sensitivity to training from anabolic (constructive aspect of metabolism) stimuli such as resistance training and nutrition are negatively affected from age. Despite this notion, resistance training has been shown to improve muscle protein synthesis in young AND older populations, which in turn improves muscle strength and skeletal muscle thickness if we continue to train consistently over our lifespan.
OTHER HEALTH BENEFITS OF RESISTANCE TRAINING
- Resistance training reduced the risk of all-cause mortality by 15%
- Exercise drops mortality rate by 10-20% in adults who frequently train with moderate to high intense physical activity
- Cardiovascular disease mortality rates decrease by 20%
- Cancer mortality rates decreased by 14%
- Resistance training has shown to decrease depression symptoms better than medications
- Anxiety symptoms have been shown to decrease after resistance training
- Improve sleep and much more!
Resistance training can greatly affect your quality of life! So treat yourself to exercise because if you want to age like fine wine,keep out of the doctor’s office and enjoy your golden years – you have to Train Smart & Train Hard!
Now you might be asking yourself: This is great, but how long, how many days a week and what type of resistance training do I need? Don’t worry! Let me lead the way and give you some insight. So I will lay out a little principle called the FITT (Frequency, Intensity, Time, Type) principle which gives a nice overview of how to go about your training plan.
FITT PRINCIPLE
- Frequency- ≥ 5 days per week (d/wk) for moderate-intensity aerobic exercise (or ≥ 3 d/wk for vigorous-intensity aerobic exercise, or 3 to 5 d/wk for a combination of moderate- and vigorous-intensity exercise) supplemented by resistance exercise ≥ 2 d/wk and flexibility exercise ≥ 2 d/wk.
- Intensity- moderate to high intensity (60-90% of 1RM or 1 Repetition Max)
- Time- 5 to 20 repetitions per set, 3 to 14 seconds/rep for 1 to 5 sets per exercise. Perform 8-10 exercises for the whole body. Focus more on compound movements. (i.e. Box jumps, Squats, Push-Up, Pull-Ups etc). Movements that occur across two or more joints. Duration of each session should be 30-60 mins.
- Type- (Weightlifting, Bodybuilding, Powerlifting, Sport Performance, Gymnastics etc.) Bodyweight, Resistance bands, TRX straps, Sandbags, Kettlebells etc. You name it, you can utilize it, as long as you follow the prescribed intensity and time.
QUICK RECAP
As we age, we lose muscle mass and quality of performance and life can be affected. But there is an answer to these problems and that answer is consistent resistance training that can not only maintain our muscle mass, but also help gain and grow it if we train hard and train smart. Ask your coach at ATH about best practices for you, so they can place you on the best track for success!
READY TO GET STARTED?
We offer a free trial in our award-winning group classes. In our Forever ATHlete classes, you're:
- Being coached by the best coaches in the industry
- Going to receive REAL, SUSTAINABLE results
- Never going to be bored - you'll never do the same workout twice
- Getting access to unlimited classes, a recovery suite and Open Gym
OTHER BLOGS YOU MAY LIKE:
- Why you should incorporate functional fitness into your workout routine
- Where do you get your protein on a plant based diet?
- Exercise Recovery: Why it's important & 3 tips for doing it right
REFERENCES
Ransdell, L. B., Wayment, H. A., Lopez, N., Lorts, C., Schwartz, A. L., Pugliesi, K., ... & Camplain, R. (2021). The impact of resistance training on body composition, muscle strength, and functional fitness in older women (45–80 years): a systematic review (2010–2020). Women, 1(3), 143-168.
Bloch-Ibenfeldt, M., Gates, A. T., Karlog, K., Demnitz, N., Kjaer, M., & Boraxbekk, C. J. (2024). Heavy resistance training at retirement age induces 4-year lasting beneficial effects in muscle strength: a long-term follow-up of an RCT. BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine, 10(2), e001899.
Lavin KM, Roberts BM, Fry CS, Moro T, Rasmussen BB, Bamman MM. The Importance of Resistance Exercise Training to Combat Neuromuscular Aging. Physiology (Bethesda). 2019 Mar 1;34(2):112-122. doi: 10.1152/physiol.00044.2018. PMID: 30724133; PMCID: PMC6586834.
Ikezoe T. Age-Related Change in Muscle Characteristics and Resistance Training for Older Adults. Phys Ther Res. 2020 Dec 4;23(2):99-105. doi: 10.1298/ptr.R0009. PMID: 33489646; PMCID: PMC7814211.
Suetta, C., Haddock, B., Alcazar, J., Noerst, T., Hansen, O. M., Ludvig, H., ... & Simonsen, L. (2019). The Copenhagen Sarcopenia Study: lean mass, strength, power, and physical function in a Danish cohort aged 20–93 years. Journal of cachexia, sarcopenia and muscle, 10(6), 1316-1329.
Burtscher, J., Strasser, B., D'Antona, G., Millet, G. P., & Burtscher, M. (2023). How much resistance exercise is beneficial for healthy aging and longevity?. Journal of Sport and Health Science, 12(3), 284.
Schoenfeld, B. J., Grgic, J., Ogborn, D., & Krieger, J. W. (2017). Strength and hypertrophy adaptations between low-vs. high-load resistance training: a systematic review and meta-analysis. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 31(12), 3508-3523.
de Souto Barreto, P., Rolland, Y., Vellas, B., & Maltais, M. (2019). Association of long-term exercise training with risk of falls, fractures, hospitalizations, and mortality in older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA internal medicine, 179(3), 394-405.
Shailendra, P., Baldock, K. L., Li, L. K., Bennie, J. A., & Boyle, T. (2022). Resistance training and mortality risk: a systematic review and meta-analysis. American journal of preventive medicine, 63(2), 277-285.