Even Old Muscles Respond to Weightlifting

Are we really never to old to build muscle? That’s the thesis presented by Gretchen Reynolds in a recent article in The Washington Post. Reynolds bases her thesis on a study of resistance exercise that found that even people in their 80s and 90s showed significant gains after starting to lift weights three times a week. Previous studies of oldsters and weight training topped out at age 75, but Luc van Loon, a professor of human biology at Maastricht University, and senior author of the new study, pushed the age limit to 85. Van Loon’s volunteers lifted three times a week for 12 weeks, using weights as much as 80 percent of their full strength. The Post reports that after three months, the people aged 85 and up added more strength and mass, in relative terms, than people in younger groups, adding an average of 11 percent to muscle mass and 46 percent to strength, versus 10 percent more muscle and 38 percent more strength among the younger volunteers.