First, the bad news: the handy excuse that “it’s too late to build muscle” is no longer applicable for elders who would prefer to avoid weight lifting. According to an article in the Washington Post, a study of resistance exercise and the elderly found that even people in their 80s and 90s showed serious gains after lifting weights three times a week. Turns out that the main reason no one knew this is because no one pays much attention to people in their 80s and 90s. Shocker!
The surprising study asked volunteers to lift weights three times a week for 12 weeks, using weights set to as much as 80 percent of their full strength. The weight lifters were divided into two groups, one for people aged 65 to 75, and one for people over 85. Researchers were surprised to learn that after three months, the people aged 85 and up had packed on more strength and mass, in relative terms, than the younger group, 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.
Read more in the Washington Post.