Lifting heavy weights around the time of retirement could preserve leg strength into older age, a new research has suggested. People naturally lose muscle function as they get older, and experts see faltering leg strength as a strong predictor of death in elderly people. Previous short-term studies have shown that resistance training, which can involve weights, body weight or resistance bands, can help prevent this happening.
New research has explored the long-term effects of a one-year supervised resistance training programme using heavy weights. For the study, 451 people of retirement age were randomly split to undergo one year of heavy resistance training, one year of moderate-intensity training or one year of no extra exercise on top of their usual activity. People in the weights group lifted heavy weights three times a week, while those doing moderate-intensity training did circuits including bodyweight exercises and resistance bands, also three times a week.
Each exercise in the heavyweights group involved three sets of six to 12 repetitions at between 70 percent and 85 percent of the maximum weight the person could lift for one repetition. Bone and muscle strength and levels of body fat were measured at the start of the research and then again after one, two and four years. At the four-year mark, full results were available for 369 people.
They showed that those in the heavyweight group had maintained their leg strength over time, while those doing no exercise or at mo.
