Twelve months of heavy resistance training-;exercise that makes muscles work against a force-;around retirement preserves vital leg strength years later, show the follow up results of a clinical trial, published online in the open access journal BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine. Depletion of leg muscle strength is regarded as a strong predictor of death in older people, so is important to maintain, say the researchers. Skeletal muscle mass and function naturally decline with advancing age, ultimately often interfering with mobility and autonomy in older people, note the researchers.
Resistance training, which can involve weights, body weight, or resistance bands, can help to counteract this loss, but most of the published research has involved relatively short periods of time (6-9 months) to monitor its effects. The researchers therefore wanted to know whether a year of supervised resistance training with heavy loads would make any difference over the longer term. They followed up participants of the LIve active Successful Ageing (LISA) study, a large randomised controlled trial, the results of which showed that strength can be maintained over 12 months after 1 year of heavy resistance training.
At the time, participants who had recently retired and were healthy and active were stratified by sex, weight (BMI), and the ability to get up from a chair without assistance. They were randomly assigned either to 1 year of lifting heavy weights 3 times a week (149), or to moderate .