Weight-lifting is the key to staying healthy in your 70s and beyond... and just a year of pumping iron can cut body fat and boost strength in the long term, experts reveal

Weight-lifting is the key to staying healthy in your 70s and beyond...

and just a year of pumping iron can cut body fat and boost strength in the long term, experts reveal By Kate Pickles Health Editor For The Daily Mail Published: 23:31, 18 June 2024 | Updated: 23:31, 18 June 2024 e-mail View comments Forget lawn bowls or a gentle swim – pensioners should take up weightlifting if they want a healthy retirement, research suggests. Resistance training was found to have strength benefits that lasted years into retirement, making it an ideal exercise for the elderly. People naturally lose muscle function as they get older with faltering grip and leg strength viewed as a strong predictor of death in elderly people.

Resistance training, which can involve weights, body weight or resistance bands, has been shown to help prevent this from happening. Researchers wanted to explore the long-term effects of a one-year supervised resistance training programme, using heavy weights. People naturally lose muscle function as they get older with faltering grip and leg strength viewed as a strong predictor of death in elderly people.

Resistance training, which can involve weights, body weight or resistance bands, has been shown to help prevent this from happening With participants averaging the age of 71, 451 retirees were split into groups of either a year of heavy resistance training, moderate-intensity training or of no additional exercise on top of their usual activity. Those assigned wei.