Strength training builds muscle mass and strength, increases bone density and improves balance, which in turn helps prevent falls. — Dreamstime/TNS
RESEARCH shows that strength training, particularly for older adults, is a critical piece of the health and longevity puzzle.
Strength training builds muscle mass and strength, increases bone density and improves balance, which in turn helps prevent falls. It enhances joint mobility and reduces joint stiffness. It plays a role in metabolic health, reducing blood pressure and improving glucose metabolism. It even aids cardiac health.
“It’s probably the most important fitness modality out there for longevity,” says Dr Christina Chen, a Mayo Clinic geriatrician and host of the podcast “Aging Forward.”
But strength training gets harder to do during the period of life when we need it most. The older we are, the more susceptible to injuries.
Decades of a sedentary lifestyle, osteoporosis, arthritis and other conditions can lead to weakened muscles, more fragile bones and unstable, painful joints, not to mention balance issues. All of which can present challenges – or dangers, if training improperly – at the gym.
“Every intervention has a risk associated with it, and exercise is no exception,” says Dr Joshua T. Goldman, a sports medicine physician.
“If you sit in your house in a bubble, you won’t have exercise risks, but you’ll die of heart disease and diabetes or some other disease. The ageing population is at risk of getting injured more in general, but it’s certainly very possible to gain muscle as we age. It’s just that more goes into it. You have to be smarter about how you train.”
It’s not a matter of simply weight training as you age, it’s about proper execution, too. So I spoke to doctors, researchers and physical trainers for crucial tips on how to gain muscle without getting injured.
Start low, slow and supervised
If you’re new to weight training, supervision is key, says Dr Goldman. Work with a personal trainer or a friend who’s knowledgeable.
They’ll keep an eye on your form and give you real-time feedback. And proceed with caution: Begin with low weights and just a few repetitions. There’s benefit to lifting even two or three pound weights, in sets consisting of just six or eight repetitions.
“Start with someone who understands progressions and increases in load, which is a huge risk of injury for young and old alike,” Goldman says. “Progress slowly. It’s not a race.”
Keep a journal
What does “start low and slow” even mean? It’s different for everyone, says Casey Johnston, author of the weightlifting newsletter She’s a Beast. Find the starting point that’s right for you and then progress based on how your body feels.
“You can’t tell everybody to lift 20 pounds (9kg) – for some that’s impossible and others, easy,” Johnston says. “The important thing, is: Where is that person at in their general health and training life – have they recently been sick? Did they eat breakfast? – all of these things can affect your experience of a workout. So a huge part of it is learning what different stimuli feel like and monitoring how you respond.”
Johnston suggests weight-training newcomers keep a journal. Record what you did at the gym and how you felt both during and after the workout, including your level of soreness the next day. For each exercise, note how heavy the weight was, how many repetitions you did and how many sets. Rate sets on a scale of one to 10, with zero being “it feels like no effort at all” and 10 being “I can’t do even one more rep.”
“It’s important to approach it as a practice and as a learning experience,” Johnston says, “rather than something you’re just supposed to know off the bat.”
Practise functional fitness
The best way to strength train as you get older, says Chris Ryan, a New York-based certified strength and conditioning specialist who was featured on NBC’s Strong, is through compound movements that mimic everyday life.“You have to think: What’s the goal? For most people, it’s living an independent life – you want to be able to do basic things, like reach up to grab a dish, play with your grandchildren,” he says.
“So: practise squatting or sitting down to a bench or chair and standing back up again and squeezing your butt tight at the top. Do light step-ups a few inches high, mimicking climbing a set of stairs and that also helps with balance control and coordination. Do pulling exercises, like farmer’s carries, which helps pull the shoulder blades back, the chest up and keeps the core engaged.”
Your body will get smarter, your muscle memory sharp.
Warm up and cool down
As we age, the body is less resilient. Our tendons become drier, thinner and less elastic; muscles, in general, become smaller. So warming up before strength training to increase blood flow to the muscles and loosen joints, as well as doing a few minutes of recovery work after exercising – like stretching or foam rolling – is that much more important in order to optimise tissue health.
You have to put in the work to do the work, says Dr Lyndon Joseph, an exercise physiologist and a programme officer at the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health.
“Warming up is so important because it helps reduce the risk of injury,” Joseph says, adding that warm ups and cool downs don’t have to be complicated. He suggests riding a stationary bike, at a low intensity, for five or 10 minutes to warm up and doing a few walking laps around the gym, until your heart rate slows, to cool down.
Modify
There are myriad ways to strengthen a particular muscle. Minor adjustments in form and using props can alter the level of difficulty of an exercise or diffuse pain. Don’t be afraid to make an exercise yours, so that it’s more suitable for your body.
“Most older people have some stuff,” says Dr Goldman. “If you’re severely arthritic in both knees, weighted squats are probably not the best plan for you. I’d recommend knee extension and hamstring curl exercises for lower leg strengthening. A stationary bike with high resistance is also a suitable alternative. Work around restrictions and injuries. Work within the stuff you’ve got.”
Ryan suggests aquatics training. “Everything about water is good for the human body,” he says. “It’s easy on our joints. It’s also hard to move through, so there’s tension. So just moving back and forth, treading water, deep water running, arm movement patterns – it’s all resistance training.”
Don’t be discouraged by pain
Sudden or sharp pain at the gym is not OK. But also don’t let preexisting, low-level pain keep you on the couch. An arthritic joint may be uncomfortable to strength train, but inactivity leads to stiffness, which can make pain worse.
Start by working out below the pain threshold, says Joseph. Progressively increase the weight and the sets so that you’re not experiencing pain throughout the full range of motion.
“Keep it consistent,” he says. “And over time, the pain threshold will increase even more.”
Training the glutes, hamstrings, quads and core, in particular, can help prevent pain and injuries elsewhere in the body, Johnston adds.
“Deadlifting takes pressure off the lower back – you’re learning to bend down properly – and it can be corrective to a lot of the everyday pains that people experience,” she says.
Be mindful of your heart
Strength training is even better for your heart than previously thought: a 2024 study, authored by Dr Martha Gulati, director of Preventive Cardiology at Cedars-Sinai Hospital, found that women who strength trained two to three times a week reduced their cardiovascular mortality rate by about 30% compared to those who don’t.
Nevertheless, proceed carefully, Gulati says. For older adults who are new to weight training, Gulati stresses talking to your doctor first and getting an exercise prescription as well as a cardiac screening, especially if you have a preexisting heart condition. Baseline cardiac testing will ensure your heart can tolerate a heavy load.
Find what you love and do it consistently
Consistency is crucial to maintaining exercise benefits, says Joseph. To set yourself up for success, choose exercises you enjoy in a milieu in which you feel comfortable.
“Some people don’t like going to a gym, or they’re intimidated by going to a gym,” Joseph says. “So maybe you participate in a community setting, like an exercise group in a park, or do it by yourself at home. If you find pleasure in it, you’re more likely to be consistent and keep up with it.”
Focus on the big picture
We lose 3% to 8% of our muscle mass per decade after age 30 and the rate of decline increases after age 60 – it’s called sarcopenia – and our goal should be to fight that muscle loss, Gulati says.
“Falls can be catastrophic as we age and building our muscle mass is really important,” she says. “It’s not about becoming a bodybuilder, it’s about preserving your health. Just to be healthy and strong is a beautiful thing.” – Los Angeles Times/Tribune News Service
