Strength training, such as weight training, helps to gain muscle mass and functional capacity. In the elderly, exercise may have even more benefits, but not just like that.
A new study found that increasing training volume is important for results, including for those who have difficulty training.
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Bodybuilding and the elderly
Although weight training has benefits, its results vary for each person. In the elderly, activity is an ally when it comes to gaining muscle mass, since, according to the new study, the decline in mass increases after the age of 60. According to Manoel Lixandrão, physical educator and author of the thesis, when USP Newspaperthis makes this group more prone to falls, fractures and other traumas.
However, it is not enough to simply do weight training or other strength exercises. In fact, some elderly people report that they did not see significant gains. There are factors external to training, such as diet, sleep or genetics, but the monitoring and volume of training is something that can affect the result.
How the study was done
To test the relationship between training volume and muscle mass gain in elderly people, the study analyzed 85 volunteers.
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- The volunteers were over 60 years old, of both sexes, clinically healthy, with no history of type I diabetes or myocardial ischemic diseases, with controlled blood pressure, no muscle injuries or diseases, and with a body mass index of on average 26. .4;
- Of this group, 60% (51 of the total, between 27 men and 24 women), with an average age of 69 years, did not gain significant muscle mass (they had difficulty with training);
- Another 40% (34, with 14 men and 20 women), with an average age of 68 years, had better mass gain.
The training went like this:
- They had to perform exercises on unilateral leg extension chairs for ten weeks, with two exercise sessions per week;
- The two legs had different training. One underwent a single set of eight to 15 repetitions, while the other did four sets of eight to 15 maximum repetitions. The load varied throughout the training sessions;
- Before and after each session, participants underwent MRI scans of the quadriceps muscle to quantify muscle mass and strength gains.
Results of guided bodybuilding
Although the answers vary, targeted weight training gave more results with a greater volume of training. After ten weeks, the leg that did four sets of eight to 15 repetitions gained more muscle than the leg that did just one set.
Individuals who previously reported having difficulty gaining mass showed improvement in both gaining lean mass (1% for the leg subjected to one repetition and 5% for the leg subjected to four repetitions) and muscle strength (6% and 13%, respectively).
The study also showed that all participants gained lean mass and muscle strength, even in the leg that did fewer repetitions.
In individualized responses, of the 51 elderly people who reported having difficulty gaining mass, 80% showed improvement when the training volume increased. The same happened for the elderly who did not have difficulties.
Caveats
Despite the positive results, Lixandrão remembers that increasing the amount of exercise should not be done without professional supervision.
