Research shows weight training can benefit older women and men equally
When it comes to pumping iron, women have as much to gain as men.
A new study compared the results of women and men aged 50 to 90 who started resistance training exercise programs, finding that though men were more likely to gain absolute muscle size, their gains were on par with women’s relative to body size.
“Historically, people tended to believe that men adapted to a greater degree from resistance training compared to women,” said senior study author Amanda Hagstrom, exercise science lecturer at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.
“The differences we found primarily relate to how we look at the data — that is, absolutely or relatively. ‘Absolute’ looks at the overall gains, while ‘relative’ is a percentage based on their body size,” she said in a news release.
The researchers compared muscle mass and strength gains in more than 650 older men and 750 older women across 30 resistance training studies.
“We found no sex differences in changes in relative muscle size or upper body strength in older adults,” Hagstrom said.
They found that when looking at absolute gains, older men gained bigger muscles and had greater improvements to upper and lower body strength. Women saw the biggest increases when it came to relative lower body strength.
Researchers noted resistance training offers a number of health benefits, including increasing stamina, balance, flexibility and bone density. It also can improve sleep and sense of well-being, as well as decrease injury.
The findings were published recently in the journal Sports Medicine.