Older adults exercise more to maintain muscle size

Older adults have to exercise more than younger adults in order to maintain muscle size.

Researchers examined how much exercise was needed to maintain or increase muscle mass, size and strength in adults aged 20 to 35 and ages 60 to 75. In the 16-week first phase of the study, all the participants did three sets of resistance training exercises (leg press, knee extensions and squats) three times a week. In the 32-week second phase, participants were dividing into three groups: some were assigned to stop resistance training altogether, some were told to reduce training to one day a week, and others were asked to cut down training to one day and one set of resistance exercises (as opposed to three sets) a week.

In the younger adults, muscle size was maintained in both groups that reduced their training. This was not the case in the older adults, whose muscle size shrank even if they did one to three sets of the exercises one day a week. However, one day of resistance training a week was enough for both younger and older adults to maintain their strength - at least for an extended period of time.

Therefore older adults require greater weekly maintenance dosing than younger individuals to maintain resistance-training-induced increases in muscle mass. All adults should include progressive resistance exercise in their weekly regimen, but there will always be times, such as extended travel or a family illness, when exercise is difficult to sustain. In such cases, resistance exercises once a week are certainly better than none.