You're never too old for lifting: the benefits of lifting weights

Exercise is one the most important thing we can do for ourselves as we get older. I think I’ve said it a few times, but I will say it again, walking is not sufficient activity for maintaining good health and really, unless you’re carrying some weight on your back or walking rugged tracks, walking is not exercise. Running is exercise. It is good exercise. However, it does take its toll on the body especially on the lower joints. The knees feel it. If I had a dollar for every older runner I’ve met, and some younger ones, who hobble around because of lower joint pain resulting from running, then I’d be able to employ someone full-time to assist me with the formatting and hyping up of THW.  You’d think the advice would be to stop running. I don’t necessarily think they should or need to. Yes, dial back the running a bit. That would be what I would say to them. And they should hit the gym 2-3 times a week and lift some weights.

So, you might now say, who am I to give this advice. You’re well within your rights to ask. I don’t have a medical degree or a degree in exercise physiology. On paper, despite having a PhD, I am not qualified to give this advice. Except, I’ve been a runner who experienced lower body aches and pains from running. My partner was even more a runner than I and had similar problems. Both of us still run. We don’t run anywhere nearly as much as we used to. She did the City to Surf last year. We’ll both run it this year. I hope to get under 70 minutes which is what I’ve run every year except for 2022 where I came home in just under 72 minutes despite not having been able to train for it because of the osteoarthritis in my left hip. Two weeks later I went in for hip surgery. The hip injury wasn’t the result of running. It was due to a combination of anatomy and spending a lifetime of ignoring my mobility. I now do at least 30 minutes of mobility every day almost without fail. Some days, I do more.  This post is not about mobility. It’s not about running either.

This post is about lifting weights which is something I know a few things about. I also write on this topic because I have experienced, and seen first-hand, what training weights does for a person including people who were fit and healthy but had previously only run for exercise. For myself, and for the others, weights had an incredibly transformative impact on their day-to-day life especially for preventing injury, reducing pain and for their general mobility. I won’t say much about mobility and flexibility here, except mobility is the other pillar on which good health is built and as one ages, the need for more and more of it increases.

I might quickly list the benefits of weight training. I believe everyone should do at least 2 sessions a week. One of the great joys of weight training is that there is, especially now, a huge list of exercises that can be done for each body part and variations of each depending on capacities. That will be the topic of the next article. But first, the benefits that lifting weights specifically confers:

1.     You get stronger: it is true that body weight exercises including running, swimming and particularly callisthenics will build some strength, but lifting heavy things is the most effective way to get strong. Having more strength helps in a myriad of ways such as making chores around the house easier, carrying things including children, and moving things that need to be moved. And, getting stronger makes you feel better about yourself- trust me I see it all the time around the gym when people make a new personal best (PB) they smile a lot, pump a fist, jump up and down in glee and often can’t wait to tell their nearest and dearest. Just yesterday, my partner couldn’t wait to share that she had a new deadlift PB. I can tell you without it being an exaggeration or hyperbole, that a new heaviest lift made her day and mine.

2.     You have better functioning muscles: Lifting weights will build muscle. But, you have to lift a particular way to get jacked. A lot of women refuse weightlifting because they don’t want to get muscly. Fair enough. The truth is though that it is very, very hard for women to build the musculature they see in body builders. Strength training is not the same as bodybuilding. One builds the capacity of the muscle and muscle systems and the other builds more muscles. There is some overlap, but to not get too technical, bodybuilding focuses on developing more muscle mass, strength training on developing the muscles to exert more force, more effectively. Additionally, women do not have the levels of testosterone that men, especially men in their 20s, 30s and even into their 40s, that are required to build muscle mass. As I man in his 50s, I can tell you I can feel the effect of declining testosterone for building muscle mass. I just can’t get as jacked as I could. It’s something I have come to terms with. I will write another post about these topics in coming weeks. For now, I want to say that building healthier muscles is so important for good health. It will reduce insulin sensitivity, contribute to better heart health and increase a person’s metabolism meaning more calories burned at rest. All these things are fundamentally important for good health and especially for holding back the impact of ageing.

3.     Anti-ageing- the science is fairly well established now that muscle strength and mass is a key component for holding back a number of the aspects of age-related decline. Not only does weight training build much needed muscle mass, but it also helps to slow down the reduction in testosterone and Human Growth Hormone which play a part in maintaining heart health, insulin sensitivity and a range of essential physiological functions. Strength and power decline with age as does cardiovascular capacity. Once you start looking at the numbers, it can be bleak. Muscle loss can be as much as 40% between the ages of 20 and 80. And, strength loss is even greater. However, studies indicate that older people who do regular resistance training can have as much as a 20 year advantage over people who do not. One study found that an 85 year old who lifted weights regularly had the same muscle mass and strength as 60 year old who did none. Clearly, age related decline is bleakest for those who do no exercise and less so for those who lift weights.  Mostly, I find that weight training sustains energy levels and a youthful mindset. I can say with some certainty that the people I know who have integrated weight training into an otherwise active life, have energy levels and an optimism for life that is far greater, more enviable than those that don’t. Increasingly, the scientific community is publishing studies demonstrating what we who have been lifting for years already know; lifting is good for people’s health and for people’s perspective on life.

4.     Bone density: Along with hormonal changes, or as a result of them, bone density declines as we get older. The level of bone loss can be as much as 1% per year from the age of 40. Unsurprisingly, older people who lift weights have higher bone density than those that do not. As with all age related decline, people who are most sedentary, and with poor nutrition, are most at risk of bone deterioration diseases such as osteoporosis and the often associated fractures and breaks that arise from having these conditions. Weight training builds stronger muscles that protects bones as well as increasing bone strength. Functional strength training also greases the joints making them more agile. And functional movements with weights improves balance and coordination, both help to prevent falls in the first place.

5.     Cognitive health: There is a plethora of research now that shows that building good muscles as you get older improves brain function. Since the beginning of the Western Enlightenment in the 17th century, there has been a tendency in Euro-American cultures to divide the mind and the body into different domains. Our western stereotypes remain those of the jock with a low IQ and the intellectual with almost no physical prowess. But common sense alone should be enough to challenge this very distorted view of muscles versus intellect. Muscle movement, balance, coordination, in fact all physical activity, require the brain to send and receive messages from the nerves that are situated in the skeletal muscles of the body. Doing more of these types of activities will fire up the brain and keep it active. High speed, power movements such as plyometrics have been shown to be effective movements for brain health and might be a far more effective way to delay the onset of Alzheimer’s and dementia than medications. Reading and continuing to learn new things as one gets older combined with weight training might be the most effective treatment for age related mental decline. The science is increasingly reaching this conclusion.

6.     Posture: Other than mobility exercises, and I have heaps to say about the importance of mobility training, lifting weights do more for ensuring good posture and a later life with less, and even possibly no, back problems. Functional weightlifting means that the joints move through full ROM (range of motion) or close to full ROM regularly ensuring the joints, tendons, ligaments and musculature that support the joints are healthier. This becomes especially important as we get older. Weight training, especially strengthening the muscles that support good posture such as the lower back muscles, shoulder external rotators, glutes and the core will reduce neck and back pain. Less pain and better spinal health means moving better and feeling better adding up to greater enjoyment of life.

Now that we’ve outlined the main benefits of weight training, I want to start writing a series of articles on approaches to weight training, training tips and links to information about programming, exercises and other interesting aspects of weight training. The Herculean Way has, hopefully, compelled you into the gym and now wants to propel you to get stronger and healthier now that you are there. Until next week, be Herculean.