It’s never too late to start exercising.
You might have heard that saying before.
It’s far more than a cliché, though. Fitness can and should be a part of everyone’s life, regardless of age. Over the last decade, research has highlighted the importance of strength training for healthy aging.
Case in point: a new case study on a sedentary woman who started powerlifting at 63.1 How did she do? Let’s take a look.
Meet Ina, a marvel who defies the stereotypes of aging and fitness. At 71, she is a world champion powerlifter and began her journey into resistance training at 63, proving it’s never too late to start exercising. Here’s how she flipped the script on aging:
- 🦾 Muscle Mania: Compared to her age-matched peers, Ina boasts a 33% greater skeletal muscle mass index (a calculation to compare your muscle mass to others) and 37% larger muscle cross-sectional area. Her handgrip strength? A whopping 33% stronger!
- 🏆 Champion Stats: With official powerlifting bests that outshine even those of much younger athletes, Ina’s leg press strength is 36% higher than that of healthy controls her age.
- 🚀 Body Composition Benefits: Ina’s body composition shines with a bone mineral density comparable to much younger women, very low body fat, and significantly reduced muscle fat infiltration, setting a new standard for health and fitness at any age.
- 🥇 Elite Athlete Insights: This study doesn’t just celebrate one woman’s triumphs; it showcases the untapped potential within all older adults to achieve remarkable fitness levels through strength training.
Meet the Subject
Our participant, Ina, is a 71-year-old female world champion powerlifter who started training at 63.
- She was the 2018 world champion in powerlifting at the International Powerlifting Federation World Classic Powerlifting Championships in her weight and age category (−63 kg and 70+ years).
- Her achievements continued as she became the world champion in 2019 and 2022.
- Before starting weightlifting at 63, Ina had occasionally engaged in aerobic training like jogging since she was 43, but nothing high-level.
- After coming across strength training, she initially trained only once a week, which increased to three times a week four years later when she aimed to compete in regional CrossFit competitions.
- By 2016, she shifted her focus to powerlifting, leading to her winning national and world titles. Currently, she trains four times a week, with sessions including a 30-minute warm-up and an hour of training.
- Ina has no health issues, has never used drugs or hormones, and does not need to take any medications. Daily, she consumes various dietary supplements (L-lysine, fat burners, branched-chain amino acids, probiotics, Q10, Omega-3, Vitamin D3, multivitamins, magnesium, and Vitamin C).
The Study
The study involved two days of testing to assess Ina’s muscle and bone health, strength, fitness, and metabolic health.
These included scans to look at her muscles and fat, strength tests, a test to measure how well her heart and lungs work during exercise, and a muscle biopsy to look at the type and size of her muscle fibers.
Day 1
Morning Check-In
She starts her day at the lab, having rested for the tests after two days of non-training.
She’s also asked to skip breakfast. Why? Because the scientists need to check how her body handles sugar on an empty stomach.
They measure her height, weight, and even her heartbeat right off the bat.
The Sugar Challenge
She drinks a sweet liquid (imagine the sugariest drink you’ve ever had) so the scientists can track how her body processes all that sugar.
They take tiny blood samples over two hours to see how quickly her sugar levels return to normal.
Muscle Power Test
After the sugar rush, it’s time to show off Ina’s strength.
She does one-rep max tests on leg press and extension machines, which are basically tests to determine the heaviest weight she can move once with her legs.
Then, she squeezes a special gadget as hard as she can to test her grip strength.
Physical Performance Battery
“Physical performance battery” might sound vaguely painful, but it’s just a series of quick tests to check her balance, speed, and ability to get up from a chair.
It’s kind of like playing a variety of mini-games to test how agile and swift she is.
Workload Capacity Test
To finish the first day of tests, she hops on a stationary bike that gets harder to pedal every few minutes, like cycling up an increasingly steep hill.
She keeps going until she can’t go any further to measure her peak oxygen use and endurance.
Day 2
After another early start and making sure she’s as empty as a deflated balloon (another day of fasted testing), Ina undergoes a series of scans.
MRI Adventures
First, a full-body MRI scan, which is like taking a super-detailed picture of what’s inside you, focusing on muscles and fat. Imagine lying in a giant, noisy doughnut that sees through you.
X-Ray Vision
Then, a dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry scan—it sounds like a mouthful, but it’s just a fancy way to measure bone density and body composition.
The CT Scan
Last, a computed tomography (CT) scan zeroes in on her thigh to see how much muscle is there. It’s another fancy photo shoot, but just for her leg.
Measure Up
They also measure her leg in old-school ways, using tape measures at different points to determine the volume.
Strength Secrets
Finally, she tests her muscle strength again, but this time in different positions and speeds, using a Biodex System 3 Pro dynamometer, a machine that sounds like it belongs in a robotics lab.
Follow-Up Measurements: Nutrition and Activity Log
After the two days of testing, our champion keeps a diary of everything she eats and wears a gadget that tracks her movements for a week. It’s like having a food critic and a personal trainer taking notes on her daily life.
Study Results
Let’s break down the key findings from the study on our 71-year-old world champion powerlifter into simpler terms.
More Muscle, Less Fat
Compared to other women her age, Ina has much more muscle and less fat.
She has a 33% greater skeletal muscle mass index than most healthy females of her age. In addition, her quadriceps cross-sectional area (CSA)—the surface area of the muscle when viewed perpendicular to the direction of the muscle fibers—is 37 % greater than average.
Strong Bones
Ina has strong bones, similar to what you’d expect in much younger people.
In younger females, bone mineral density averages around 1.10–1.20 g/cm2. Ina is right there, with a bone mineral density of 1.09 g/cm2. Compare that to typical numbers for her age, which average around 0.93 g/cm2.
In practice, this kind of sturdy frame means she’s less likely to get injuries from falls or fractures, which can be common as you age.
Impressive Muscle Strength
Ina’s muscles are not just bigger; they’re also much stronger.
She can lift more weight and press harder than almost anyone her age and even more than many much younger people.
Compared to other healthy women her age, her leg press strength is 36% greater, and her handgrip strength is 33% greater.
And, of course, her powerlifting results speak for themselves: 57.5 kg on the bench press, 90 kg on the back squat, and 133.5 kg on the deadlift. Other studies show that maximal strength results of resistance-trained women average 49 kg on the bench press, 76 kg on the back squat, and 89 kg on the deadlift.2 And those numbers are for 25-year-olds!
Cardiorespiratory Fitness
Despite her focus on weight lifting, her cardiorespiratory fitness is on par with much younger, active women.
Her maximal workload capacity and peak oxygen uptake are twice that of age-matched females and similar to those of 20–29–year–olds.
Lower Body Fat
She has significantly lower amounts of abdominal and organ fat compared to a reference group of postmenopausal women.
- Her total body fat percentage is 31%, which falls within the ideal body fat percentage range for females, even young ones. It is 9% lower than with age-matched females.
- Even compared with healthy, younger postmenopausal women, Ina has 21% less visceral adipose tissue, 30% less abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue, and an incredible 70% less liver fat.
The fat inside the body, the visceral fat, is the dangerous kind.
In addition, her muscle fat infiltration is lower (~32%) than considerably younger women. Muscle fat infiltration is when fat enters the muscles themselves. It measures muscle quality and is directly related to declining muscle capacity. The researchers considered these results remarkable, as muscle fat infiltration typically increases with age.
Metabolic Health
Despite having more muscle and less fat than most women her age, the study noted that Ina’s sugar levels after a meal were slightly higher than expected, though not dangerously so. It’s a reminder that even with lots of exercise, monitoring diet and health is essential.
Summary
In summary, the study found that Ina, at 71, has built a body that’s strong, efficient, and healthier in many ways, similar to someone much younger.
- The results underscore the potential of strength training to improve body composition, muscle strength, and overall health, even when you start later in life.
- They also challenge the notion that aging inevitably leads to physical decline, showing that older adults can achieve remarkable levels of fitness and even compete at world-class levels with proper training.
Of course, Ina probably has exceptional genetics for the sport of her choice. But that applies to any age: you probably shouldn’t expect to become a world champion when you start lifting. However, genetics mean nothing without effort and dedication; with those two things, anyone can become their best self.
Final Words
Aging is associated with a loss of muscle strength and size. That process starts as early as 30, and as we age, we might lose ~1% of our muscle and up to ~3% of our strength each year.
That loss of muscle is a considerable risk factor for declining health, physical function, falls, fractures, many diseases, and early death.
Almost all of this can be prevented, and the cure is inexpensive (nearly free), without adverse effects, and you see the results almost instantly.
The cure is strength training.
Lifting weights boosts muscle and strength regardless of age, leading to improvements in physical function and awesome health benefits.
Many people think you can’t make gains when you’re older, but many people are wrong. Even if you start lifting at 70, you can increase your muscle mass by ~10% and your strength by up to 30% in just 12–24 short weeks.
Ina, the woman in this study, went from completely untrained at 63 to a world-class strength athlete at 71.
However, Ina is not just lifting weights; she’s lifting the spirits of anyone who thinks age can limit their fitness dreams. Her journey from a fitness novice at 63 to a world champion at 71 is a powerful reminder: your age doesn’t define your strength; your actions do.
It’s never too late to start exercising.
