Research

Hormonal

Resistance training induces hypertrophy in older adults with magnitude and signaling responsiveness comparable to young adults, refuting the notion that aging inherently blunts the muscle protein synthesis machinery's ability to adapt to mechanical load.

If you are an older adult, do not assume resistance training is less effective for building muscle than it is for younger people. This study demonstrates that with a consistent progressive resistance training program (3 days/week, 16 weeks), older adults can achieve similar increases in muscle fiber size and strength as younger adults. The key is consistency and progressive overload, not age.

GoodRefutesHIGH confidence
After 16 wk of RT, gains in muscle mass, type II myofiber size, and voluntary strength were similar in young and old subjects. In conclusion, at the level of translational signaling, we found no evidence of impaired responsiveness among older adults.
David L. Mayhew et al. · Journal of Applied Physiology · 2009

Why this rating

Randomized controlled trial with clear intervention and outcome measures, though subset sizes for FSR were small.

Source

Translational signaling responses preceding resistance training-mediated myofiber hypertrophy in young and old humans

David L. Mayhew et al. · Journal of Applied Physiology · 2009

DOI 10.1152/japplphysiol.91234.2008

rct · n=36Cited 214×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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