Is your age keeping you from working out? Are you telling yourself that you’re too old and you’ll be too sore for resistance training?

Well there’s some good news and bad news. The good news is, a recent study has shown that older adults DO NOT experience more muscle tissue damage than younger adults. The bad news is, there’s no more excuses not to weight train.

A recent study was published in The Journal of Aging and Physical Activity. The study divided younger adults into age groups between 18-25 and older adults into the category of 35 or older. Creatine kinase, an indicator of muscle soreness, showed to be lower for older adults at around 28% compared to younger adults. One other shocking finding was that muscle soreness was lower for older adults showing decreases at 34% after 48 hours and 62% at 72 hours, comparing to the younger adults.

Muscles don’t retire, unless you don’t use them! Aside from muscle soreness not being as big of an issue as originally thought, further research also showed that there is no significant difference in muscle function between older and younger adults after being measured at 24, 48 and 72 hours post exercise.

There are a few theories that could explain this contrary to belief phenomena. One being fatigue responses, meaning absolute workload could be less in older adults than younger due to older adults showing a quicker fatigue ratio in response to dynamic movements. This is to say that the absolute workload was less on older adults, though the relative intensity was the same.

There were also notable differences in how exercise affected each sex. Males showed bigger deficits in muscle function after exercise than females.

What this means is, despite the physiological changes that come with aging, the body still shows the ability to recover and adapt to exercise stimulus, specifically resistance training, at a healthy pace. Resistance and weight training is an essential component to healthy body composition and functionality as one ages. Age should no longer be an excuse that holds someone back from exercise, but rather it should be a reason to continue or even take a step into resistance training for the first time.