Boston nursing home trial challenges assumptions about ageing muscles
In 1990, a study conducted in a Boston nursing home tested whether frail adults could build muscle through high-intensity strength training, challenging the long-held medical belief that sarcopenia and muscle loss were inevitable consequences of ageing. Dr Maria Fiatarone and her colleagues at Harvard Medical School and Tufts University led the research, working with ten volunteers whose average age was 90, with the oldest participant aged 96.
Eight weeks of high-intensity resistance training
Participants engaged in a supervised strength-training programme three times a week for eight weeks. Rather than gentle chair aerobics, the volunteers performed leg presses and knee extensions at 80 per cent of their maximum capacity. For many in the group, this marked the first time they had lifted weights in their lives.
After the eight-week period, the results showed a 174 per cent average increase in leg strength across the participants. Thigh muscle mass increased by approximately 9 per cent, and walking speeds improved by nearly 50 per cent. Several participants who previously relied on canes or walkers were able to stand from a chair unaided, and some abandoned their canes together.
Redefining physical decline in older adults
Prior to the 1990 study, mainstream medical guidance advised the elderly to rest and avoid strain due to perceived risks. Fiatarone’s findings demonstrated that muscle tissue retains its capacity for growth and adaptation into the tenth decade of life, and that the problem wasn’t that ageing muscles couldn’t grow — it was that they weren’t being asked to.
Frequently asked questions about strength training in older age
What intensity of exercise was used in the 1990 study?
Participants trained at 80 per cent of their maximum capacity, performing leg presses and knee extensions under supervision three times a week for eight weeks.
What specific functional improvements did participants experience?
Walking speed increased by nearly 50 per cent, muscle mass in the thigh grew by about 9 per cent, and several participants were able to stand unassisted or stop using canes.
Who led the research at the Boston nursing home?
Dr Maria Fiatarone and her colleagues conducted the research at Harvard Medical School and Tufts University.