After 12 weeks of lifting weights, both strong and weak older women gained about the same amount of muscle—starting strength didn’t affect how much muscle they built.

When older women lift weights for 8 weeks, their muscles don’t get much bigger, but they do get stronger and walk faster—so it seems like something other than bigger muscles is helping them move better.

After doing strength training for 12 weeks, older women—whether they started strong or weak—gained about the same amount of strength in their arms and the same amount of muscle, no matter how strong they were at the start.

After doing strength training for 8 weeks, older women got stronger and their muscles worked better—but their muscles didn’t get bigger. This suggests their brains and bodies got better at using the muscles they already had, not at making new muscle.

Older women who started out weaker in their legs got stronger in their legs more than the stronger ones after doing leg exercises for 12 weeks, but everyone gained about the same amount of muscle and upper-body strength.

When older men and women over 60 start lifting weights, women tend to get stronger faster relative to how strong they were at the start—especially in their arms and legs—compared to men doing the same workout.