If you have early-stage liver disease and do supervised weight training for 12 weeks, you might gain muscle and lose the wasting that often comes with the disease—while people who don’t exercise stay the same.

If adults with early-stage liver disease do supervised weight training three times a week for three months, they get noticeably stronger and their thigh muscles grow bigger—this could help them fight off the muscle wasting that often comes with liver disease.

If adults with a mild form of liver disease do 12 weeks of guided strength training, they can walk farther in six minutes than those who stay inactive—meaning they get stronger and less tired.

For people with early-stage liver disease, doing guided weight or resistance exercises is just as safe as not doing them—no more side effects happened in the exercise group than in the group that didn’t exercise.

If adults with early-stage liver disease do 12 weeks of guided strength training, they tend to feel better mentally—less stressed, less down—than those who stay inactive.