Weak legs get stronger faster with training
Weaker older women gain more lower body strength than their stronger counterparts, but not muscle mass, following 12 weeks of resistance training
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Weaker older women gained significantly more leg strength than stronger women, even though both did the same training.
Common belief is that stronger people have less room to grow — but here, the weaker group had bigger gains, which contradicts the idea that baseline strength predicts responsiveness.
Practical Takeaways
Encourage older women with low leg strength to stick with resistance training — they may see faster strength gains than their stronger peers.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Weaker older women gained significantly more leg strength than stronger women, even though both did the same training.
Common belief is that stronger people have less room to grow — but here, the weaker group had bigger gains, which contradicts the idea that baseline strength predicts responsiveness.
Practical Takeaways
Encourage older women with low leg strength to stick with resistance training — they may see faster strength gains than their stronger peers.
Publication
Journal
Journal of Sports Sciences
Year
2022
Authors
Witalo Kassiano, Bruna Costa, J. Nunes, Gabriel Kunevaliki, Pâmela Castro-e-Souza, L. T. Cyrino, Marcelo A. S. Carneiro, Natã Stavinski, E. Cavalcante, J. Mayhew, Alex Silva Ribeiro, E. Cyrino
Related Content
Claims (4)
Individual hypertrophic responses to resistance training are highly variable across muscle groups and are not consistently correlated between upper and lower body musculature.
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.
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.
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.