Aged 75 and over? Resistance training should be your buzzword of 2026
07/01/2026
Humans start losing muscle at between 30 to 35 years of age unless we do something about it.
Typically, somewhere between 50 and 70, this begins to make a material difference for the worse. Everyday things get harder. Carrying dogs, kids and shopping. Mowing lawns and clearing bush. Moving house and painting the gutters and roof.
All those things that we take for granted that we can do at 30 pose difficulty, sometimes insurmountable difficulty, when we’re 70 and beyond.
However, resistance training is the most effective way to build muscle even if you are aged 75 and over, says neuroscientist Sean G. Lacoursiere.
Muscles need resistance.
While this is simply put, the process of providing muscle resistance has been discussed for thousands of years.
Resistance training simply means to oppose force. As greater force aggregates on a smaller unit area, the more force the mover can resist.
The more resistance, the greater the muscle growth.
One of the most used methods is to simply add weight to a lever.
Whether this lever is your own body, a bar, or a club, you can create several different forms of resistance. Regardless of the method used, muscles do not grow if there is insufficient resistance.
Muscle is a metabolically costly tissue we create to oppose the forces we encounter daily. To overcome these forces, we require a network of coordinated muscle activity for everything from walking to carrying bags to sitting and standing.
The muscles we currently have on our bodies are just sufficient to perform these habitual and daily tasks – the tasks our muscles have adapted to.
To increase muscle, you must consistently add more resistance to your daily tasks.
These additional daily tasks could be in the form of simply adding more volume demand on your muscles.
Volume in this case, is the amount of resistance opposed for a given time.
If you usually walked 10 minutes daily and increased this to 30 minutes, the maximum amount of force resisted may not have changed, but the volume has increased three times.
Suppose you normally walked 10 minutes each day and added a 20kg weight vest, the maximum amount of force resisted increased, and the volume increased proportionally. In that case, volume is repetitions multiplied by the weight.
Fundamentally, this force is gravity. Volume is how much gravity has been resisted in a given period.
While they overcome resistance well, they are biological tissue that requires significant rest to repair and build adaption, whether strength, size, or metabolic efficiency.
In understanding these principles, understand how to structure an exercise based on the outcomes you desire.
If you want to build muscle using bodybuilder techniques but do not want to use exceptionally heavy weights or do not have access to heavy weights, you can use volume to guide you.
One way to do resistance training at home is through a series of body weight resisted exercises such as push-ups, pull-ups, squats, and bridges. Due to the low weight, greater acceleration or reps are required to achieve the volume demands needed.
As greater volume will be required and weight will reach a limit, the number of reps must increase accordingly to drive the adaptations.
There are further nuances when non-body builder techniques are applied, such as the use of ballistic resistance equipment, such as kettlebells and heavy clubs, in which acceleration and torque become apparent.
Any time a weight is accelerated with sufficient force to resist gravity and greatly exceed gravity, a swing or throw occurs.
As the body needs resistance daily to maintain adaptations and rest appropriately, an exercise program that allows daily progress is ideal. Still, the intensity of each day will ultimately depend on it.
Beginners do well with three weekly exercise sessions, but more sessions will be required if you cannot achieve sufficient volume.
A kettlebell or club is also an economical choice for at-home workouts that provide sufficient and progressive resistance to build muscle in place of a bench press/squat rack. The kettlebell or club can be purchased for under $100 and provides years of training while taking up less space than a typical pair of shoes. A squat rack set-up can cost thousands of dollars and requires nearly an entire room dedicated to this equipment.
One major benefit of clubs and kettlebells is that anyone can start using them regardless of age or conditioning level.
Clubs are trained using movements the body evolved to perform. Shield casts, pullovers, mills - these are all movements the shoulders, core, and legs have evolved to perform over thousands of years. Simply put, they are natural movements.
Using lightweight (or no weight), these movements are therapeutic. As the weight increases, the exercises become resistance and strength training. Meaning the exercises can be adjusted to increase or decrease the strain put on the body.
It is essential individuals aged 80 and over consult their doctor first before starting any new exercise program or significantly changing an existing one. A doctor can help determine a safe and appropriate fitness plan tailored to individual health needs and conditions.
