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Resistance training with even light loads can boost strength and endurance in healthy elderly adults, study findings show.

The results are good news for older people who want to get stronger while minimizing the chance of injury, according to researchers.

A number of studies have shown that strength training benefits young and old alike. For the elderly, the decline in muscle mass and strength that typically comes with age can hinder mobility and increase the risk of falls and injury.

But the ideal way for older adults to strength train--how long, how often and at what intensity--is unclear. Low-intensity training involves lighter weights and more repetitions, while high-intensity training uses fewer repetitions with heavier weights.

Now the new study, reported in a recent issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, suggests that low- and high-intensity training offer the same benefits to healthy older adults.

Researchers had healthy men and women between the ages of 60 and 83 go through 6 months of supervised resistance training, either low- or high-intensity. A third group that did not train served as the "control" group. The exercisers trained on resistance machines three times a week, working on major muscles in the legs, arms and trunk.

Of the 62 participants who completed the study, those in both training groups saw similar improvements in their muscle strength and endurance. They also cut the time it took them to climb a flight of stairs, according to the study authors, led by Dr. Kevin R. Vincent of the University of Florida in Gainesville.

These comparable benefits are important when it comes to exercise recommendations for the elderly, Vincent and his colleagues note.

"Lighter loads may allow the exerciser to obtain adequate benefits while reducing the possibility for injury," they write.

And, they point out, all participants did only one set of repetitions per exercise, with the whole circuit taking 15 to 30 minutes. Similar regimens have been linked to good compliance and lower risk of injury.

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