What type of exercise is best for seniors? [Video]

Retirement should be filled with time with loved ones, relaxation and—according to new research—heavy lifting.

As people get older, their skeletal muscle function declines, according to the study published Tuesday in the journal BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine.

“If you do resistance training at this age, benefits in some parameters may last several years,” said lead study author Mads Bloch-Ibenfeldt, a doctoral student at the Institute of Sports Medicine at Bispebjerg Hospital in Copenhagen, Denmark.

• Download the CTV News App for breaking news alerts and video on all the top stories

To investigate whether resistance exercise programs could be helpful in the long term, researchers performed a randomized control trial with 369 recently retired and healthy adults who were between 64 and 75 years old.

The participants were assigned one of three exercise programs for a year. They either lifted weights three times a week, did moderate-intensity training using their body weight and resistance bands three times a week, or did not change …