Previous reports of exercise training in elderly men and women generally have observed only minimal skeletal muscle adaptations to training. To evaluate the possibility that this may have been due to an inadequate training intensity, we studied healthy untrained older women before and after they had trained by maximal isometric muscle contractions for the elbow flexors and extensors. A population sample of similar age served as the controls.
　Increases in muscle strength of flexors and extensors following 8 week training were significant compared with the controls. We concluded that, given an adequate training stimulus, the skeletal muscles undergo adaptations to exercise training similar to those observed in young people, and that increases in muscle strength of the elderly may be due to improvement of decreased function in the fast-twitch motor units, which occurs during aging.

DESCENTE SPORTS SCIENCE Vol.14/THE DESCENTE AND ISHIMOTO MEMORIAL FOUNDATION FOR THE PROMOTION SPORTS SCIENCE