Lifting weights and strength training lowered knee pain and osteoarthritis by about 20% in older adults, a new analysis published on Monday in Arthritis & Rheumatology found.
Overall, it showed that people who had engaged in strength training had less pain and symptomatic osteoarthritis compared to those who didn’t perform that type of exercise in the past.
The researchers used data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative, which included details from 2,607 people in the Northeastern US who enrolled in the study from 2004 to 2006. The people’s mean age was 64, and 44% were men. The average body mass index was 28.5.
Every four years, the people in the study underwent X-rays and pain assessments. People reported on various periods during their lives when they engaged in exercise, and how frequently they did it. The researchers also used medical histories including questionnaires for their study.
More than two-thirds of the people evaluated didn’t have a history of strength training. About 13% said they did some over the age of 50, while 6% said they had started it after turning 35. Only 0.9% said they maintained strength training throughout their lives.
Of the participants, 40.5% with no strength training reported frequent knee pain compared to 36.9% who had some history of it. Doctors could see osteoarthritis in 60% of people with no strength training experience compared to seeing it in 53% of participants with some experience.
Interestingly, people who started strength training after 50 had some of the same benefits, and perhaps even more compared to those who engaged in strength training when they were younger, the authors found.
“Exercise trends over the past few decades may have influenced results. Strength training has become increasingly popular over the past few decades,” the authors wrote. “Exposure to strength training at younger ages was less common and may predate the widespread adoption of strength training machines in local fitness centers. Participants in this study would have been around ages 12-18 in the 1950s when fitness gyms with a focus on strength training were not ubiquitous.”
The authors wrote that their findings “support the idea that the medical community should proactively encourage more people to participate in strength training to help reduce their risk of osteoarthritis and other chronic conditions.”
