Hormones and Weight-Training in Elderly Males:
The various pathophysiologic processes associated with normal aging were once considered both inevitable and irreversible. More recently, research has shown that declines in lean body mass, bone mineral density, and muscle strength may be associated with related decreases in certain steroidal hormones. Hence, many believe that testosterone and growth hormone replacement therapy, in conjunction with weight-training, may delay or even reverse age-related atrophic changes. However, while exercise does confer many health benefits upon the elderly, the advantages of hormone administration remain in doubt.
Normal senescence is characterized by alterations in numerous physiologic processes. These changes include such varied aspects as body composition, muscle strength, and endocrine balance. For example, older people often experience decreases in bone and muscle mass, with concomitant increases in adiposity (18:1361). Over the course of an adult life, muscle strength may diminish by some 30 to 40 percent (5:3033). Muscle strength generally increases up to age 30. Between the ages of 30 and 50 years though, it will plateau. Beyond age 50, the muscle strength of most persons declines (1:1725). This decline becomes most significant at the onset of the sixth decade (7:211-212).
These different physical processes have been associated with various hormonal phenomena. Advancing age in men may result in decreased serum levels of both androgens (i.e. testosterone) and growth hormone. While the physiologic features of senescence are certainly of intrinsic interest, they only achieve clinical importance when some bodily function undergoes alteration. Clearly, there are functional consequences to the changes which occur in body composition, bone mass, and muscle strength among elderly men. One general compositional trend, for instance, consists of a progressive decrease in lean ...