Older people can benefit from resistance training, such as weightlifting, to help counter the effects of aging, even if they were not super athletes, according to a new study out of the U.K.

The small study from the University of Birmingham’s School of Sport and Exercise Science found evidence that older people who never exercised regularly can build muscle just like trained athletes of the same age.

Skeletal muscle is essential to our health and physical function, such as walking, but the deterioration of those muscles, known as sarcopenia, is a typical part of aging starting from when a person reaches their 50s, and considered a driver for many age-related health issues, researchers said.

The study, published in Frontiers in Physiology, took two groups of older men between the ages of 60 and 80 and compared their muscle-building abilities. One group of seven men were “master athletes” who maintained endurance training at least twice a week for at least 20 years prior to the study, and were still competing at the top levels in their sport, while the second group consisted of eight men who maintained a healthy lifestyle, but never took part in a structured exercise regimen.

Researchers took muscle biopsies of the participants before and after exercising to see how the muscles responded to the workout and were surprised to find that both groups showed the same muscle building capacity. Researchers had expected the athletes to have a better ability to build muscle due to their fitness history.

The results bolster the notion that it is never too late to start exercising and helps further dispel concerns that resistance training could be harmful for older people.

“Back in the ‘80s and ‘90s, there was a bit of a misconception that older people who lifted weights would get a huge inflammatory response and it would possibly make them ill, or damage their joints, but actually we find that’s really not the case at all,” said lead researcher Dr Leigh Breen.

“People with osteo and rheumatoid arthritis, they also get a benefit from strength training as well, with no joint complications.”