In a previous post, I wrote about how inflmmation may hinder the body's response to exercise. I am now finding more evidence to support this. In this article, the authors discuss how chronic inflammation can block the body's anabolic hormones. They view poor muscle strength as a result of chronic, low-level inflammation. They state:
"However, if the overproduction of cytokines is not an “emergency” but rather a condition due to a primary, age-associated dysregulation of the immunologic system, it may cause chronic deprivation of anabolic stimulation to muscles and other selective tissues, leading to accumulation of unrepaired damage. Future studies are needed to examine the feasibility of selectively blocking the drop in endogenous IGF-1 levels in skeletal muscles in vivo to determine whether such an intervention prevents the loss of muscle mass in the presence of inflammation as well as reduces mortality."
From this point of view, the answer to poor strength/low muscle mass is not necessarily weight training, but in lowering the levels of inflammation in the body. I think it's quite possible that weight training may even disrupt this process of lowering inflammation.
For some anecdotal evidence, I saw a post along these lines over at Cooling Inflammation. He made some diet changes (which presumably reduced inflammation) and then found that his strength increased. You could easily argue that this improved diet with reduced inflammation allowed for more anabolic hormones, and hence more muscle strength. (Note: his training regimen was not described in the post.)
It seems counterintuitive to say that by changing diet and not weight training, a person could actually increase their strength. After inflammation is down, then it would make sense to weight train and reap the benefits, when the body is back to normal levels of hormone production.
