The Fords, a retired couple living in Dundas, Ont., were part of a group of 25 seniors who pumped weights twice a week for six months in the name of research into the effects of aging.

Neither Norm, now 78, nor Barb, now 72, had paid much attention to weightlifting before they answered a McMaster University call for volunteers three years ago. But both embraced with enthusiasm the instruction they received in the basics of chest presses, lateral pull-downs, leg extensions and other resistance exercises.

Both husband and wife provided sample tissue from their leg muscles before and after the experiment. Samples from the seniors group were in turn measured against samples from people aged 20 to 35.

The seniors group as a whole had gone into the experiment 59 per cent weaker than the younger group. Starting in the 30s, the body tends to lose strength by about one per cent annually, a rate that accelerates with age -- unless one works at it, of course. After half a year of supervised weight training, the seniors had boosted their strength by about 50 per cent on average.

"My grandchildren thought I had Popeye muscles in my arms," Barb remembers. "I never had muscles like that before."

At the same time, the function of their muscle cells -- once thought to be on a one-way street toward decline -- actually improved in what the scientists describe in their report as a "remarkable reversal."

Only now that the numbers have been crunched and the scientific paper published are the Fords learning that the genetic fingerprint of the muscle cells they were working had become younger, in a way, shedding the typical effects of aging, and opening new vistas for scientists to consider as they ponder larger questions about the aging process.

Though their cells might have shucked the effects of the years, the birthdays still keep coming. Barb feels the arthritis in her knees. Norm had bypass surgery last year. Since the experiment, some of the other research subjects have apparently kept up with their weightlifting, but the Fords admit that even though they enjoyed it, they haven't been back to the gym. But, with Norm's heart surgery having turned out so well, both are considering a return this winter.

They may not be getting any younger, but they know now that pumping iron can make it feel that way.

"It was a grand experience, really," Barb says with youthful exuberance. "I feel like I'm 65, so maybe it's true."

-- Metroland newswire