Cardiologist: "Weight training hardens the heart muscle."
A retired military officer I know (in his 60s) was recently told by his cardiologist not to weight train: She said she didn't want him to lift weights anymore - work out yes, lift no - because it "hardens the heart muscle and we want to keep that muscle nice and soft".
Cardiologist is US trained, works in a major city, and has a good reputation.
I did some research and found that some studies show a stiffening of blood vessels associated with weight training, but nothing about damage to the heart muscle, and nothing at all so far that shows any increase in mortality or other risk. I understand that cardiovascular accidents associated with weight training are so low as to be unmeasurable, but I would appreciate it if I could get some comments on this from people in a position to have more practical experience than a cursory Internet search would yield. Sounds absurd to me, and at any rate the benefits of training, to me, far outweigh the unmeasured risks.
Didn't really know where to put this so it would be seen by the most people in medicine. Couldn't find anything about stiffened blood vessels or anything similar in a search.
I already wrote back a page of recognized benefits: Lower blood pressure, compression of morbidity, ease of everyday tasks, benefits of diet and rest associated with training, increased mobility, resistance to injury, etc.