Healthy living
Anti-ageings
Strength training can turn back the clock
Working out can actually make your muscles younger, as well as stronger, say researchers in the US and Canada
They analysed muscle tissue taken from a group of healthy older men and women before and after a six-month programme of resistance training using standard gym equipment. The tissue was compared against samples taken from a group of healthy adults aged 20 to 35 who had diet and exercise habits similar to the older group.
At the end of the period, they found that the older volunteers’ muscles were rejuvenated at the level of gene expression. ‘In a very real sense, the muscle was younger,’ said lead study author Dr Simon Melov of the Buck Institute for Age Research in Novato, California.
Specifically, the parts of the cells known as mitochondria, or the powerhouses of the cell, had been restored to youthful effectiveness. In older people, mitochondria work less efficiently. The study, published in the journal PLoS One, also found that, after the training, the muscle strength of the older adults had improved by about 50 per cent.
‘We were very surprised by the results of the study,’ said Melov. ‘The fact that their “genetic fingerprints” so dramatically reversed course gives credence to the value of exercise, not only as a means of improving health, but of reversing the ageing process itself, which is an additional incentive to exercise as you get older.’
Four months after the study, most of the older participants were no longer going to the gym but instead were doing simple resistance exercises at home, such as lifting soup cans, yet their muscle mass remained the same. Future studies are being designed to determine if resistance training can help to rejuvenate other types of human tissue, including organs.
And if you are exercising regularly, taking fish oil supplements may boost the health benefits, according to researchers in Australia. They found that taking the supplements after exercising was effective at reducing body fat and improving overweight adults' cardiovascular health
Information on this site is for interest only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. You should consult your own doctor about any specific health concerns.