Aging Reversed By Weight Training
Comments:
The fountain of youth may lie in weight training for older adults. A recent study found that adults over sixty not only gained strength from weight training, but also reversed the aging signature of their muscles by 40 to 45 years. With just six months of exercise, seniors who took part in the study felt stronger, had more endurance, and according to researchers, had significantly reversed age induced damage to their bodies.
The study was published in PLoS One, an online journal of the Public Library of Science by Canadian Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky and American Simon Melov. They recruited 25 active, healthy adults, with an average age of 70 and 26 relatively inactive adults between ages 20-30 to examine the effects that exercise has on muscles.
Biopsies were taken of the participants thigh muscles before and after the study to examine the muscles' mitochondrial "signature." The mitochondria, the principal energy source of cells, float around outside the nucleus of most cells making it possible for them to use oxygen to convert carbohydrates, fats and proteins into energy.
Twice a week for six months, those in the older age group used standard resistance training equipment to perform an hour of leg, arm and core weight training exercises that involved 30 contractions of each muscle group, while the younger group did no weight training at all.
At the end of the six month period comparisons of the mitochondrial signatures showed that the mitochondria of the senior citizens had returned to a state closer to that found in younger adults and on a cellular level the scientists have seen a significant reversal of accumulated damage. As well, prior to the experiment, the older adults had been about 60 per cent weaker than the younger participants, but by the end of the study they had improved their strength to a level that made them only 38 per cent weaker than their younger counterparts.
Whether or not the weight training can reverse molecular aging in other body tissue will have to be determined by future studies, Melov said. Following this breakthrough he also intends to examine whether or not other types of exercise such as cycling and walking can also rejuvenate the mitochondrial signatures.