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Weight training: the elixir of youth

by Dr Norman Swan

Scientists have discovered that weight training is an anti-ageing treatment - it can rejuvenate old and damaged muscle tissue.

07 07 2008


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Scientists have discovered the elixir of youth - except it isn't an elixir at all.

One of the things that makes people feel old is that their muscles get weak, they get clapped out. It's called sarcopaenia, and it's one of the reasons why elderly people end up in nursing homes or under major care.

Scientists have discovered that one of the reasons for this muscle weakness is that the energy factories inside cells – mitochondria – become clapped out themselves, they become damaged by free radicals.

Researchers have found a way of reviving mitochondria but it's actually a way of hoovering them up. They've found that if you stress muscle, the muscle hoovers up old mitochondria and replaces them with new ones.

And one of the best ways of stressing muscle is actually progressive weight training, and it seems to work. They also found that if you added the performance-enhancing compound creatine to the training people's muscles performed even better.

What they haven't discovered is how to fix up the mitochondria in wrinkles, but when they do, I'll be the first to tell you about it.


For Reference

Title: Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism
Author: Tarnopolsky M and Safdar A. The potential benefits of creatine and conjugated linoleic acid as adjuncts to resistance training in older adults.
2008 Feb;33(1):213-227

Title: Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise
Author: Tarnopolsky M Sex Differences in exercise metabolism and the role of 17-beta estradiol.
2008 Feb 29: 18317381 (P,S,E,B,D)

Title: Journals of Gerontology A: Biological Sciences & Medical Sciences
Author: Tarnopolsky M et al. Gene expression, fiber type, and strength are similar between left and right legs in older adults.
2007 Oct;62(10):1088-1095

Title: PLoS ONE
Author: Tarnopolsky M et al. Creatine monohydrate and conjugated linoleic acid improve strength and body composition following resistance exercise in older adults.
2007 2(10): e991. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0000991