Can strength training fight aging?

Judging from current research in the field of sports medicine and my own experience of practicing for 7 years and leading nearly a hundred students of different ages, standardized strength training can indeed delay the multi-dimensional aging process, but it is far from being able to "fight" or even reverse aging. The effects of different groups of people and different training methods vary greatly.

There is a 62-year-old Zhou in the gym I often go to. He started practicing strength training after his retirement. It has been 8 years now and he can still lift 100 kilograms with free squats. Last year, his physical bone density was higher than that of my 28-year-old junior brother who sits in the office and stays up late every day. He can usually carry two bags of rice up to the fifth floor without getting out of breath. Even the blood lipid and blood sugar indicators from the annual physical examination are much more stable than those of his old colleagues of the same age. This is the most intuitive anti-aging effect of strength training.

In fact, the truth is not complicated. After the age of 25, people will naturally lose 0.5% to 1% of their muscle mass every year. By the time they are 60 years old, almost one-third of their muscles will be gone, which is what doctors often call sarcopenia. Muscles are the "power support" of our body and also a "big energy consumer." Without muscles, not only will we be unstable and prone to falling, our basal metabolism will decrease quickly, but we will also easily accumulate visceral fat, which will lead to all kinds of high blood pressure and joint problems. To put it bluntly, strength training is to continuously exert reasonable pressure on the muscles, forcing them to maintain their strength or even grow upwards. It is equivalent to adding steel bars to the frame of an old house so that it can last longer. In recent years, many studies have found that regular strength training can increase the activity of antioxidant enzymes in the body. Some small sample studies have even observed that exercisers have higher telomerase activity than sedentary people, and telomere wear is slower. However, this part of the research is still controversial. There are also contrary experimental results showing that excessive heavy weight training will increase the level of oxidative stress and accelerate the loss at the cellular level.

Of course, this does not mean that strength training is an anti-aging miracle drug. I have also seen many enthusiasts who have been practicing for four or five years, but they still have gray hair and loose skin with age. There are also many opinions in the academic circle that most of what strength training can improve is "functional aging" - that is, your exercise ability and metabolism are better than those of your peers, and you look more energetic. However, the impact on programmed aging at the genetic level, as well as processes such as skin collagen loss and natural aging of organs, is actually very limited. There is no need to deify it.

And you don’t have to go to the gym to do weight training. I used to do home training programs for several aunts in the community who are over 50 years old. They squatted against the wall, stretched their backs with elastic bands, and lifted mineral water bottles filled with water. They practiced three times a week for 40 minutes each time. Over the past six months, several aunts told me that they could not stand up after squatting and picking vegetables for half a day. Now they don’t feel sore in their legs after two hours of square dancing. The knee pain they often suffered before has been relieved a lot. This is the anti-aging effect that is most suitable for ordinary people.

For us ordinary enthusiasts, there is really no need to dwell on the imaginary concept of "can it anti-aging", and don't blindly train with heavy weights and injure yourself - I met a 40-year-old brother a while ago. He squatted 120 kilograms in a hurry to get results, and his waist shrank and he lay down for half a month. I pump two or three hours a week. After training, my muscles are a little sore but not painful. I eat well and sleep well at ordinary times. I can climb stairs without panting and carry things with ease. It is more practical than "frozen age".