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How much ever your age maybe, it has been proven that weight resistance training is one of the best ways to reshape and rebuild your body and to get a considerable increase in your growth hormone levels. Even in a group of people aged 63-90, there was considerable increase in agility, muscle growth and strength after going through ten weeks of high powered progressive work out with weights. This shows no matter what age you are, if done correctly, exercise can transform you dramatically.
Needless to say, resistance training can also be very effective with women. Not only is there a considerable increase in the growth hormones, with proper upper body training, women can enhance their looks and get that perfect figure they always wish to have.
So there is no barrier as to who will gain from this training, young or old, male or female, everyone can reap the benefits of regular resistance training.
Many people suggest going for aerobics or cardio exercises but they don’t give you the same results as resistance training will. As a matter of fact, too much of aerobics or cardio can increase the aging factor.
Aging in men and women is related to a few factors like:
- Muscle loss
- Lack of or diminishing muscular strength
- Lack of agility
- Difficulty in performing daily chores
These changes start mostly, at the age of 40 and start increasing as time passes.
Dr.Melov and his colleagues tested the effects of resistance training to determine whether it actually has an effect on gene expressions related to muscle aging.
Subjects:
Both young and old test subjects were used for these tests.
- 26 volunteers with average age of 68 who walked, did gardening, played tennis or cycled three or more times per week.
- 25 volunteers with average age of 24 who admitted being inactive and did very few activities.
The younger subjects were chosen by the researchers as they thought they will be able to determine more effectively at the effects of aging and inactivity in them.
A medical evaluation, health history, resting ECG, and graded exercise tests on a cycle ergo meter were done on the all the subjects before starting the program.
Volunteers who had any injuries or limitations to exercise or any heart problems or diseases or kidney problems were excluded.
Exercise And Testing
For the 26 week study all volunteers were made to do resistance exercises on Sunday/Tuesday or Monday/Thursday.
Exercises included were:
- 1. Chest Press
- 2. Leg Press
- 3. Leg Extension
- 4. Leg Flexion,
- 5. Shoulder Press
- 6. Lateral Pull Down
- 7. Seated Row
- 8. Calf Raises
- 9. Abs Crunches
- 10. Back Extension
- 11. Triceps extension
The exercise regime was progressive with increase in sets and reps during the 6 month stint. They retested for their sets every two weeks.
At the beginning and end of the study volunteers were tested for peak maximal isometric knee extension strength of the right leg
Muscle Biopsy
All the young subjects were subjected to muscle biopsy tests before and after the study, while the older subjects were subjected to pre biopsies with 14 of them had post training muscle biopsies with RNA being taken from the muscle to determine which genes transformed differently with age.
Results
Researchers found 596 such genes which expressed differently. Reversal of gene expression was found in 179 genes after 26 weeks of resistance training.
This proved that resistance training was reversing the gaining process at genetically. Mitochondrial activity considerably reversed after the 6 month program. Both young and the old subjects showed same change in the gene expressions.
This study proved that reversal of aging at gene level is possible with resistance training. Today all trainers and fitness gurus can ascertain to their clients that resistance training can truly have anti-aging effects along with better strength, agility, body shape and other physically visible characteristics in their bodies, thus making them “age gracefully”
