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Endurance training, resistance training or high intensity interval training: what kind of physical exercise will help your body stay young longer? A new study aims to answer this question.
Telomeres are a key factor in cellular health, the "safety plugs" that protect the strands of genetic material in our cells.
As the telomeres get shorter, this genetic material begins to deteriorate, sending a signal that the cell is aging and that the cell death process will begin soon.
The telomerase enzyme helps maintain telomere length, but, as we get older, telomerase becomes much less active, which has an impact on cellular aging.
Recently, researchers from the University of Leipzig in Germany, together with colleagues from other research institutes, questioned whether different types of physical exercise could slow down biological aging processes.
The team studied telomere length and telomerase activity in participants who participated in one of three types of exercise over the course of the study: endurance exercise, High intensity intervals or resistance training.
The endurance exercises are designed to help a person improve his stamina and include activities such as running, swimming and cycling. The high intensity interval exercises are similar, but they require a short period of intense workout followed by a rest and recovery, then an intense workout.
Finally, resistance training – or strength – aims to strengthen a person's physical strength and involves activities such as weightlifting.
Researchers report their discoveries
in the study document that appeared yesterday in the European Heart Journal.
Endurance or resistance training?
For the present study, led by Professor Ulrich Laufs of the University of Leipzig, the researchers initially recruited 266 young and healthy participants, but who did not lead an active lifestyle.
The researchers randomly divided the study participants into four groups, as follows:
- Some had to take endurance training, which involved running.
- Some have undergone high intensity interval training, including warm-up sessions, followed by four cycles of high-intensity running alternating with a slow run and a rest period.
- Some participants underwent resistance training, including exercises on the machine, including back extensions, crunches, workouts, seated oars, seated leg flexions and extensions, seated chest presses, and leg presses. .
- The members of the final group continued to lead their sedentary lifestyle, acting as a control group.
The intervention period was 6 months and participants who were experimenting with different types of workout had to go through three 45-minute exercise sessions on a weekly basis. Of the initial total number of participants, 124 were able to complete the study.
To find out what kind of training was most effective in supporting healthy aging, the researchers took blood samples from the participants, once at the beginning, then again 2-7 days after the last training session at the end of the study.
By examining telomere length and telomerase activity in participants' white blood cells, researchers found that people with endurance training and high intensity interval training had the greatest benefits.
"Our main finding is that, compared to the beginning of the study and the control group, in volunteers who have followed endurance training and high intensity, the activity of the Telomerase and telomere length have increased, which is important for cell aging, regenerative ability and aging in good health, "says Professor Laufs. However, he also notes: "Interestingly, resistance training has not exerted these effects."
New useful measures?
Specifically, telomerase activity was increased two to three times in endurance and intensive workouts, while telomere length increased significantly.
"The study identifies a mechanism by which endurance training – but not resistance training – improves healthy aging," notes Professor Laufs.
"It may be useful to design future studies on this important topic using telomere length as [an] indicator of "biological age" in future intervention studies, "he adds.
The co-author of the study, Dr. Christian Werner, of the University of Saarland, Germany, said: "Our data corroborate the current recommendations of the European Society of Cardiology, according to which the exercises resistance should be complementary to endurance training rather than replacing them. "
"The data identify telomerase activity and telomere length as sensitive ways to measure at the cellular level the effects of different forms of exercise." Using these measures to guide the recommendations of Training for individuals can improve both the membership and the effectiveness of training programs in the prevention of cardiovascular disease. "
-Dr. Christian Werner
The researchers suggest that they could have an impact on nitric oxide levels – a free radical in the blood that affects blood vessel function and blood flow, and could therefore affect aging processes at the level of the cell.
"From an evolutionary point of view, endurance and high intensity workouts can better mimic the beneficial behavior of our ancestors when it comes to travel and fights or escape as the training in force, "says Dr. Werner.
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