Best Exercises to Fight Aging
Not all exercise is created equal, and a Mayo Clinic study suggests that when it comes to keeping your cells younger, one type stands clearly above the rest.
Researchers in Rochester, Minnesota tested three different exercise programs on two groups of people.
The first group was between 18 and 30 years old and the second was between 65 and 80. Half of the 72 subjects were women, the other half men. A non-exercising control group was included for comparison. The results were published in the journal Cell Metabolism in 2017.
Subjects were assigned to one of three exercise protocols for 12 weeks. One group did vigorous weight training, one did high-intensity interval cycling, and the third did a combination of lighter-weight training and traditional steady-state cardio.
Researchers took biopsies from the volunteers' thigh muscles and also measured each subject's lean muscle mass and insulin sensitivity.
Consistent with prior research, subjects who did strength training put on the most muscle mass and showed the greatest gains in strength. Subjects who did cardio improved their endurance. The combination group improved both strength and endurance, consistent with blending the two approaches, though their cellular improvements were more limited, showing up primarily in the younger participants.
The surprising results came from the high-intensity interval group. Their muscle biopsies showed increases in both the number and health of their mitochondria, the structures inside cells that produce energy, and increased activity in their ribosomes, which are responsible for building proteins. These changes counter some of the cellular declines typically seen with aging. The high-intensity interval group showed the most pronounced improvements in markers of mitochondrial function overall.
Here is where it gets interesting. You might expect younger subjects to show the bigger response. They did not. Markers of mitochondrial function increased by about 49 percent in the younger group. In older volunteers, the relative improvement was about 69 percent. The older subjects responded more robustly to interval training than the younger ones did. Both groups also improved their insulin sensitivity, which is associated with a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
To understand why these findings matter, it helps to know something about how cells age. Muscle cells accumulate damage over time, and when their mitochondria deteriorate, the cells become less efficient and more prone to dysfunction.
High-intensity interval training appears to counter some of that deterioration. The longer we can preserve the function of those cells, the more likely we are to maintain the physical capacity that goes with them.
Before getting to what this means practically, it is worth putting the study in perspective. It ran for 12 weeks and focused on cellular markers rather than long-term aging outcomes. It also involved 72 people. The findings are meaningful and consistent with a broader body of exercise research, but they are a piece of the picture, not the whole thing.
That said, the data strongly suggest that if improving cellular health is a priority, high-intensity interval training is one of the most effective tools we currently know of. While the researchers stopped short of issuing prescriptions, a practical version inspired by their protocol might look like this.
Cycle hard for four minutes at close to your maximum effort, follow that with three minutes of easy pedaling, and repeat three more times. Working time is 16 minutes and the full session runs about 28 minutes. Two to three sessions a week is a reasonable target.
Because the effort required is genuinely high, older adults or anyone with cardiovascular concerns should speak with their doctor first and consider working with a trainer in the early weeks.
There is one significant gap that interval training does not fill. It is not nearly as effective as resistance training for preserving muscle mass and strength, and that matters. Some research suggests adults lose roughly 5 to 10 percent of their muscle strength per decade after midlife, with losses accelerating after 60. To address that decline, add resistance training two to three times a week for 30 to 60 minutes per session.
The combination of high-intensity intervals and strength training addresses the two most important physical consequences of growing older. The data suggest it is never too late to see real benefits from either one.
Reference Link:
Enhanced Protein Translation Underlies Improved Metabolic and Physical Adaptations to Different Exercise Training Modes in Young and Old Humans
Matthew M. Robinson ∙ Surendra Dasari ∙ Adam R. Konopka ∙ Matthew L. Johnson ∙ S. Manjunatha ∙ Raul Ruiz Esponda ∙ Rickey E. Carter ∙ Ian R. Lanza ∙ K. Sreekumaran Nair
Cell Metabolism - Clinical and Translational Report, Published March 07, 2017
Click Here for the Study: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2017.02.009
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5/20/2017
Updated 5/11/2026
