May 2007

Strength training may reverse muscle aging

A small study suggests strength training may not only make older adults’ muscles stronger, but younger adults’ muscles as well.

The study, published in the online journal PLoS One, looked at whether strength training affects the “gene expression profile” in older adults’ muscle. Analyzing small samples of muscle tissue from a group of healthy young and older adults, researchers found that older and younger muscle tissues differed significantly in their gene expression profiles. The difference indicated older muscle tissue had impaired functioning in mitochondria — structures within cells that act as the cell’s “powerhouse.”

That impairment was reversible, however. After 14 of the older adults underwent six months of strength training, the gene expression profile in their muscles showed a more youthful appearance.

“In a very real sense, the muscle was younger,” said the study’s lead author Dr. Simon Melov of the Buck Institute for Age Research in Novato, California.

The study included 25 healthy men and women older than age 65 and 26 healthy adults ages 20 to 35 who had diet and exercise habits similar to the older group. Fourteen of the older adults then went through a strength-training program, working out two days a week for six months.

Melov said more studies are needed to determine whether aerobic exercise, such as walking or cycling, has similar effects on muscle — and whether exercise might reverse molecular aging in other types of body tissue.

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