Endurance activity, such as running, swimming, cross-country skiing, and cycling, has been found to help you age better than resistance exercise, which involves lifting weights.
Researchers in Germany looked at the effects of endurance training, high-intensity interval training, and resistance training on the way cells in the human body age. In a study published in the European Heart Journal, they found that endurance and high-intensity training both slowed or even reversed cellular aging, but resistance training did not.
Professor Ulrich Laufs of Leipzig University in Germany led the team of scientists who enrolled 266 young, healthy, but previously inactive volunteers, and randomly assigned them to six months of endurance training (continuous running), high-intensity interval training (warm-up, followed by four bouts of high intensity running alternating with slower running, and then a final cool down of slower running), and resistance training (circuit training on eight machines, including back extension, squats, and lunges), and resistance training (circuit training (the control group). When compared to the resistance and control groups, telomerase activity was boosted two to threefold and telomere length was considerably increased in the endurance and high-intensity training groups.
Telomerase activity and telomere length are identified as sensitive techniques to quantify the impacts of different types of exercise at the cellular level, according to the findings. Individual training suggestions based on these measures may increase both adherence and efficacy of exercise training programs in preventing cardiovascular disease. Longer telomeres and more telomerase activity have been linked to a healthy aging process in the past. This is, however, the first prospective, randomized controlled research investigating the impact of various types of exercise on these two cellular aging markers. One proposed explanation for why endurance and high-intensity training can enhance telomere length and telomerase activity is that these types of exercise impact nitric oxide levels in the blood vessels, which can contribute to cellular changes.
Reference:
