Exercise is key to cardiovascular disease prevention. It’s unclear how different types of training affect aging at the cellular level.
Cellular aging is noted by shortening of telomeres – the ends of our chromosomes that protect our DNA, but that shorten as a cell ages. Previous research has shown that exercise is associated with longer telomeres, but it’s unknown whether exercise causes a change in telomere length.
In a 2018 study, researchers randomized 124 middle-aged women and men who were healthy, but who did not exercise, into four groups: no exercise, endurance training (brisk walking or running), high-intensity interval training (four minutes of high intensity exercise followed by four minutes of rest, for a total of four times), or resistance training (circuit training using 8 machines). Each exercise group had three 45-minute sessions per week for 6 months. Blood samples were drawn before the study started and at the end of the 6-month period.
All exercise groups improved their physical fitness, with increases in oxygen uptake and a decrease in resting heart rate. Participants assigned to endurance training or interval training had increased telomerase activity (an enzyme that affects telomere length) and longer telomeres. Those who weight-trained did not. A New York Times article stated that:
These results would seem to indicate that exercise needs to be aerobically taxing to extend telomeres and slow cellular-level aging.
Those who did resistance training would have produced less of a substance, nitric oxide, that is thought to affect the activity of telomerase and contribute to lengthening telomeres.
The authors conclude that resistance training should compliment, rather than substitute, endurance and/or interval training.
Werner, C. M., Hecksteden, A., Morsch, A., Zundler, J., Wegmann, M., Kratzsch, J., … & Böhm, M. (2018). Differential effects of endurance, interval, and resistance training on telomerase activity and telomere length in a randomized, controlled study. European heart journal, 40(1), 34-46.
2 Comments
Add Yours →Vilija this is fascinating and so well written. I am so excited about this new project for you (and all the things I am going to learn from you!!). This one in particular hit me close after a couple of semesters learning about telomeres and how they affect the way we age and grow older. Now that I am getting older myself … and have spent the last year and a half doing all resistance training and not much running or HIIT I can tell you my body has been pretty much telling me the same thing as this study for awhile now! This gives me even more reason to listen to it. I have learned variety seems to be the key in many areas of living our best healthy lives! Added a quick one mile run to the end of my work out today and plan on adding in more sprints and quick HIIT workouts with the kids this year as well. Sounds like that will be beneficial to all of us. Cant wait to read more.
Thanks for chiming in Stacy! I really enjoyed reading your perspective and thoughts on this article.