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Article: Strength training actually makes your muscles younger: resistance exercises can reverse muscle aging and help you maintain independence.(LIVING FIT)
- Article from:
- Food & Fitness Advisor
- Article date:
- September 1, 2007
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Belvoir Media Group, LLC. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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We know that strength training makes muscles stronger in young and old alike. But a recent study suggests that resistance exercises may also make older muscles younger by affecting mitochondria, the cells' main source of energy. At the beginning of the study, mitochondrial function was "dramatically impaired" in the muscles of healthy, moderately active older adults compared with younger adults. But after six months of weight training, the older muscles were stronger and mitochondrial function was reversed back to younger levels, researchers reported in the May 23, 2007 issue of the online journal PLoS One.
"Muscle tone and mass are essential to maintaining ...