I don't know anyone who is a fan of getting older. However, it is a necessary evil because the alternative is something nobody wants.
So it was with great interest that I read the latest study released by the Mayo Clinic. It claims to have found our fountain of youth and much to my delight, it's in the form of sweat.
High-intensity aerobic exercise, or high-intensity interval training (HIIT), can apparently slow down and even reverse the aging process.
While we all know that exercise in general is beneficial as we age - it helps to ward off disease, improves our muscle mass, bone and joint health, as well as maintaining a good quality of life - what science did not know was what type of exercise would be the best for aging.
And apparently to reverse the aging process you must start with our cells. You see, our body is made up of trillions of cells and each cell has a job to do. Cells that do the same job combine and form things like our muscles, skin and bones, or our organs such as our heart, liver and lungs.
These cells, however, are useless without their driver - our mitochondria. Now this guy is the real powerhouse of the cell.
It's the mitochondria's job to take in nutrients, break them down and then create the energy needed for the cell to do its job.
As we age, our mitochondria slow down (what doesn't slow down as we get older?), and stops doing the bang-up job it did in our younger years. This decline, in turn, directly impacts our health in the form of aging.
Mitochondrial decline is also responsible for other fun things like: the ability to burn fat, diabetes, heart disease, neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and dementia, as well as limiting our ability to perform sports and activities that require any type of endurance. (Good excuse next time someone wants you to join them in a marathon. Just tell them your mitochondria won't let you.)
However, add some HIIT workouts to your weekly routine and the Mayo Clinic says you can reverse all of that.
According to the study, interval training (HIIT) boosted the ability of the mitochondria within the cells by 69 per cent in the older volunteers and by 49 per cent in the younger group. That's a huge boost! The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and used 36 volunteers. Half of the volunteers were aged from 18 to 30, and the other half between 65 and 80. They were divided into three supervised exercise training programs that lasted for three months.
The HIIT group did three days a week of cycling, with high-intensity bouts alternating with low-intensity pedaling, and two days a week of moderately difficult treadmill walking.
The strength training group worked out with weights for two days each week, while the third group cycled and lifted weights five days a week, but less strenuously than the two other groups.
Not surprisingly, the researchers found the strength training groups improved their strength the best - important to work on as we age - but it was the group that participated in the HIIT workouts that earned the greatest results at the cellular level.
How can you add HIIT workouts to your week? Add any interval that you consider hard for 20 to 60 seconds, with equal to double the time for recovery. Aim for a total workout of 20 to 30 minutes, one to three times a week.
As for activities, try adding sprints into your running routine, hills if you are a walker or crank it up when on the bike.
PJ Wren is a local trainer and writer. You can reach her at her new fitness studio in the heart of Ladner, www.thestudio.ca.
