Getting in shape can be overwhelming. Do you focus on cardio for maximum calorie burn? Bodyweight exercises for low-impact muscle toning? Yoga for flexibility? Of course, any movement is better than no movement. But new research shows that strength training not only helps you tone up and lose weight but can also lower your biological age by eight years.
RELATED: A Daily Walk Could Add 11 Years to Your Life—If You Do It for This Long.
The research studied cellular aging as relates to strength training.
The study, published in the journal Biology, enlisted 48,14 U.S. men and women between the ages of 20 to 69 who participated in regular strength training. The researchers then collected blood samples to measure the length of their cells' telomeres.
As Your Genome explains, "Telomeres are sections of DNA found at the ends of each of our chromosomes." They add that telomeres "protect the ends of our chromosomes by forming a cap, much like the plastic tip on shoelaces."
As we age, however, telomeres become shorter and "put people at a greater risk of premature disease and death," notes the Biology study. "A healthy lifestyle tends to preserve telomeres, whereas unhealthy practices cause increased biological aging and shorter telomeres."
RELATED: How Many Push-Ups Can You Do? The Number Says A Lot About Your Health.
90-180 minutes of strength training per week substantially reduced biological aging.
The study found that participants who engaged in the most strength training had longer telomere lengths: "The difference in cellular aging was substantial," researchers note.
Those who completed 90 minutes of strength training per week had a biological age equivalent to four years younger. Therefore, if you do three hours of strength training per week, your biological age could be up to eight years younger.
"Biological aging is accelerated through chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and cardiovascular disease," the researchers explain.
They continue, "As strength training mitigates some of the damage caused by such chronic diseases, reversing muscle loss, raising resting metabolic rate, promoting fat loss, and improving cardiovascular health, it is logical that strength training may limit disease and slow the aging of cells."
Single-set strength training could also help.
A separate study published in SportRχiv suggests that single-set strength training could be the most optimal way to reap the benefits of this workout. Therefore, people who don't have as much time to devote to a strength-training workout that requires several sets of each exercise can still see the same outcomes.
"The researchers concluded that significant muscular adaptations can be achieved with single-set training in just two 30-minute total-body training sessions per week over eight weeks," Men's Healthexplains of the study. "Despite reducing training volume to a single set, compared to multiple-set routines participants maintained or even increased muscle mass."
RELATED: 91-Year-Old Fitness Star Shares Her Best Workout Tips to Stay Young.
The studies are in line with current exercise recommendations.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that adults get "at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity a week," as well as "2 days of muscle-strengthening activity each week."
Therefore, in addition to strength training, healthy adults can complete 150 minutes of "moderate-intensity aerobic activity" like brisk walking, or 75 minutes of "vigorous-intensity aerobic activity" like jogging or running.
