One of the best health benefits of exercise is prolonged youth. Exercising as you get older helps preserve strength, stamina, flexibility, and many other aspects of staying independent for longer. Not to mention the cosmetic benefits: better skin, hair, posture, etc. However, a lot of people view weight training as either too dangerous or “advanced aging.” Many will stay away from weights for the fear of looking older from the intensity. This could not be further from the truth.
Weight training actually does the opposite – it promotes longevity and youth more than any other form of exercise. This is because weight training is an anabolic exercise, meaning it promotes tissue maintenance and building. Catabolic exercise, on the other hand, breaks down tissue. It’s important to know which exercises fall into each category and how to balance the two.
Anabolic Exercises That Prolong Youth
Many people associate the word anabolic with steroids. While anabolic steroids are definitely a thing, that’s not what we’re referring to.
Anabolism simply means building tissue within the body. This can mean muscle building, skin repair, hair growth, etc. All of these processes are regulated by anabolic hormones, which are released during anabolic exercise (discussed later). Below we’ll discuss what those anabolic hormones are and how they effect aging.
Anabolic Hormones
Three anabolic hormones that play a big role in aging are testosterone, estrogen, and growth hormone. All three start to decline after the age of 30, which is when the aging process starts to kick off. At the same time, muscle mass also starts to decline at a similar rate at the exact same age – a process called Sarcopenia. To learn more about this process and why it’s harder to lose weight when you’re older, see our other article here.
Although each play different roles in the body, deficiencies in any one of them have been associated with the following:
- Decreased muscle mass and strength
- Decreased bone density
- Increase in low-grade inflammation
These are the same effects people experience with aging; the hallmark signs of “just getting old.”
However, studies have shown that increasing these hormones in deficient individuals will help reverse these effects. Muscle mass and bone density will increase while inflammation will decrease.
Muscle mass and bone density are essential for prolonging your youth. Less muscle mass means less strength, which slowly limits your physical abilities each day. It may start with minor things like getting winded from climbing a flight of stairs, but they can easily spiral to make everyday tasks even harder. Eventually you may not be able to climb a single flight of stairs at all. After that, you may not be able to walk a short distance without sitting for a break. On top of all of this, decreased bone density make you much more fragile to bone breaks, which will decrease your overall health even further.
Low-grade inflammation is equally problematic. A couple of important things to note. First, although “low-grade” doesn’t sound serious, it can add up to be very harmful for the body. Low-grade simply means enough to be considered inflammation, but not enough to notice until the symptoms really start to pile up. Second, low-grade inflammation is not the same as regular local inflammation. Local inflammation is essential for repairing tissue and healing the body. Low-grade inflammation, however, has been shown to degenerate and break-down tissue over time.
Given how detrimental these hormone deficiencies can get, exercising in a way to keep them elevated will help push off the negatives effects of aging.
Anabolic Exercises
As mentioned before, the best form of anabolic exercise is strength training. This simply means strengthening your muscles through some form of resistance, usually weights. Strength training as little as once a week for 30-60 minutes can show significant benefits to your anabolic hormones.
However, it’s important that you’re strength training the right way. To learn how to sagely start a twice a week routine, see the article here. Below is a simple once a week routine you can follow at any local gym along with what makes it unique to other exercise
| Exercise | Sets | Reps | Rest Between Sets |
| Goblet Squat | 3 | 8-12 | 1-2 minutes |
| Dumbbell Shoulder Press | 3 | 8-12 | 1-2 minutes |
| Dumbbell Pullover | 3 | 8-12 | 1-2 minutes |
| Cable Row | 3 | 8-12 | 1-2 minutes |
| Hip Thrusts | 3 | 8-12 | 1-2 minutes |
| Decline Sit-up | 3 | 8-12 | 1-2 minutes |
Using Resistance
What mainly sets strength training apart is the need for resistance. This is usually used by weights (dumbbells, machines, barbells, etc.), but other sources of resistance include your bodyweight and resistance bands.
Using resistance is vital because the muscles cannot be promoted to grow unless you give it a reason to, and you need your muscles to grow in order to release your anabolic hormones.
Rest Periods
Strength training also uses long rest periods compared to other exercises. This is why you may have heard weightlifting being called “anaerobic” while running and swimming are “aerobic.” The difference is mainly because of rest. When you’re running or swimming, you’re working at a light-moderate intensity for a long period of time. This means little to no rest while you’re doing the workout. In contrast, strength training works at a high intensity for only short bouts of movement. In fact, you’ll be resting more than you’re actually lifting.
This is also what separates anabolic exercise from catabolic (discussed later). In order to get those anabolic hormones running, you need plenty of rest between sets.
Progressive Overload
The final unique feature is progressive overload. This means making each workout slightly harder than the last by adding weight, reps, sets, etc. each week. You can do this with other forms of exercise, but with strength training, you’ll see the benefits compound week after week. The long you’re able to progress the workouts, the more anabolic boosting effects you’ll get hormonally.
Catabolic Exercises That Age You Faster
Now that you know what exercises and hormones promote youth, which ones makes you age faster?
First, let’s define catabolism. Catabolism means breaking down tissue and molecules within the body; the complete opposite of anabolism. This is essential for digestion, eliminating waste, fighting diseases, etc.
Catabolic hormones
There are a handful of important catabolic hormones, but the one most associated with aging is cortisol. Cortisol, often called the stress hormone, regulates many different things such as:
- Metabolizing carbs, fats, and protein
- Regulating blood pressure
- Increasing blood sugar
- Controlling circadian rhythm
Cortisol is released at different amounts throughout the day. Healthy people will release the most during the day when they wake up, then it’ll slowly taper down until they sleep.
However, it gets produced much more during stressful situations – which is what earns it the name of “stress hormone.” The iconic “fight or flight” response from physical and mental stress is all caused by cortisol; increased heart rate, sweating, quick energy, etc. Physical stress also includes workouts, so the energy and heart-pumping you get through exercise is all also because of cortisol.
While you need a certain amount of cortisol for healthy living and good workouts, too much can have serious consequences. The following have been associated with high levels of cortisol:
- Muscle and bone loss
- Decreased cognitive performance
- Suppressed immune system
- Decrease in hair and skin tone
Anabolic exercises also release cortisol, but not as much as catabolic exercise.
Catabolic Exercises
Generally speaking, all forms of cardio are catabolic exercises. Cardio is great for building endurance and strengthening the heart and lungs. However, excessive cardio can lead to high cortisol production and possibly the symptoms from above. This is especially true for those who only use cardio for exercise. Examples of popular cardio exercises include:
- Running
- Swimming
- Cycling
- Any cardio equipment found in gyms
- Most classes held at gyms
Most people have the same exact problem with their workout routines; they’re all cardio-based and contain zero strength training. Because there’s not much resistance being used, the body has no reason to build muscle. Remember that muscle building is essential for the anabolic hormones mentioned above.
On top of this, because cardio is catabolic, cardio instead sends a signal to remove as much unnecessary muscle as possible from the body. This is part of why long-distance runners are very thin. They don’t need much muscle at all since, despite running for miles, they’re not working against much resistance.
Conclusion – Have a Balance
Although most of this article praises strength training and bashes cardio, the reality is this; you need both to prolong your youth.
Again, cardio has great benefits to heart and lung health. Additionally, the negative symptoms of cortisol only appear if you have excessive cortisol in the body, caused by excessive cardio.
To strike a balance between anabolic and catabolic exercise, use the following tips:
- Keep cardio sessions to about 30 minutes, and make sure you’re going at a moderate intensity
- If you’re going to the gym multiple times a week, have more strength training days than cardio days. Even better if you have all strength training days and zero “cardio-only” days. Instead save that cardio for a 15 minute warmup before each strength workout
- Stick to cardio you not only enjoy, but don’t put too much stress on your body. One of the best forms of cardio is walking because it’s both stress-relieving and easy for anyone to implement.