Mattia/Stoshi
Weightlifting keeps you healthy and improves everything from bone health to cognitive function. Now, new research shows it may improve the appearance of your skin.
This study was recently published in the journal scientific reportshowed that resistance training (also known as strength training) may improve skin health even more than aerobic exercise.
Previous research has already suggested that aerobic exercise can improve the dermis, the layer of skin beneath the outer epidermis. In the new study, study lead author Dr. Satoshi Fujita, an exercise scientist at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, wanted to find out whether resistance training had the same effect.
Fujita’s team recruited 56 sedentary middle-aged Japanese women to participate in the study. Researchers asked half of the participants to cycle for 30 minutes twice a week for 16 weeks. The rest of the time I lifted weights for the same amount of time.
The scientists analyzed participants’ skin cells in the lab before and after the study.
Researchers found that both exercises increased the skin’s elasticity, or its ability to return to its original shape after being stretched. Both cycling and weightlifting also stimulated the expression of collagen-producing genes. It also increased the extracellular matrix of the dermis, a network of collagen and elastic fibers that degrades due to aging and other factors such as sun exposure.
But researchers found one important difference between the two groups. That is, women who took iron had thicker dermal layers, but women who rode bicycles did not. Fujita said that a thicker dermal layer can lead to less sagging, fewer pigment spots, and an overall more youthful appearance.
“Our results suggested that resistance exercise has a more positive effect on the skin than aerobic exercise,” Fujita said. health.
Scientists still don’t fully understand how exercise contributes to skin improvement, but Fujita said inflammatory factors in the blood, which are reduced by exercise, may play a role. I am.
A 2015 study found that aerobic exercise increases levels of the protein interleukin 15 (IL-15), which may help promote the synthesis of mitochondria (the part of the cell that strengthens mitochondria) in the skin. I also discovered that there is. Research has shown that aging, sun exposure, and pollution can damage mitochondria in skin cells.
Fujita believes that resistance exercise has the potential to rejuvenate the appearance of the face, but his team only looked at the inner layers of the skin.
“We are not sure whether this change in the dermis has any visible effect on the skin,” said Rajani Katta, MD, a professor at Baylor College of Medicine who was not involved in the study. health.
Further extended trials are needed to see how weightlifting affects the appearance of the integument, Fujita added.
We also don’t know if the benefits will disappear if you stop your weightlifting habit, Katta pointed out. “In other words, these benefits may be temporary,” she said.
While focusing on aerobic exercise is likely to improve skin health, Fujita said adding resistance training to your daily routine may yield even better results.
“This study confirms that if you want to improve your skin, you should combine aerobic exercise with strength training,” says Lauren Eckert-Plock, M.D., a dermatologist in Georgia and South Carolina. he said. health.
As for which muscles to target, Dr. Plock said research shows it doesn’t matter.
“Because the anti-aging factors increased by exercise circulate in the bloodstream, their effects are not concentrated in a specific area near that muscle group,” she explained.
But just because you’re working out doesn’t mean you should ignore things that damage your skin, like smoking or sun exposure, she said.
“The beneficial effects of exercise do not cancel out other harmful effects on our skin,” she said.
