Can fitness exercise anti-aging?

As a fitness coach with 7 years of training experience and more than 300 students of all ages, I can say clearly that scientific and reasonable fitness can indeed effectively delay aging, but it cannot achieve the "reverse growth" transmitted online, nor can it be effective with just a few moves.

Don't tell me that there are real examples around me. I picked up a 58-year-old student at the beginning of last year. She had to rest twice before climbing to the third floor. The flesh on her face was so loose that her arms were sore even when she held her two-year-old grandson. She has been practicing with me for a year, doing low-weight strength training three times a week and two brisk walks. This year’s physical examination showed that her bone density is higher than that of many 40-year-old office workers. Last month, the family went to Huangshan to play, and she walked at the front the whole time. Relatives and friends said that her spirit has been visible to the naked eye in the past two years, and she looks almost ten years younger than her actual age.

In fact, the principle is not complicated. We ordinary people will naturally lose 0.5% to 1% of their muscles every year after the age of 30. Muscle mass is lost, metabolism is slow, skin is loose, and legs and feet are weak. These are the signs of "aging" that everyone often says. Fitness can just make up for the lost muscles, and even save some "muscle reserves", and the state will naturally improve. I read a study published in The Lancet earlier and found that people who have been exercising at moderate intensity for a long time have telomere lengths that are about 4 years younger on average than people who live a sedentary life. You can think of telomeres as the "plastic protective heads" of chromosomes. The slower they wear out, the slower the rate of cell aging.

However, not everyone agrees that fitness can resist aging. Every now and then, I hear someone say, "Look at people who run marathons every day, their faces are more sunken than those who don't run." This statement is actually not groundless. I once met a young man who was preparing for a bodybuilding competition. He spent 4 hours a day in the gym for three months and had extremely low carbohydrate levels. During that time, his face turned sallow and fine lines appeared around his eyes. He looked several years older than his actual age. This is actually due to overtraining causing cortisol to remain high for a long time. In addition, many people exercise outdoors for a long time without paying attention to sun protection, which leads to the illusion of "getting older with more practice". The essence is that the method is wrong, not the problem of exercise itself.

There are still different voices in the academic community. Some studies believe that genes can account for more than 60% of the impact on aging speed. Exercise can only try to increase the upper limit within the range defined by your genes, but cannot break through the natural limitations. For example, if you are born with dry skin and prone to wrinkles, no matter how much you practice, you will not be able to look more tender than your peers who are born with baby faces, but you will definitely be in much better condition than yourself who does not exercise at all.

To put it bluntly, the anti-aging that we ordinary people pursue is not a frozen age with no wrinkles on the face. When we get older, we don’t have to go to the hospital often, we can go out to buy groceries and take a walk, we can hold our grandchildren, and we don’t have to worry about our stomachs when we want to eat something cold or spicy. I know several old men who have been exercising for 20 or 30 years. They can still ride bicycles around when they are over 70, and occasionally play half-court basketball with young people. This is the most real "anti-aging bonus" given by fitness.