Reverse the Clock? Strength Training May Preserve Your DNA
- Daniela Radoman
- May 9
- 3 min read
Want to live longer?
You might want to consider picking up some weights then.
New research looked at telomere length in people who strength trained vs didn’t strength train.
Telomeres are the protective caps at the end of our DNA (chromosomes). Each time our cells divide and replicate, some telomere is lost in that process, which means that as we age, our telomeres get shorter.
Telomere length is a validated measure of how much time we have left, AKA our biological age.
Longer telomeres are linked to a lower biological age and a lower risk of age-related diseases.
Turning Back the Clock
This paper took a look at nearly 5000 American adults between the ages of 20-69 over 4 years, and surveyed them to get an idea of how much exercise they got on a regular basis.1
The participants were divided into 3 categories based off their input:
Non-strength training
Moderate: Those who got in 10-50 minutes of strength training per week
High: Those who got in more than 60 minutes of strength training per week
What did the researchers find?
Regular Strength Training = Longer Telomeres: Participants who engaged in strength training regularly (both moderate and high groups) had significantly longer telomeres compared to those who did not.
Slower Biological Age: 90min a week of strength training was associated with 3.9 years less in biological aging. Interpolating this, 3 60min workouts a week is linked to 7.8 years less in biological aging.
Independent of Other Factors: The association remained significant even after adjusting for variables such as age, sex, race, income, household size, smoking status, body size, and participation in other physical activities.
Biological Age & Disease
Unfortunately, biological age and disease go hand in hand.
The older the biological age, the higher the probability of developing disease. The more chronic diseases one has, the higher their biological age.
More common chronic diseases such as diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, sarcopenia, and cardiovascular disease, all contribute to a higher biological age.
While time is against you when it comes to aging, you can try to mitigate illness and disease.
Strength training can help with that.
Strength training can help reverse the damage caused from chronic diseases, improving metabolic function, increasing muscle mass, promoting fat loss, improving cardiovascular function, and more.
Basically, strength training reduces the effects of chronic disease and negative health markers, and helps slow the biological aging process and the aging of cells, which is shown in longer telomere length.
What To Do With The Info
If you’re looking to slow down your biological age, and potentially add years to your life, then you might want to consider strength training. While one 90 minute strength training session may add 3.9 years to your life, 3 60 minute workouts a week can extend your lifespan 7.8 years!
Remember, strength training doesn’t necessarily mean lifting weights. It can include any kind of resistance, from dumbbells, barbells, resistance bands, book bags, to even just your own body weight. As long as you’re moving your body against some resistance and doing it consistently and progressively, chances are, you’ll see some improvements.
So while this study is associative, it seems pretty straight forward that strength training helps ward off the negative effects of disease, promotes cellular longevity, and slows biological aging.
Lift those weights & get movin’!
FINAL REMARKS
Our goal at Delta Kinesiology is to help women reach their health and fitness goals. We specialise in conditions and injuries that women are more likely to experience, and we tailor the sessions using evidence-based principles and methods to help you reach your goals. Whether that be going about your day pain-free, building muscle, improving stamina, or feeling better about yourself, we are here to help.
Check out some of the ways we can help below!
References
Tucker, L. A., & Bates, C. J. (2024). Telomere Length and Biological Aging: The Role of Strength Training in 4814 US Men and Women. Biology, 13(11), 883. https://doi.org/10.3390/biology13110883
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