How do aging and exercise affect skeletal muscle?
One of the key features of aging is a progressive loss of skeletal muscle mass and function, known as sarcopenia. This has important impacts on health: sarcopenia reduces mobility and leads to increased risk of falls - a major cause of death in the elderly. Low muscle mass also leads to metabolic impairments since muscles take up glucose and help to maintain glucose homeostasis.
A study set out to investigate the relationship between age and exercise on skeletal muscle physiology and mitochondrial function. To do this, researchers:
Compared older adults with different levels of physical activity: normal vs. trained older adults vs. those with low physical function.
Effect of aging
The findings revealed that aging led to a decline in:
Muscle strength and endurance but not volume, as assessed by functional tests
Effect of physical activity
However, regular exercise training was found to counteract many of the negative effects of aging. Trained older adults had higher muscle strength, exercise efficiency, whole-body insulin sensitivity, gait stability and mitochondrial function than adults with impaired mobility. They also had lower BMI, lower body fat %, higher step count and higher levels of intense physical activity, demonstrating their more active lifestyles.
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