Captain Ahab’s BodyBlog

Fountain of Youth Found at the Gym!
A recent study released by McMaster University in my old hometown of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada showed that seniors who performed a basic weight training routine not only got stronger, but that by lifting weights they were able to reverse some of the effects of aging in certain muscles at the cellular level.
The study’s co-author Mark Tarnopolosky stated in a Canadian Press article published last month that “ the main, novel finding is that we could bring that aging mitochondria (muscle cells) pattern back toward that of a younger person, almost reversing the aging signature, pretty much by 40, 45years with 6 months of weight training.”
This is just one of a number of recent studies that are showing that the lifting of weights can actually counter the effects of aging something that me at the age of 58 has believed for many years. I have seen not only in person but in too many photos to list people who had and were still lifting weights look to be in their early to mid forties actually be in their late 60’s and sometimes into their 70’s.
Even here at Bodybuilding.com in the BodySpace section I have encountered numerous photos of people whom I thought were much younger only to see their actual age posted as 20 to 30 years older than I thought.
Maybe Ponce de Leon had to trek through the all of those bug and gator infested swamps of Florida in his quest to find his Fountain of Youth but all of us now only have to walk the smooth sidewalks or at worst stroll across the well manicured lawns leading up to the various gyms situated around the world and we can all have access to the real Fountain of Youth.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 19th, 2007 at 11:25 am and is filed under Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.