Resistance training, sarcopenia, and the mitochondrial theory of aging

Abstract

Skeletal muscle aging is associated with a significant loss of muscle mass, strength, function, and quality of life. In addition, the healthcare cost of aging and age-related disease is growing, and will continue to grow as a larger proportion of our population reaches retirement age and beyond. The mitochondrial theory of aging has been identified as a leading explanation of the aging process and describes a path leading to cellular senescence that includes electron transport chain deficiency, reactive oxygen species production, and the accumulation of mitochondrial DNA deletions and mutations. It is also quite clear that regular resistance exercise is a potent and effective countermeasure for skeletal muscle aging. In this review, we discuss age-related sarcopenia, the mitochondrial theory of aging, and how resistance exercise may directly affect key components of the mitochondrial theory. It is clear from the data discussed that regular resistance training can effectively disturb processes that contribute to the progression of aging as it pertains to the mitochondrial theory.

Resistance Training Increases Muscle Mitochondrial Biogenesis in Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease

“…We have previously shown that the anabolic effects of resistance exercise training in this patient population resulted in increased muscle accretion (i.e., enhanced muscle protein utilization) and reverted muscle weakness (12). These observations accompanied by the main finding of the present study, namely, enhanced mitochondrial content after 12 weeks of resistance training, suggest that uremic myopathy (31) may be improved with this exercise modality (32). This is of clinical relevance given that muscle wasting in CKD has been shown to be associated with mitochondrial dysfunction (5).…”

“…As for resistance training, our findings are in accordance with those reported by others (12,(15)(16)(17)(18), which suggest that regular resistance exercise slows the progression of age-and disease-related changes in muscle mass and function. The anabolic effects of resistance exercise on skeletal muscle may contribute to breaking the vicious cycle between defective mtDNA encoding and defective electron transport and energy regulation seen with aging and disease (32). However, it remains to be established which exercise modality is the ideal nonpharmacologic intervention to maintain and/or restore the integrity of mitochondrial genome in skeletal muscle.…”

Resistance training and sarcopenia

“…Growing licterature have confirmed the effectiveness of resistance training in improving muscle mass, strength, balance and endurance among the elderly [10,11]. Yarasheski et al [12] reported that resistance training could enormously enhance the rate of mixed muscle protein synthesis in physically frail older subjects.…”

Effect of Resistance-Exercise Training on Cognitive Function in Healthy Older Adults: A Review

“…Such exercise has also been found to reduce the risk factors associated with age-related diseases including sarcopenia (Johnston, De Lisio, & Parise, 2008;Visvanathan & Chapman, 2010), coronary heart disease, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, metabolic syndrome, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, and disability in the elderly (Hurley & Roth, 2000;Kraemer, Ratamess, & French, 2002). In addition to physical benefits, resistance-exercise training has been found to enhance positive well-being in the obese population (Levinger et al, 2009), as well as quality of life (Dibble, Hale, Marcus, Gerber, & LaStayo, 2009) and cognition (Cassilhas et al, 2007;LiuAmbrose et al, 2008;Ozkaya et al, 2005) in the older population.…”