From healthy pizza toppings to impressive superfoods, there are many anti-aging strategies you can take to help repair your skin and fight back against visible signs of age. But now, that same philosophy applies to your fitness routine, because, as science shows, there’s a certain type of workout that can really help keep you youthful.
According to a new study published in the European Heart Journal, when it comes to an anti-aging workout, you’ll want to sign up for endurance and high-intensity interval training (HIIT) classes, stat.
Throughout the study, researchers followed the workout routines of adults aged 30 to 60, and had one group keeping their regular workout routine while the other group took 45-minute classes three times per week. Each continued their schedule for six months, and the results, according to the study, all came down to the telomeres.
According to the tracking, those study participants who were in the endurance and HIIT group had higher telomere lengths, and a higher presence of telomerase, overall, when compared those who did not follow the same routine. The telomeres, the scientists explain, are vital to anti-aging. As we age, the telomeres on our DNA (they’re attached to the end of each one of our chromosomes) shorten, which means our cells do not regenerate quickly enough. But in our pursuit for preventing and shortening aging, the goal comes down to keeping and even lengthening these telomeres.
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“Our main finding is that, compared to the start of the study and the control group, in volunteers who did endurance and high intensity training, telomerase activity and telomere length increased, which are both important for cellular aging, regenerative capacity and thus, healthy aging. Interestingly, resistance training did not exert these effects,” says Professor Ulrich Laufs, of Leipzig University, Germany, in a statement.
In fact, it turns out that endurance and HIIT workouts were two to three times as effective in lengthening the telomeres when compared to resistance training. How’s that for a practical workout?
Want to start on your HIIT routine? Try this workout by Steph Claire Smith and Laura Henshaw, or even this treadmill workout that’ll have you burning calories for hours. Mix it up a but more with Bianca Cheah’s HIIT vinyasa flow that’ll really get your heart pumping.
