Strength Training Can Rejuvenate Aging Skin Better than Aerobics

Ritsumeikan University researchers found that resistance training improved skin aging by decreasing inflammatory factors in the blood and increasing skin thickness.

Key Points:

In middle-aged women, strength training increased thickness of the dermis – the living tissue in the skin.
Scientists pinpoint gene activity linked to strength training-induced dermal rejuvenation.
This is the study to compare the anti-aging effects of aerobic and strength training on the skin.

Researchers from Ritsumeikan University in Japan discovered that resistance training may be more effective than aerobic exercise in preventing the aging of the skin. Aerobic exercise and strength training both increased the elasticity and structure of the skin in Japanese women of middle age, but only strength training increased the thickness of the skin, which naturally thins with advancing age. In addition, strength training increased the activity of genes that are responsible for preserving the health of the living tissue (dermis) of the skin. This is the first study to show that different types of exercise have different effects on the skin’s aging process, and it may help inform how different types of exercises should be combined for optimal aging. Aerobic exercise and strength training were compared. The article describing this study can be found in the publication Scientific Reports.

Sweating Out Aging

The skin serves as the primary barrier that protects the body from external pathogens like bacteria and viruses. This organ, which is the largest in the body, is also an important signaling center. It serves as both a target and a source of hormones that are necessary for the body’s response to damage and stress.

The dermis, which is a thick layer of living tissue that forms the true skin and contains blood capillaries, nerve endings, sweat glands, hair follicles, and other structures, deteriorates as skin ages. The dermis is located beneath the outermost epidermis and forms the true skin. The breakdown of the extracellular matrix, which is a vast network of proteins and other molecules that surround, support, and structure cells, is what causes the thinning of the skin. This breakdown can be caused by both internal and external stressors, such as inflammation and exposure to the sun.

Strength Over Endurance

Although there is some evidence to suggest that physical activity can slow the aging process of the skin, it is not known which forms of exercise are most effective at revitalizing the skin. Because of this, Shu Nishikori and his colleagues from Ritsumeikan University decided to investigate whether or not these two types of exercise might have different effects on the aging of the skin.

To do so, the researchers carried out a study that lasted for sixteen weeks and compared the effects of aerobic and strength training on the aging of the skin in 61 Japanese middle-aged women who were healthy but led sedentary lifestyles. Exercise training sessions were held either in the morning or in the afternoon for the participants. The strength training component of the program consisted of the participants performing a variety of weight-lifting exercises, including curls, leg extensions, arm curls, rowing machines, shoulder presses, and chest presses. The aerobic component of the program was performed on a stationary bicycle for a period of thirty minutes.

The first thing the authors of the study needed to do was figure out whether or not the two different types of exercise produced comparable physiological responses. At the beginning and end of the 16-week exercise programs, Nishikori and his colleagues took measurements of their test subjects’ weight, BMI, peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak), soft tissue mass, and strength. They found that the aerobic intervention significantly reduced body weight and body mass index (BMI), as well as significantly improved peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak), while the resistance training intervention significantly increased lean soft tissue mass and the one-repetition maximum, which is a measurement of muscular strength.

Nishikori and his colleagues investigated the elasticity, structure, and thickness of the participants’ skin because they were aware that the aerobic and strength training programs would have distinct effects on these factors. They found that both groups experienced a significant improvement in the upper dermal structure as well as the elasticity of the skin. However, the only group that saw an increase in dermal thickness was the strength training group.

Impact of Aerobic and Strength Training on Skin Aging. (a) Venn diagram illustrating skin parameters benefiting from aerobic training (AT) and resistance training (RT). (b,c) Effects of AT and RT on skin elasticity (b) and upper dermal structure (c), measured by elasticity recovery rate (Ur/Uf) and rate of low echogenic pixels (LEPs) in the upper dermis. (d) Divergent influence of AT and RT on dermal thickness. — **(Nishikori et al., 2023 | *Scientific Reports*)** **Effects of aerobic training and strength (resistance) training on skin aging parameters.** (a) Venn diagram of skin parameters improved by aerobic training (AT) and resistance training (RT) interventions. (b,c) Effects of AT and RT on skin elasticity (b) and upper dermal structure (c). The elasticity recovery rate (Ur/Uf) and the rate of low echogenic pixels (LEPs) in the upper dermis were used to measure the skin’s elasticity and structure. (d) Differential effect of AT and RT on dermal thickness.

Next, the researchers wanted to understand the mechanism that underlies the effects that exercise has on the rejuvenation of skin. In order to accomplish this, the researchers carried out a series of experiments during which they examined skin cells that had been cultured with blood plasma from the participants.

The activity of a gene known as biglycan that is essential for maintaining healthy skin was changed in the blood plasma of people who participated in the strength training program. Previous research has demonstrated that mice deficient in biglycan have a thin dermis and that levels of biglycan decrease with age and sun exposure. According to the findings of this study, strength training specifically increased biglycan gene activity, which suggests that increased biglycan gene activity could lead to increased dermal thickness.

Quenching Skin Inflammation With Resistance Training

The current investigation discovered, among other things, that the levels of several inflammatory factors that have been linked to skin diseases were lower in the blood plasma of the participants. CCL28 stood out among them due to the fact that it has been identified as a marker for the severity of eczema (atopic dermatitis) – a higher CCL28 level was correlated with a worsening of the skin condition. In the current study, Nishikori and colleagues found that CCL28 suppressed the effects of a large number of genes related to dermal extracellular matrix. This finding suggests that CCL28 plays an important role in regulating skin health as well as the aging process. They also discovered that strength training decreased the activity of CCL28 in the body.

Skin Rejuvenation through Strength Training. The diagram depicts the rejuvenating effects of resistance training (RT) on aging skin. RT reduces the circulating inflammatory factor CCL28, which in turn positively influences factors like biglycan (BGN) known to enhance skin health. This leads to improved skin elasticity, structure, and thickness, highlighting the rejuvenating impact of strength training on aging skin." — **(Nishikori et al., 2023 | *Scientific Reports*)** **Strength (resistance) training rejuvenates aging skin by reducing circulating inflammatory factors and enhancing dermal extracellular matrices.** Skin rejuvenating effects of aerobic training and resistance training. In this model, resistance training (RT) reduces the levels of inflammatory factor CCL28, derepressing factors shown to improve skin health, such as biglycan (BGN), resulting in improved skin elasticity, structure, and thickness.

Nishikori and colleagues propose that strength training thickens the dermis and simultaneously reduces circulating levels of CCL28, which was identified as a key inflammatory factor that suppresses the expression of biglycan, thereby helping to improve the thickness of the dermis. To firmly establish the skin rejuvenating mechanism of strength training, the researchers acknowledge that these findings require strengthening through additional direct animal studies modulating circulating inflammatory factors.

There is precedent for testing different kinds of exercise on the health of the elderly. In 2017, researchers published data from a clinical trial that examined Community centers and research centers, but this looked at patients with sarcopenic obesity, not ones who were healthy. These participants either performed aerobics, resistance training, or a combination of the two twice a week for 8 weeks, however, while all interventions demonstrated increased muscle mass and strength performance as well as reduced total fat mass and visceral fat area compared with those without training, the researchers found little differences in the effects of the exercise type.