I find more than 2 hours and 20 minutes of strength training in the danger zone… a bit hard to believe. One hour 3 times a week… an hour every other day seems reasonable.
The Metabolic Middle (30-60 minutes/week)
Strength training occupies the pyramid’s middle tier—far less time than walking but essential for maintaining muscle mass, bone density, and metabolic health. The dose-response curve is remarkably precise.
There are functional benefits to exercise in muscle, even when performed late in life, but the contributions of epigenetic factors to late-life exercise adaptation are poorly defined. Using reduced representation bisulfite sequencing (RRBS), ribosomal DNA (rDNA) and mitochondrial-specific examination of methylation, targeted high-resolution methylation analysis, and DNAge™ epigenetic aging clock analysis with a translatable model of voluntary murine endurance/resistance exercise training (progressive weighted wheel running, PoWeR), we provide evidence that exercise may mitigate epigenetic aging in skeletal muscle. Late-life PoWeR from 22–24 months of age modestly but significantly attenuates an age-associated shift toward promoter hypermethylation. The epigenetic age of muscle from old mice that PoWeR-trained for eight weeks was approximately eight weeks younger than 24-month-old sedentary counterparts, which represents ~8% of the expected murine lifespan. These data provide a molecular basis for exercise as a therapy to attenuate skeletal muscle aging.
I can’t see why yoga was perceived to be useful for vascular or heart function anyway. Good for flexibility I’m sure. Maybe you can break a slight sweat holding certain positions. But it can’t be as beneficial as a cardio workout like walking on an incline treadmill or riding a bike.
To maximise gains you’d want to be hitting each body part with 20 sets or greater per week, and you’re taking sets pretty close to failure. It’s really hard work. When you do that, generally your protein requirements will be higher, but the training provides the single biggest stimulus.
@Agetron Arrgh, not yet another step to add to may exercise program… to get maximal gains
ah… but the study actually says “sexual activity” - so its a broader definition than the story above initially seemed to suggest. How to make the workout even more enjoyable…
Sexual activity before exercise influences physiological response and sports performance in high-level trained men athletes
I knew a guy who liked to get bjs while doing seated bicep curls in his home gym. He claimed it really helped get those last couple of reps in as he climaxed. I was amazed at how he could time it, but as he and his gf explained it, they had a system and by grunting he signalled the timing of those last few movements she delivered. He offered to demonstrate, but I quickly took his word for it. He claimed the whole exercise + sex thing provided a very deep release and satisfying workout session and a lot of motivation to hit the gym.
At the time, I just thought of him as a somewhat eccentric fitness fan, but now I see there was perhaps a method to his madness. Who knew!
I think it will be myopic to dismiss Yoga as as mere stretching and flexibility.
For example, when you perform a tree pose, you are a performing cerebellar stress test (fun fact: cerebellum hosts maximum population of neurons and synapses in brain).
You also engage interhemispheric circuitry: corpus callosum, basal ganglia, cerebellum
Practical implications: fall prevention, foot reactivity, neurorehab in stroke/parkinson’s.
Needless to say, one-leg standing test is a validated predictor of longevity! To take it further, one leg standing with eyes closed…is even harder! Some these are actually Yoga poses!
Somebody once said that genes are less like a switch and more like a thermostat. Your behavior and such can reset the thermostat but only within a narrow range.
