Although you are linked to your genes for life, your lifestyle habits can have a significant impact on how those genes operate. Here we bring you an excellent example: a new study, published in the journal Cell, suggests that resistance exercise, such as cycling and running, when performed over the long term, can improve the way genes are associated with metabolic health.
In turn, this can not only help prevent diseases related to your metabolic function, such as cardiovascular problems and type 2 diabetes, but also can affect the performance of your muscles over time.
The study looked at a total of 40 people, between the ages of 34 and 53, and divided them into three groups. The first group had been doing intensive resistance training for at least the last 15 years, the second group had been strength training for at least the last 15 years, and the third group was sedentary. Skeletal muscle biopsies were collected from the participants and RNA sequencing was performed to measure the activity of more than 20.000 genes.
How does resistance exercise influence genes?
They found that people in the resistance training group significantly changed the activity of more than 1.000 genes compared to the sedentary group. Many of the altered genes were linked to increased activity along numerous metabolic pathways, and they noted that only 26 genes changed with strength training alone, the rest were related to running and cycling.
This research has served to understand more about how muscles 'interpret' different forms of exercise and adapt in specific ways. In addition, it can also be understood how resistance exercise, such as running and cycling, impacts genes important for metabolic health.
Many different stimuli can influence the expression of our genes, including what we eat and even sun exposure. These alterations serve to better adapt our body to the stimuli they are receiving. That's why resistance training "teaches" your muscles to train more efficiently, because the genes are adapting to the stimuli they receive, so that they perform better in subsequent similar activities.
For example, these genes will change the amount of oxygen delivered to your muscles, so you have enough fuel for resistance exercise. When oxygen levels drop during a post workout, these genes are activated to make oxygen delivery more efficient.
If you haven't been exercising for at least 15 years like the study participants, you don't need to worry. The researchers crossed their data with studies of muscle gene expression for individuals with type 2 diabetes and found that even a month of resistance training made a big difference in gene activity.
Although you can't change your genes, you do have some control over how they work, and it doesn't take long to start seeing the benefits.