The benefits of weight training for the body have long been known. Among other advantages, it helps maintain bone mass, controls blood sugar levels, contributes to physical fitness and helps protect the heart.
The benefits for the mind are nothing new either. Like other physical activities, it helps maintain balance, well-being, cognition and good brain function.
The latest news, however, is different. A study published in 2023 by researchers linked to the Sports and Health Science team at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Japan, points out that doing resistance exercises with weights has a particularly positive impact on the skin.
The scientists followed a group of 61 sedentary but healthy women aged between 41 and 59 for 16 weeks. They were divided into two groups. The first followed aerobic training twice a week and the second resistance training, also twice a week. All the sessions were accompanied by experienced trainers and the participants were instructed not to do any exercise other than the proposed activities, not to start any supplementation or hormone therapy and not to make any changes to their skincare routine for the duration of the experiment.
Before starting the study and at the end of the 16 weeks, the participants had their body composition, physical capacity and skin properties assessed, as well as blood tests. The skin analyses were carried out using equipment (such as ultrasound) and very specific tests (such as fibroblast culture and evaluation of inflammatory factors circulating in the body).
Different exercises, same results
When the study was completed and all the evaluations were finalized, the conclusions regarding changes in the skin were very significant. The 56 women who completed the experiment (of the original 61, five dropped out during the course of the study) saw gains in elasticity and also an improvement in the structure of the upper dermis. However, in those who practiced weight training, there was an additional gain in the density of the dermis.
What the researchers discovered is that resistance training not only causes a drop in inflammatory factors directly involved in the skin's ageing process and an increase in the activity of various genes related to its quality - phenomena observed in both groups - but also increases the presence of a proteoglycan called dermal biglicam. This complex molecule made up, in a simplified explanation, of proteins and carbohydrates, is directly linked to dermal thickness. So what these findings suggest is that by preserving and stimulating the production of dermal biglicam, weight training causes the improvement in skin density observed in the participants.
The researchers say that further studies need to be carried out to better map the mechanisms involved in the whole process. But it seems that one more reason has been discovered to lead an active life, and preferably a routine that involves weight training: to maintain - or improve - skin health.
