Noticing wrinkles? This workout can help you look younger

Reverse the signs of ageing

After 16 weeks, facial skin was improved as well as fitness and strength. Image: Pexels

If you want to reverse the signs of ageing, researchers recommend getting your dumbbells and aerobics mats out.

While we’re constantly bombarded with magic elixirs and procedures to fight the signs of ageing, it turns out your workout could actually do the trick.

Scientists at Japan’s Ritsumeikan University have discovered that aerobic exercise and weight training can alter gene expression and improve the underlying health of facial tissue and skin cells.

The findings, which were published in Scientific Reports, were discovered after exercise scientist, Professor Satoshi Fujita and his team analysed the experiences of 56 middle-aged women.

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Professor Fujita told The Washington Post his team’s findings were relevant to everyone. Fujita said skin was “more youthful at a cellular level” after the group of Japanese women began exercising.

Scientists gave half the women the task of cycling for 30 minutes, twice a week. The other half lifted weights for 30 minutes, twice a week.

After 16 weeks of this simple routine, the women’s facial skin was improved, that, as well as their fitness and strength.

For the cyclists, or the aerobatic group, the fitness improved the skin’s overall elasticity, and skin collagen was in creation mode.

As for the resistance group, their training increased the thickness of the dermal layer.  

Resistance training can the thickness of the dermal layer. Image: Pexels

“Theoretically, these changes may reduce wrinkles, improve appearance and help people look younger”, though the actual surface of the skin was not assessed.  

Overall, Fujita said his findings “suggest that the skin is strongly influenced not only by external factors such as UV radiation and dryness but also by internal factors” like inflammation and gene expression.

“It is possible to expect an additive effect of skin improvement when both resistance and aerobic exercise are combined,” he added.

But there are some sceptics.

“I don’t think [the findings] mean anything definitive,” David Sawcer, a clinical associate professor of dermatology told the publication.

Going forward, Fujita told TWP he hoped his study “will encourage many people to acquire exercise habits.” 

“I am a 53-year-old male,” he continued, “and I regularly perform strength and aerobic training in the morning, and I am often told that my skin looks very smooth for my age.”

As we all know, wearing sunscreen is the best physical defence we have against ageing, as is protective clothing, which Fujita wants us all to remember. So if you're going to get outdoors then cover up.

Originally published as Noticing wrinkles? This workout can help you look younger