Exercise has long been celebrated as a potent weapon against aging in our muscles, bones, and organs. But what about our skin—our body’s largest organ and most visible sign of aging? Groundbreaking research has finally explored the connection and found significant improvements in skin aging are possible. But the type of exercise matters. In this article, I’ll unpack the study’s findings and reveal how we should exercise to reap the largest benefit.
Table of Contents
Setting up the question
Scientists have known for a while that regular exercise can slow down or even reverse age-related decline. We can see it on the macro level as it reverses things like muscle mass loss and increases our exercise capacity. But it also operates on a cellular level. Here, aging is marked by processes in the cell becoming less efficient as cells wear out. Exercise can restore function in a wide range of areas.
Accumulating evidence shows it can slow or reverse markers of cellular aging [1]. And it boosts the body’s antioxidant defenses [1].
But there’s a new area of interest that we’re only just beginning to explore: the effects of exercise on aging skin. This is significant, since our skin is where we see aging most clearly. As we get older, it gradually loses moisture, elasticity, and firmness. Its texture changes and its coloration becomes more uneven. These changes are partly due to environmental factors. Sun exposure, for instance, is a powerful driver of skin aging.
But they’re also due to processes unfolding on a cellular level. Two central players in skin quality are elastin and collagen. Together, these are key components that give our skin structure and elasticity. As the cells in our skin age, they make less of these essential proteins.
That’s one of the reasons I include collagen peptides in MicroViatmin+ Powder. Research has consistently shown they’re able to boost collagen production. Just because I take a supplement, though, in no way means you need to, too.
Beyond the changes inside our cells, the environment they experience also changes. Cells are bombarded and damaged by more reactive oxygen species (or ROS). These are highly reactive molecules that are a normal byproduct of cellular processes. But the body’s systems for combating them get weaker with age.
In theory, exercise ought to be able to work against these drivers of skin aging. Accumulating evidence shows it can slow or reverse markers of cellular aging [2]. And it boosts the body’s antioxidant defenses by decreasing ROS damage and up-regulating endogenous anti-oxidant defense [1].
So here’s the question. How might exercise impact skin quality in terms of markers like thickness, collagen content, elasticity, and moisture?
The first study to tackle this question came out in 2015, and we’ll work our way up until the new study which is the focus of this article. The 2015 researchers looked at the skin of two groups of people. One group was habitually active, with more than 4 hours a week of high-intensity aerobic exercise. The other group was relatively inactive, usually getting less than an hour a week of exercise. The groups included people of various ages. They wanted to see if there were any differences that correlated with typical activity levels.
They discovered there were. People in the more active participants group had a thinner outer layer of skin. At the same time, the layer beneath the outer layer didn’t thin out as much in older adults as it did for those who weren’t active [3].
The first part of this might sound negative. Isn’t thin skin a bad thing? Thicker skin is indeed associated with a younger, healthier look. But here we’re just talking about the outermost layer. It’s a very thin layer of dead skin cells stacked tightly like bricks. It’s constantly turning over, with old bricks being removed and new ones added. It serves as an important barrier between the environment and the skin beneath. Here, thickness is often a function of slower cell turnover and can give a dull, rough look. So what we’re seeing with exercise is healthier skin that’s functioning more like youthful skin does.
But this is just an observation of two groups that tells us about correlation. Researchers wanted to make sure there was a causal connection. Did the exercise cause differences in skin structure?
To find out, they enrolled a subset of elderly inactive adults in a 3-month endurance exercise program. The outer layer of the skin in those completing the program got thinner, matching what researchers saw in other active adults. They also observed boosted collagen content and signs of mitochondrial health. So the exercise seemed to be causing the change [3].
But researchers had a further question. What’s the mechanism here? In other words, what is the link between exercise and the changes they observed? Their focus was drawn to the mitochondria. Previous research has pointed to mitochondrial function as a key modulator of aging. They theorized that boosting mitochondrial health would improve skin health as well.
As we just saw, the researchers found that exercise did indeed seem to stimulate mitochondrial health of skin cells as well, not just muscle. But how was it doing this? They guessed it was through something circulating in the blood [3]. Some additional analysis helped them narrow down what it was. It was interleukin-15 (or IL-15), a protein that acts like a messenger in the body. It’s made by skeletal muscles, and its levels go up when we exercise.
The researchers performed a series of tests with mice to confirm what’s going on. In the end, a clear picture emerged. Exercise boosts production of IL-15. And IL-15 travels to the skin cells that maintain skin structure, where it ramps up mitochondrial function. This, in turn, helps to rejuvenate the skin cells [3].
This was a tantalizing discovery that provided the first direct evidence that exercise can improve the skin and counteract the signs of aging. But it left a lot of questions unanswered.
For instance, what about skin moisture? Can exercise help with that? The first study to look into this came out in 2023. The researchers tested skin moisture in a group that exercised for 8 weeks and compared this to a group that wasn’t exercising. The exercise group seemed to have better skin moisture [4]. A more recent study also noted a link between more exercise and improved skin hydration [5]. But both of these studies are preliminary; the impact remains uncertain.
Another question is this: What about exercise types? In the first study we looked at, researchers focused on aerobic exercise. As we saw, they found exercise stimulated the release of IL-15, which circulates in the blood. But we know that different kinds of exercise lead to a different mix of factors circulating in the blood [6].
The 2023 study
So is one kind of exercise better than another when it comes to skin health? A new study set out to answer this question.
The study included about 60 inactive middle-aged women. The women were randomly assigned to either an aerobic training or a resistance training group. Both groups exercised twice per week for 16 weeks under the supervision of a trainer. The aerobic group rode a stationary bike while the resistance group used weight machines.
Before and after the study, researchers collected several kinds of data. In addition to looking at body changes and fitness levels, they looked at participants’ skin. They measured elasticity, dermal thickness (that’s the middle layer of the skin), and the structure of the skin. They also took blood samples so they could see how the exercise affected what was circulating in it [6].
So what did they discover? First, let’s talk about changes to the skin. They measured elasticity before and after the 16 weeks of exercise. You can see it improved to a similar extent in both exercise groups [6].
Something similar happened with the structure within the middle layer of the skin. Both groups saw significant improvements [6].
But here’s where it gets interesting. When they measured thickness in the middle layer of skin, the results were different. Aerobic training didn’t make an impact. Resistance training, however, boosted thickness [6].
So what’s the takeaway for us if we want more youthful skin? Should we stick to resistance training? Probably not, as I’ll explain in a moment.
But first, let’s look briefly at the other part of the study — the mechanism. Before the study began, they hypothesized that different modes of exercise would lead to distinct changes in the skin. The results showed they were right about this. And the reason they expected this was because of how each type of exercise changes what circulates in the blood. After the study ended, they were able to identify why resistance training specifically led to a thicker dermal layer.
The key mechanism is that resistance training reduces certain chemicals in the blood. And these chemicals suppress biglycan (BGN). Biglycan is crucial for regulating collagen formation and dermal thickness. So resistance training ended up boosting biglycan and promoting thicker skin [6].
But here’s a crucial point. Aerobic exercise also boosted certain factors in the blood that resistance training didn’t. One of those was IL-15, which we talked about already. And it suppressed others, including a number that cause inflammation [6].
Both types of exercise also showed an ability to stimulate collagen production. Researchers took blood plasma (the liquid part of the blood) and added it to fibroblast cells in the lab. Fibroblast cells are specialized cells responsible for making collagen. They discovered the blood after exercise contained signaling chemicals that tell fibroblast cells to make more collagen. It’s a bit like a factory ramping up its production since it is getting more orders [6].
And this is why we see improving skin structure after exercise.
Implications
Okay, so what does this study mean for us? Here are some important takeaways.
First, we have one more reason to prioritize exercise as part of health. We already know it has multiple benefits, from improving heart health to managing weight to boosting our mood. The studies we’ve looked at here point to a new one: combating aging of the skin.
But when it comes to the type of exercise, different forms produce different results. Specifically, resistance training seems to have an edge when it comes to increasing thickness of the dermal layer. This doesn’t mean we should ignore aerobic exercise, though. We saw that it makes its own unique contribution in terms of factors circulating in our blood. The smartest approach is probably to combine both, to reap the full benefits each one offers. This is certainly true when we consider the health impacts beyond just our skin.
Another lesson from the study relates to the amount of exercise we need. When you look at the training the participants engaged in, it wasn’t super demanding. Aerobic training was at 65-70% of maximum heart rate for 30-40 minutes, 3-4 times a week. For resistance training, they aimed at 75-80% of the maximum weight they could lift, doing 3 sets of 10 reps, 3-4 times a week. This amount of exercise matches standard recommendations for exercise volume [7]. So if you’re already exercising, you probably don’t have to add anything extra to see the skin benefits found in the study.
And beyond the results of this research, we have additional reasons to expect exercise to improve the look of our skin. It increases blood flow to the skin, which means more oxygen and nutrients delivered where they’re needed [5]. Exercise also helps us handle stress better [8]. And it improves sleep [9]. Both increased stress and poor sleep appear to have negative impacts on skin health [10].
Reference List
Below are the studies in the order they appeared in the text:
1. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4340807/
2. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41514-023-00100-w
3. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4531076/
4. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10774845/
5. https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9284/11/1/13
6. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-37207-9
8. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9654650/
