Sure, it sounds questionable, but lifting weights is good for your skin. That’s the verdict of a recent study published in Scientific Reports and nicely explained by Gretchen Reynolds in the Washington Post. Actually, the study found that both aerobic exercise and weight training improved facial skin and tissue, but resistance work offered the most impressive results. One scientist who worked on the study, which involved 56 Japanese women, says resistance training appears to make skin “more youthful at the cellular level.”
Wait, there’s more. Another study, from 2015, looked at biopsies of skin from people’s buttocks, and compared the skin of active and sedentary people. That study found that skin from more active people active had a thinner stratum corneum, the outer layer of skin, and thicker dermis, a deeper, structural layer compared to the skin of inactive people of the same age. Reynolds reports that skin cells from active people also had more and healthier mitochondria, which is associated with younger skin.