The best anti-aging treatment around has nothing to do with needles or pills, and it's virtually free. It's exercise, and Lawrence Golding says it can combat just about every sign of aging aside from gray hair and wrinkles.
Golding, the director of the Laboratory of Exercise Physiology at UNLV, has spent more than 30 years tracking the effects of exercise over time with the adult exercise research program. Inactivity, not time, is what robs us of strength, flexibility, and stamina.
"Aging is when you can no longer do the physical things you used to be able to do," Golding says. "If you're exercising, you can still do them."
Golding started the UNLV program in 1976. Men and women ages 30 to 65 are invited to participate in the study, which looks at how daily exercise affects risk factors for heart disease. Participants work out almost daily and are monitored for variables such as blood pressure, cholesterol, body fat percentage, flexibility and strength, and the heart's response to exercise.
About 60 percent of participants are faculty or staff, and many have stuck with the program for years. Their mean age is 47, but Golding said it's creeping higher — probably because his workouts are a barebones affair of calisthenics; stretching; and walking, running, cycling, or swimming. It might be a boring proposition for a younger generation, but keeping it simple means anyone can participate regardless of skill.
"I don't have music — I think it's noise pollution. I don't have any equipment," he said. "Why do these people come back every year? They see results."
Staying in shape has also helped some participants continue playing the sports they love, Golding said. "When you don't get fatigued, you don't lose your skills."
Now Golding is focusing on the age of participants when they return to exercise, and how it affects their results. Even people who start in their 60s show improvement when they commit to a regular regimen, if on a smaller scale. "The people who are successful are the ones who become selfish about themselves and say, 'By golly, I'm going to take an hour every day for this,'" Golding said. "They come every day without thinking, 'Should I go?'"
