Training helps you stay young. Massimo Spattini speaks

Strength training is not just for maintaining muscle, it is also beneficial for health and longevity, according to Massimo Spattini, a doctor and bodybuilding champion.

That bodybuilding and strength training can make us stronger and more toned is nothing new: several scientific studies have shown it. But who would have ever said that weights also act as a shield against aging? And instead it is so: word of Massimo Spattini, doctor and point of reference for bodybuilding enthusiasts, a sport he practiced for years and of which he was Italian champion. Spattini, who published the book Bodybuilding, training and exercises (Edizioni LSWR), together with Riccardo Gaspari, says he is sure that even after the age of 40, weight training offers various benefits. Some of which are unexpected…

Doctor Spattini: his journey is curious. From bodybuilder to doctor. What is the link between the 2 things?
"In my case it is profound: if I had not been a bodybuilder I would not have been the doctor I am. Bodybuilding is a sport where the basic concepts of biochemistry, physiology, technology, the importance of nutrition, are fundamental. In fact, I studied medicine when I was young because I was passionate about bodybuilding: I understood that knowledge of the human body and how it worked was essential to be successful in this physical activity. Then medicine became my profession".

Question to the doctor: how important is physical activity for general health?
"It is fundamental. Today, as the World Health Organization says, the state of health is not simply the absence of disease, but it is the search for an optimal state of well-being and excellent quality of life. This is achieved by trying to improve the body's performance, otherwise the risk is that of living - perhaps even for a long time - but forced to take drug after drug and with various dysfunctions".

But up to what age can you practice bodybuilding or sports that are based on strength training?
"There are those who believe that bodybuilding is not a sport in the true sense of the word, because it lacks the competitive phase that characterizes other sports. In this vision, bodybuilding is more of a physical activity. But if competitiveness often leads athletes to have health problems, a physical activity that is not based on this assumption can be administered on a tailor-made basis, in the right quantities and ways for each individual, even beyond the age of sport: which means - in theory - that bodybuilding, in the right doses, can also be practiced in old age".

Does it apply to everyone?
"Let's say that a person who has built a base over the years, when they were younger, will have less difficulty maintaining it with a more age-appropriate training. What does that mean? It means that once you have developed a certain muscle mass, you can perhaps maintain it even using lighter loads, which put less strain on the osteoarticular and cardiovascular systems. This is why it is not difficult to meet bodybuilding athletes who even on the threshold of 60 years of age obtain notable results in international competitions. But they succeed because they had already previously achieved muscle volumes, which they managed to maintain with a differently structured training with lower weight loads, performing the exercises intelligently".

So, is bodybuilding forever?
"Let's say it's a much more adaptable type of training, in the sense that you can achieve muscle development both with heavy loads and using lighter weights, but working on other variables such as the time of execution of the exercise. Compared to other sports, bodybuilding can be done at even high levels, changing training techniques even at an advanced age. It's difficult for this to happen with other popular sports, where beyond the age of 40, athletes often begin to decline".

An individual who goes to the gym at a more or less amateur level, up to what age can he maintain his muscles?
"It depends on various factors. Generally speaking, we know that from the age of 40, generically, we begin to lose muscle tissue: this loss of muscle mass is defined in medical terms as sarcopenia and is a natural phenomenon that depends on various factors, for example the fact that people often start to train less or even stop at all around the age of 40. By training less, muscles tend to decline, but if you continue to train, this loss of muscle mass does not necessarily occur immediately after the age of forty. A lot also depends on how you eat and on genetic characteristics".

Bodybuilding helps you stay young, and then there are hormones. In the case of men: Testosterone.
"Of course, it also depends on the individual's hormone levels: a young man naturally has higher testosterone hormone levels. And both women and men have more GH. These are hormones that promote anabolism and muscle mass. Both tend to decrease over the years and, depending on how much they decrease, a person is more likely to experience muscle mass loss. Be careful: hormones do not decrease equally in each of us: their decline is also linked to diet and lifestyle. Let me give you an example: GH is produced during sleep. But if someone sleeps little and badly, production decreases and at the same time testosterone also decreases. On the other hand, there is also a hormone that increases with age: Cortisol, a catabolic hormone that "eats" muscles. It is also known as the stress hormone: if work commitments, responsibilities and work stress increase, you have to be on your guard".

How can we stop the advance of catabolic hormones?
"With less stress. But it is also closely linked to nutrition and body composition, that is, the amount of visceral fat that can increase with age, due to the increase in insulin resistance, which is the antechamber of diabetes and is the result of an unhealthy diet and a sedentary lifestyle. Insulin is also the hormone that stimulates protein synthesis, pushing amino acids into the muscles. So if there is insulin resistance and we are unable to bring amino acids to the muscles and nourish them sufficiently, they tend to reduce".

Is it an inexorable process?
"No, with age there are all these variables that play in favor of the risk of losing muscle mass. But it is not so automatic that all these conditions occur. Obviously the more you get older the more you are faced with a natural physical decline, so it is not possible to think that a person at 70 has the same muscle mass as when they were 30. But woe betide you if you resign yourself and think that after 40 you can no longer have a fit body. With a correct lifestyle that includes physical activity, healthy eating, nutritional supplements and possibly also hormonal management, that is, ensuring that hormones remain at the correct levels, we can keep these degenerative processes at bay".

What is the right physical activity after 40?
"Aerobic training trains the heart to withstand certain efforts, so it is undoubtedly important. But if we have to consider an activity that is more capable of reducing the phenomena of aging and degeneration, and as such we consider the loss of muscle mass, strength training is fundamental".

Does he say this because he was a bodybuilding champion?
"No, not at all. The loss of strength is the most predictive marker of the risk of death: science tells us that the handgrip strength test is able to measure, according to certain parameters, the level of strength of a person. And it has been discovered that when these levels of strength are below a certain threshold, the risk of death naturally increases. But not only that: weight training can counteract the loss of muscle mass and bone tissue. And it is also, contrary to popular belief, more effective in counteracting and preventing weight gain than aerobic activity alone. This is because the muscle is a metabolically active organ, so if we maintain good muscle mass, our metabolism will be faster. And we will burn more calories. Several studies confirm this: individuals in their forties who had trained with weights, over time gained less weight than those who had only done aerobic activity".

So can we say that body building and strength training help you stay young?
"Yes, absolutely, and for another reason too: aerobic training, as the name itself says, uses oxygen and consequently produces more ROS, that is, free radicals, which play an important role in the aging process. On the other hand, weight training, being anaerobic, produces fewer free radicals and therefore has a more rejuvenating effect. If we look at marathon athletes, those who run a lot at a certain age, they look older. On the other hand, if we look at bodybuilders at a certain age, almost all of them seem younger than their age. In addition to the fact that weight training produces more GH, while aerobic training produces less. And GH is the hormone of youth, precisely because it reduces body fat, increases muscle and also improves skin elasticity".