08/23/2024
Are you moving it or losing it? 🏃♀️ 💃🏻 ⚽️ 🏋🏻♀️🏸🏓🎾⛸️🥏🏀🏐🏊♂️🚴♀️
I just read a very cool study that came out this month. Researchers took human volunteers and had them exercise one leg only—one leg exercised while the other remained sedentary. Then they measured mitophagy in each leg.
Now, mitophagy is a type of autophagy that’s specific to the mitochondria. It’s the process by which the body prunes damaged and malfunctioning mitochondria, leaving behind primarily high-quality mitochondria that work well and function optimally.
Turns out the exercised leg showed elevated markers of mitophagy, while the sedentary leg remained unchanged. This was after a single bout of exercise—just a few sets.
Now imagine a lifetime of this, of training in the gym, playing sports, running and jumping, climbing the stairs, and generally using your body. Then imagine a lifetime of the opposite: of sitting on the couch, watching TV, and slowly trudging to your car to drive to the mall or fast food restaurant. Imagine how each scenario would impact the quality and function of your mitochondria over the short term and the long term.
What you have to realize is that this is the greatest law of the universe: use it or lose it. Particularly in human biology, it is a constant battle to prove to your body that you are indeed using it. If you don’t do anything with it, your body deteriorates.
This battle is playing out on every level of existence. Anything you do is either eliminating harmful parts of your life or tolerating them, and every day we get a chance to make the right or wrong decisions.
Do you get up and move, lift, run, walk, climb, and fight against gravity and entropy? Or do you say “I’ll do it tomorrow” and take the day off?
Every day counts. Every day moves you closer to or farther from where you want to go.
Study here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/apha.14203