Exercise as Mitochondrial Medicine
iStock credit: Vitalii Dumma
The concept of exercise as medicine is not new.
The highly respected American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) has “exercise is medicine” as their tagline.
More than 2000 years ago, Hippocrates wrote that “walking is man’s best medicine”. Physicians from various ancient cultures prescribed exercise to enhance health and treat multiple diseases.
Evidence supporting the beneficial effects of regular and consistent physical activity demonstrates:
Exercise is one of the most cost-effective approaches to manage and prevent numerous diseases (Bishop et al.)
Exercise has greater therapeutic value than many drugs, with very few side effects (Bishop et al.)
The frequency, intensity, and type of exercise performed influences the amount of the benefits of exercise (for example: jogging three times a week produces better health outcomes than jogging once a week) (Bishop et al.)
One of my favourite benefits of physical activity is that it boosts vitality and energy. We gain more energy because of what exercise does to the powerhouse of our cells: the mitochondria. Mitochondria has many functions: generating cellular energy, cell signalling, calcium homeostasis, hormone synthesis, and programmed cell death (Bishop et al.). A really interesting aspect of mitochondria is their remarkable ability to sense, respond, and adapt to various stressors (Bishop et al.). Exercise provides a powerful stimulus that can trigger changes to our mitochondrial molecular features, activities, function, and behaviours (Bishop et al.).
Exercise is mitochondrial medicine because it is able to alter the content and function of this amazing and important part of our cell (Bishop et al.). The more we demand from our bodies, the more our bodies produce mitochondria in our cells. So exercise makes our cells work and function better. When our cells function better, our bodies function better. When our bodies function better, we are stronger to do our daily tasks of life, which in turn gives us more energy and vitality to do even more things during our day.
What type of exercise is best to increase mitochondrial content? And how much? And how hard does the exercise need to be?
Cardiorespiratory exercise appears to be an important factor concerning increasing the mitochondria in our cells (Bishop et al.). And it seems higher intensities are more beneficial than lower intensities (jogging vs light walking) (Bishop et al.). Volume is also important, more exercise is also beneficial so the intensity can’t be so high that the body needs too many days of rest (Bishop et al.).
Using ACSM’s well researched recommendations for health: achieving 150 to 300 minutes of moderate intensity cardiorespiratory exercise or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous intensity cardiorespiratory exercise every week will help to increase our energy levels to gain health and vitality (American College of Sports Medicine et al.).
Moderate intensity exercise examples (target 60-75% heart rate max) brisk walking, light jogging, hiking slightly uphill. Vigorous intensity exercise examples (target 80-90% heart rate max) fast jogging and/or running, sprinting, indoor cycling class, walking on a steep incline.
Resistance training also increases mitochondrial function in the working muscles (Bishop et al.). Resistance training brings many other benefits producing strong muscles and joints, increasing balance and coordination, while decreasing our chances of injury.
ACSM recommends scheduling at minimum 2-3 resistance training sessions weekly (American College of Sports Medicine et al.). Doing some form of resistance training (lifting weights, using resistance bands, Pilates on the equipment) helps to increase energy levels as well and also increases our strength and endurance in our muscles to perform our cardio weekly targets (American College of Sports Medicine et al.).
Exercise does the body good. Following ACSM’s physical activity guidelines will help to increase the mitochondria in our cells which in turn will make our bodies function better. Win win :)
Now that the weather is improving, let’s lace up those sneakers and increase our energy by doing some heart pumping cardio, in combo with heading to the studio for a fabulous body strengthening Pilates sesh.
Resources
American College of Sports Medicine, et al., editors. ACSM’s Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription. Eleventh edition, Wolters Kluwer, 2021.
Bishop, David J., et al. “Exercise as Mitochondrial Medicine: How Does the Exercise Prescription Affect Mitochondrial Adaptations to Training?” Annual Review of Physiology, Dec. 2024. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-physiol-022724-104836.
