The 2 Workouts That Protect Your Brain, Muscles, and Metabolism

**Dr. Mark Hyman** (0:00)
What if the best anti-aging treatment wasn't a supplement or a drug, but two simple workouts? Not helping you burn more calories or lose more body weight, but making your cells younger and help you from the inside out. Now, most people think exercise is about changing how they look, and I think about it very differently. And one of the main reasons I exercise has nothing to do with my waistline. It's because of what exercise does to my mitochondria. That's why I exercise. These tiny little structures inside your cells are responsible for producing the energy that empowers every single heart beat, every thought, every muscle contraction. And as your mitochondria decline, well, so do your energy, your metabolism, your brain, ultimately, how well you age. And here's the exciting part. Research shows that two specific forms of exercise don't just help preserve your mitochondria. They actually tell your body to build healthier, more efficient ones. In other words, they help your body function younger. When people ask me, what's the single best exercise for longevity, they're usually expecting one answer, walking, running, swimming, yoga. But that's actually the wrong question, because different types of exercise do different jobs inside your body.
Walking is fantastic, mobility is essential, zone 2 cardio has tremendous benefits. But if your goal is to protect your brain, build muscle, support your metabolism, reduce your risk of chronic disease, and stay independent for decades to come, there are two forms of exercise that almost everyone should be doing.
Strength training and high intensity interval training or HIIT training. And before you click away because you think HIIT means burpees and boot camps, stay with me. That's one of the biggest myths we're gonna bust today. But by the end of this episode, you're gonna understand why these two workouts are some of the most powerful longevity tools we have, how they change your body at the cellular level, and exactly how to start, even if you haven't exercised consistently in years. This episode was brought to you by Function. Get access to over 160 latkes annually at functionhealth.com/mark.
So how does exercise slow down aging? Well, most of you will think exercise is about burning calories. And honestly, that's one of the least interesting things it does. Yes, exercise can help you lose weight, it can help improve your fitness, it can help you look better, but those are really just side effects. The real magic happens at a level you can't see. Every single one of the trillions of cells in your body contains tiny structures called mitochondria. And you probably heard them described as the powerhouse of the cell. And while that sounds like something from high school biology, it actually is one of the most important concepts in longevity. Think of your mitochondria as tiny power plants, or maybe better yet, tiny rechargeable batteries inside nearly every cell in your body. The job is simple. They take the food you eat and the oxygen you breathe and they convert them to energy. Specifically, they produce a molecule called ATP, which is the fuel that powers virtually everything in your body does. And that's why I'm so fascinated by mitochondria. They're not just responsible for making energy. They're also deeply connected to almost every hallmark of ageing, the influence of how your body functions, how your brain functions, how your muscle performs, how your metabolism works, how your immune system responds, even how resilient your body is to stress. And when your mitochondria thrive, well, you tend to thrive. Now, as we get older, we naturally lose mitochondria and the ones we have become less efficient. Imagine running a city where half the power plants have shut down. The ones that are operating are old and efficient and constantly breaking down. Well, it's kind of like our bodies. The lights start flickering, the systems don't work as well, the repairs take longer. That's essentially what begins happening inside our bodies.
Instead of producing abundant clean energy, aging mitochondria produce less ATP, more harmful byproducts called reactive oxygen species or free radicals. Now, small amounts of these molecules are normal, even helpful. But when they accumulate, they create oxidative stress that can damage cells and accelerate aging. It's one of the reasons so many people notice changes as they get older. They feel more fatigue, they struggle with brain fog, their metabolism slows down, they lose muscle more easily, recovery takes a lot longer, their endurance drops. And over time, mitochondrial dysfunction has been linked to so many of the chronic diseases that we associate with aging, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and even some cancers.
Now, I don't want you to hear that and think your mitochondria are destined to fail because your mitochondria are incredibly dynamic. They're constantly adapting to the signals used in your body. And they can become stronger, become more efficient. Your body can even make brand new mitochondria throughout your whole life. The question is, what tells your body to do that?