Can strength training improve skin sagging?

The answer is that it can definitely improve some causes of skin laxity, but it cannot solve all laxity problems, let alone expect it to replace medical beauty.

I used to take care of a 32-year-old female member who lost 22 pounds in two months to take wedding photos. The skin on her waist and abdomen was so soft that she could easily pick up more than two centimeters, and she wrinkled like wilted vegetable leaves when wearing a tight-fitting dress. After that, she did three months of regular strength training, three times a week, 40 minutes of core and lower limb resistance each time. When she tried on the dress later, she said that she could only pick up half a centimeter at most, and her waistline was so smooth that even the retoucher took ten minutes off her. In fact, it is not difficult to understand. Muscles are originally "built-in support cushions" under the skin. When you lose weight too quickly or lose muscle as you age, the supporting layer under the skin collapses first, and the skin will naturally loosen and fall. As the muscles become thicker and support the skin from the inside, it will naturally become visually tighter. There is also relevant research in the field of sports medicine. People who insist on regular resistance training for a long time have a skin elasticity modulus about 15% higher than that of sedentary people. The increase in circulation brought about by strength training can also promote collagen synthesis in the dermis to a certain extent, which is indeed beneficial to maintaining skin elasticity.

But don’t boast about strength training. In the past two years, I have met at least seven or eight friends who have not seen any improvement in their laxity after practicing for half a year. There is a 58-year-old aunt who came to practice after retirement. She became fat when she was young, and the skin on her belly is so loose that it can hang down by two or three centimeters. After five months of core training, her waist circumference has shrunk by 6 centimeters, but the sagging skin has not changed at all. The elastic fibers of her skin have been pulled by the accumulated fat all year round until they are completely broken, just like a torn rubber band. There are also mothers who have just given birth. If there are deep stretch marks on the belly, it is also a case of rupture of the dermis fibers. Strength training can retract the rectus abdominis and flatten the belly, but the position corresponding to the stretch marks will still be slightly loose and cannot be fully restored to the pre-pregnancy state.

There are also many people on the Internet who say that "the more you practice strength training, the looser your skin becomes." This is mostly because of blind dieting during training. The fat falls quickly and the muscles do not increase. This is equivalent to the subcutaneous support layer not being filled in. The vacated gaps are naturally still loose. It is really not a fault of strength training. Some people say that their face still looks slumped after training, which is normal. It is difficult to train facial muscles with ordinary strength training. Many people are used to gritting their teeth and frowning when training with heavy weights, which will aggravate dynamic lines. Those who say that strength training can eliminate nasolabial folds are basically IQ tax.

Anyway, I have been practicing for almost six years, and among my friends who insist on regular strength training, those in their thirties and forties generally have much firmer skin than people of the same age who have been sedentary, and their clothes are more contoured. However, if you expect to use weight lifting to get rid of the static lines that have grown up and the severely sagging skin, it is really difficult for them.