Part 1: How can you stay healthy for as long as possible, even in old age? More and more people are asking themselves this question. From red light therapy to ice baths and peptides to 100 different supplements a day—everything is supposed to help. It feels like you have to spend thousands of francs a month to age healthily. But what does the current scientific evidence say? Felix Hess speaks with Prof. Dr. Christoph Handschin, research group leader at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel, about his work.

In the first part, we discuss, among other things: ​Why science is never black and white; ​Peptides and how they differ from gray-market products; ​Why exercise is such a key factor for our health.

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Part 2: With Prof. Dr. Christoph Handschin, research group leader at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel. After discussing peptides, supplements, and the current state of scientific knowledge on longevity in Part 1, we dive deeper in this episode: What does exercise actually do to our bodies, and why is VO2max such a crucial marker for healthy aging? And perhaps the most important question: When is stress your friend, and when does it make you sick?

In this episode, we discuss, among other things: Why VO2max is one of the strongest predictors of longevity; the difference between acute stress (e.g., exercise) and chronic stress; why acute stress makes you stronger—and chronic stress makes you age; and how you can specifically train your VO2max in everyday life.

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Your muscles play a key role in determining how healthy you’ll be as you age, yet we still massively underestimate them. Cell biologist Dr. Christoph Handschin from the Biozentrum at the University of Basel has been researching the role of muscles for years. In this podcast, he explains why muscles are now considered an organ in their own right, how they influence inflammation, regulate blood sugar, and even communicate with the brain. He also discusses why endurance and strength training are equally important, why recovery is often underestimated, and what role proteins, creatine, and VO₂ max play in our health. An episode about why every workout is an investment in your future—and why it’s never too late to start.

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Are muscles the most underrated organ in our body? Cell biologist Dr. Christoph Handschin explains why muscles are about much more than just strength—and what a central role they play in metabolism, hormones, and healthy aging. Why do we lose muscle mass as we age? And how much exercise does it take to stay healthy in the long term? What really strengthens our bodies? Discover the answers in this in-depth interview.

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Shorts – Why Muscles Determine Your Health
Shorts – Myth: We Only Need Protein for Big Muscles
Shorts – Muscle Loss Begins Earlier Than Many People Think

Exercise training involves repeated exposure to increases in metabolic, thermal, mechanical, and oxidative stress. This exposure stimulates physiological adaptations that improve tolerance to similar stressors.  Achieving such adaptations is the purpose of exercising regularly, and underpins the protective nature of exercise against the development of several diseases.  Our current understanding of the signal integration and coordination of the cellular mechanisms that govern skeletal muscle plasticity is incomplete. This Special Issue will provide novel insights into the molecular, cellular, tissue, and overall body adjustments to intense exercise demands. We will gather contributions from scientific experts to provide readers with state-of-the-art contributions in the field of skeletal muscle and exercise.

Discussing the special issue 'Unlocking Athletic Potential: Exploring Exercise Physiology from Mechanisms to Performance' published in the 2024 issue of the journal.

Speakers:
Prof. Maria Carmen Gomez-Cabrera, University of Valencia, Spain
Prof. Christoph Handschin, University of Basel, Switzerland

0:52 Introduction of the special issue
3:36 Discussing the differences between the acute perturbations induced by a single endurance or resistance exercise bout vs the long-term training adaptations
16:05 Commenting on the mechanism involved in muscle damage and the repeated bout effect
33:11 Five contributions dealing with skeletal muscle redox aspects in this special issue
43:38 Discussing a contribution in the special issue connecting the respiratory capacity of skeletal muscle mitochondria and athletic performance
57:19 Circadian rhythms influence exercise adaptations of skeletal muscle. Is the time to train very important for top-level athletes? What about the general population?

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Sciencedirect

What are the key physiological adaptations attained in exercise regimens used by elite athletes to achieve peak performance? In our latest episode of The Physiological Reviews Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Dr. Sadis Matalon (University of Alabama at Birmingham) interviews author and Physiological Reviews Associate Editor Dr. Christoph Handschin (University of Basel, Switzerland) about the new Review by Furrer et al. As Dr. Handschin explains, the basis of all types of muscle adaptations is repeated contractions, but how this is done in terms of training intensity, volume, form, and frequency can dramatically affect training outcomes. Athletes and coaches try to develop the best strategies for training periodization for performance to peak at the time of competition. What roles do sleep, diet, and environment, such as altitude, play in enhancing (or diminishing) exercise performance? Listen as Dr. Matalon and Dr. Handschin discuss experimental and natural product-based performance enhancing substances, wearable devices for tracking exercise performance, and the genetic makeup of individuals that ultimately differentiates athletes from Olympic athletes.

Regula Furrer, John A. Hawley, and Christoph Handschin The molecular athlete: exercise physiology from mechanisms to medals Physiological Reviews, published April 23, 2023. DOI: 10.1152/physrev.00017.2022

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