ALLSET Gazette #21
Top three healthy ageing highlights this week.
Hi there!
This is Jing, founder of ALLSET.
Top Three Healthy Ageing Highlights
👋🏻 A quick introduction if you’re new here.
I highlight three healthy ageing insights each week to fast-forward Singapore’s health span vs lifespan gap reduction.
If you know of anything I should include, please email me. 🙏🏻
Otherwise, here goes:
1. Training More Is Better Until…
How many sets of each exercise should you be performing during your workouts?
A recent meta-analysis revealed that the benefits may plateau at:
2 direct sets for strength
11 fractional/indirect sets for hypertrophy
Additional sets beyond these numbers did not meaningfully increase the likelihood (>50% chance) of detectable hypertrophy or strength gains.
Do note that the study has its limitations, and a nuanced interpretation is required to apply them in real-world training contexts.
A simplified takeaway? Intensity is key, more so than volume. You don’t need to do more, you need to do enough.
Read the full paper here.
2. Exercise Is The Real Polypill
Researchers shared about how exercise serves as a polypill, which prompts your body to produce myokines, cytokines, and growth factors, and with it:
Enhance neuroplasticity
Modulate anti-inflammatory immune responses
Improve insulin sensitivity
Promote fat oxidation and mitochondrial biogenesis
Repair and regenerate muscles
Induce browning of white adipose tissue
Potentially protect against cancer
Read the full study here.
3. Researchers: Strenuous Evening Exercise May Disrupt Sleep
A study released in Nature Communications this week has shown that:
Strenuous exercise close to bedtime can disrupt your sleep. When workouts ended within 4 hours of sleep, especially those with high strain, it resulted in delayed sleep onset, shorter sleep duration, and lower sleep quality.
Effects were dose-dependent (intensity x duration). Negative effects increased with both workout intensity and its proximity to bedtime.
Workouts that finish ≥4 hours before bedtime don’t seem to impair sleep, regardless of intensity. Light, low-strain exercise was mostly benign, suggesting intensity matters more than timing alone.
So, if you’re training hard but not sleeping well, when you exercise could be just as important as how.
Can only train at night? Try to conclude your workouts at least 4 hours before sleep onset, or opt for lower-intensity workouts.
Read the full study here.
Paid Tier Research Summary Preview: How Does Your Knee Strength Compare?
Our team sifts through key studies to uncover insights that may not be on your radar.
This week, we summarised a paper that provided normative torque values of knee extensors and flexors in healthy trained subjects.
The key insight:
In terms of clinical relevance, isometric evaluation can be performed to ensure reproducibility and validity of maximal strength measurements, while removing pain and biomechanical restrictions.
Learn more in our paid tier research summaries.
You can also find more work from our team below.
From The Team
🚀[New] Train.Red is the latest equipment in our healthy ageing arsenal. Stay tuned for announcements on how that improves our service.
💪 Our first isometric strength training workshop with Danny Lum, PhD is postponed because it falls on Singapore’s polling day. Stay tuned for new course dates.
🏃♂️[In Initial Stages] Training for IPPT? Join our IPPT Club’s WhatsApp group for tips and group training updates.
🏋🏻 [Update] Our VO2 max testing session, which comes with normative strength assessments, will soon also come with SMO2 results. Enquire to find out more about our Sports and Healthy Ageing Lab.
💪🏻 Personal training and physiotherapy remain our company’s primary revenue stream; support our healthy ageing efforts and improve your health by working with our trainers.
😎 ALLSET Recommendations is a page containing products we trust. See the list here.
🔔 Subscribe to our events page and stay in the loop on upcoming workshops and events!
Have a Chat
Have a recommendation for our weekly healthy ageing highlights?
Want to work with us?
Simply reply to this newsletter or email us at hello@allset.sg.
If not, till next time, take care! 💪🏻
Kindest,
Jing 💜