It’s NOT taking that brand new supplement that promises youthful looking skin or memory or will give you “youthful” performance in the bedroom (wink, wink…).
Nope. It’s just simple exercise.
Nothing will keep you younger longer than exercise. And not soup-cans-sitting-on-a chair-exercise, either. I always defer to Jack LaLane as an example of what “exercise” is as we get older.
This particular study finds that, after following a group of men for 20 years, exercise capacity was the greatest predicter of the participants risk of dying from anything. Here’s some specifics:
- For those who were more fit (5.1-6.0 METs), they were 38% less likely to die during the study.
- Even better, those who were the most fit (> 9 METS) were 61% less likely to die.
- Luckily unfit individuals who got off the couch and improved their fitness levels over the study still benefited with a 35% lower mortality risk.
There is no reason that we cannot maintain good levels of strength as we age, but we have to work harder at it. That’s one of the beautiful aspects of being a chiropractor–we can remove most physical barriers that patients have that may be keeping them from exercising fully. The rest is up to you..
Pat Gula says
Problem is, how you count MET. I think just exercising to target heart rate ought to be sufficient for most of us. I have a pulsometer to get oxygen reading and pulse. …. use it after I exercise on my home stepper.