Studies Find Aerobic Fitness Equals Independence in Later Years

The folks at Cenegenics have taken a hard look at the benefits of aerobic fitness for people in their 60s, 70s and 80s. They’ve reviewed recent medical studies and concluded that, yes, aerobic fitness matters – particularly if you want to live independently in later years. Not only that, but the recent studies show that overall mortality is cut by as much as 70% among the “highly fit” elderly.

In fact, a significant study of more than 15,000 veterans whose average age was 60, published in the January 2008 Circulation (a journal of the American Heart Association), found that men who were “highly fit” had a 50% – 70% lower mortality risk than their “low-fit” counterparts.

Lead author on the study Peter Kokkinos even stated that to attain the associated health benefits, it only takes “moderate levels of physical activity like 30 minutes a day, five days a week of brisk walking.”

But it’s also well documented that maximal oxygen intake decreases between 20 to 60 years old and is projected to deteriorate at a similar rate into retirement. The faculty of Physical Education and Health and Department of Health of Public Health Sciences along with the faculty of medicine at the University of Toronto, (Ontario, Canada) examined the “likelihood that a deterioration of aerobic fitness will lead to a loss of independence in old age.”

Read more

The Lost Secrets of Health & Fitness After Age 50

Here’s the bad news: You lose up to 5% of your strength, flexibility and balance for every decade after age 20. But here’s the good news: With a little effort and determination, you can maintain 90% of the strength, flexibility and balance you had at age 20 well into your 60s, 70s and even 80s.

It sounds incredible… but it’s true! That means that if you could do 60 pushups when you were 20, you could actually do a mere 54 when you’re 65 (90% of 60). If you could get up at 5:00 a.m. and surf for two hours, you could, at age 70, get up at 6:00 a.m. and surf for only an hour and a half. (After all, you must make some concession to age!)

How is this possible? The answer lies in TRAINING FOR AGING.

As you age, you can maintain your strength, flexibility and balance… but you must train to do that. You must develop an exercise program that seeks to develop the very capabilities that we know you will lose as you age.

One way I do this is with the esoteric Japanese martial art of Aikido. I love Aikido because it trains all three of the physical attributes you lose with age — strength, flexibility and, most neglected of all, balance. If you want to fight, try Brazilian jujitsu. But if you want to age with grace and dignity and agility, try Aikido. There is nothing like it.

I also lift weights, do yoga, run on my treatmill while watching the news, and practice a little Tai Chi. I’m an ugly, crotchety old bastard… but I can do more pushups than many 20-year-olds I know and I’ve never felt better in my life.