The exercises you need to do to reach 100 in great shape

“My secret is that I never go out from the sofa,” said any centenary, never. But it should be noted that the oldest people in the world rarely mention the punishing fitness regimes. Instead, centenarians tend to report a regular and moderate exercise life, such as walking, agriculture and gardening.

This exact prescription does not fit well in many modern lifestyles, but that did not prevent scientists from trying to identify the dose and the type of optimal exercise during a long and healthy life.

What is clear is that doing nothing is not an option. The lack of physical activity has been linked to at least 3.9 million premature deaths worldwide per year, and this considerably increases the risk of chronic diseases, including heart disease, cerebral vascular accidents and certain cancers. On the other hand, doing enough exercise can be added up to seven years to your life, while extending the time you spend healthy.

The evolution of the exercise

An approximate guide on the sufficient amount can be found in our scalable history. Modern hunters, the closest that we can achieve how our ancestors lived, take around 11,000 to 20,000 steps a day and get their hunting resistance training, climbing, digs tubers and transporting the resources they collect at home.

They have lower rates of chronic diseases observed in Western countries, and reason seems to reside in the body’s response to all these works, which leads to an increase in internal maintenance and repair. The evolutionary anthropologist of the University of Harvard, Daniel Lieberman, speculates that the reason why the exercise and physiological maintenance are that the evolution has equaled the two together, so that the genes involved in repair and bodily maintenance are only activated when we move. If we don’t, the body saves energy by letting these functions slide.

Due to the “use or lose it” aspect of this, an increasing number of researchers see exercise not as an “anti-aging” strategy, but as a means of reverse the effects of life and disease from a chronic lack of movement, potentially adding healthy years to our lives. “Exercise is one of these strategies that we can adopt in order to optimize the rate to which we refuse,” explains Norman Lazarus, professor emeritus of physiology at the King’s College in London.

How much?

So how much will do the trick? Lazarus says that the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines are a good starting point. Based on large epidemiological studies, these declare that adults should make at least 150 to 300 minutes per week of moderate physical activity (exercise that lets you speak, but not to sing, like a quick walk), or from 75 to 150 minutes to a vigorous intensity (running, or a cycling in Hilly terrain, which leaves you breathing hard and faster), more a force in force. week. People aged 65 or over should do an additional strength session and add balance and mobility exercises.

Above all, none of this should take the form of a structured exercise. Anything that uses physical strength or increases the heart rate will do the job (see “longevity hack” for a suggestion, as well as other less known things you can try). And that should not all come in a single session – there is evidence that several training sessions are just as effective as longer and more structured.

Mikel Izquierdo at the public university of Navarra in Spain and principal author on a “global consensus” on the recommendations of exercise for healthy longevity, which was published in January, agrees that WHO directives are a good guide to reduce the risk of illness and prolong the lifespan. But, he adds, they may not be enough to guarantee thorny old age. “The majority of studies supporting WHO’s recommendations focus on reducing risk and mortality, rather than functional independence,” he said. “The reality is that respect for basic guidelines does not automatically translate into preserved autonomy, especially in populations over 65 years of age.”

Give me strength

From the mature age, said Izquierdo, everyone should work seriously on their muscle strength. Since thirty, muscle mass begins to decrease, with rapid muscle fibers, those necessary to get up from a chair, for example, taking the greatest success. If it is not controlled, this loss of strength and endurance can lead to walking problems, standing and an increased risk of falls and to die of any cause for the elderly.

Multiple studies, for example, have shown a link between lower hand resistance resistance and a shorter lifespan. However, this does not mean that you necessarily need to strengthen your hands. The strength of adhesion is an indirect indicator of global muscle strength because it is easy to measure and has proven to be correlated with strength in the main muscle groups, especially legs.

The balancing act

It is also a good idea to work on balance from the average age. According to a study in 2022, people aged 51 to 75 who could not balance on one leg for 10 seconds were twice as likely to die in the following 10 years.

Body weight exercises such as squats and boards are a good starting point, explains Izquierdo, but as muscle loss accelerates, the only way to keep a step ahead of this drop is to gradually increase the load by adding weights or using resistance strips.

Maria Fiatarone Singh, a geriatrician at the University of Sydney, also advises power training: skip the stairs for those who are more agile, or make quick leg presses in the gymnasium at 80% of the maximum weight that a person can lift. Indeed, more explosive strength training strengthens “type II” muscle fibers with rapid contraction, which are the first to be lost during aging.

It is never too late to start. Electricity and strength training even helped fragile people in the construction of the 90s, which has improved their ability to stand and walk independently. Curiously, even the intention of becoming stronger has advantages, explains Fiatarone Singh. Even if the weight does not move much at the beginning, “it is” intention “to move quickly which sends the message of the brain to type II fibers to contract which recruits them optimally,” she says.

So, on the whole, there are many ways to fight against the physical decline of aging. But we should also be realistic, explains Lazarus, a passionate cyclist approaching his 90th anniversary.

There is only many exercise – or any other intervention – can do. “There are things that happen to us on which we have no control,” explains Lazarus. The maximum heart rate, for example – an estimate of the fastest rate that should be possible during the exercise – is 220 less age. “The formula does not say 220 less the age more of the exercise, it is said 220 less time passing,” explains Lazare. “You can exercise until the cows are home, you are not going to change this.” Even elite athletes lose muscle mass, strength and cardiovascular efficiency with age, it doesn’t matter how much they train.

“We are all going to die,” explains Lazarus. “You want to continue working as long as possible and die in a year. Not slowly over 40 or 50 years old. “

Or, as Izquierdo says, we must aim to “die young, as late as possible”.