Sport and longevity

Sufficient exercise – an elixir of life into old age:

Growing old healthily – who wouldn’t want that? There are many examples of people who are still mentally alert and physically active at well over 80. But what can you do to also enjoy a long life and experience a healthy and vital old age?

For a long time, it was assumed that our life expectancy was primarily determined by our genes. Researchers have disproved this. Using model calculations, they have determined that the importance of genes with regard to our lifespan is significantly overestimated: The share of genes in our life expectancy is probably only around 10 percent. Around 90 percent of the factors that determine our lifespan are therefore apparently due to our lifestyle.

In order for us to age healthily and remain fit and vital in old age, our bodies need muscle strength and regular exercise. There is also good scientific evidence that healthy eating habits significantly increase the chances of longevity. In addition, we can do even more to maintain our mental and physical strength into old age: It is important that our body cells are optimally supplied with all the vital substances they need so that no energy deficits occur and the metabolism can actually run “like clockwork”.

How much sport supports healthy ageing?

Is muscle building through jogging healthy in old age?

Specifically, the WHO recommends that adults get at least 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week, i.e. two and a half to five hours. Types of exercise such as walking, swimming, cycling and dancing are generally recommended.

For those who prefer more strenuous exercise, 75 to 150 minutes of sport per week is sufficient according to the WHO. Strenuous sports are intensive endurance sports – be it jogging, rowing or, for example, cycling or cardio classes.

In general, regular exercise and targeted muscle training is particularly important for older people. From the age of 65, the WHO also advises people to do balance and coordination exercises at least three days a week in addition to the aforementioned exercise units such as jogging, for example to prevent falls and associated injuries.

A whole range of diseases can be prevented in this way. This is particularly well documented for cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure, diabetes and cancer, as well as pain syndromes such as chronic back pain. Regular exercise can also counteract the decline in mental performance in old age.

It has a beneficial effect on our memory and ability to concentrate, improves sleep and alleviates symptoms of depression and anxiety. And it increases our general well-being. Reason enough, therefore, to overcome your inner couch potato. The earlier and the more consistently, the better.

Why is sport important for your health?

Our bodies need muscle strength and regular exercise in order to age healthily and remain fit and mobile into old age. A whole range of diseases can therefore be prevented through regular physical activity. This is particularly well documented for cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure, diabetes and cancer, as well as pain syndromes such as chronic back pain.

Regular exercise can also counteract the decline in mental performance in old age. It has a beneficial effect on our memory and ability to concentrate, improves sleep and alleviates symptoms of depression and anxiety. And it increases our general well-being. Regular exercise is therefore of central importance for our health.

According to WHO estimates, around four to five million premature deaths could be prevented worldwide every year if people were more physically active.

In general, therefore, exercise should be integrated more into everyday life again, for example by taking the stairs instead of the elevator, cycling to work and/or shopping instead of driving, gardening and regular walks.

In addition to regular exercise, targeted muscle training is also important, especially for older people. The WHO therefore advises people over the age of 65 to do balance and coordination exercises at least three days a week in addition to the aforementioned exercise sessions, for example to prevent falls and associated injuries.

How many times a week is sport healthy?

Sufficient exercise – an elixir of life well into old age: people who are physically active live longer than those who are sedentary.

Our bodies need muscle strength and regular exercise in order to age healthily and remain fit and mobile into old age. Specifically, the WHO recommends that adults get at least 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week, i.e. two and a half to five hours.

For those who prefer more strenuous exercise, 75 to 150 minutes of sport per week is sufficient according to the WHO. Strenuous sports are intensive endurance sports – be it jogging, rowing or, for example, cycling or cardio classes. In addition, weight training should be practiced at least two days a week, whereby all the important muscle groups of the body should be trained if possible.

You should by no means be discouraged by the WHO recommendations and the advice does not mean that you have to incorporate five hours of exercise into your daily routine every week to stay healthy. Rather, the times given should be seen as a guideline for optimal training. However, the point is to adopt a generally more active lifestyle than is often the case in our part of the world. According to the WHO, every form of exercise is important; physical activity contributes to “healthy ageing” practically minute by minute.

Active people live longer than sedentary people

Night after night, we sit in front of the TV and spend hours surfing the internet. We dream of being in this world for a long time with all its opportunities to shape our lives. Unfortunately, we all too often forget that a lack of exercise and staring at a PC or TV screen do not promote longevity and are not conducive to good health. On the contrary: our bodies need muscle strength and regular exercise in order to age healthily and remain fit and mobile into old age. Regular muscle training and around 20 minutes of exercise per day – according to the new recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO), this is how much physical activity is necessary to realize the full potential of our dream of longevity.

It doesn’t have to be running a marathon or lifting weights in the gym. On the other hand, there is no getting around the fact that regular physical activity is of central importance to our health. According to WHO estimates, around four to five million premature deaths could be prevented worldwide every year if people were more physically active.

But how much exercise is needed to grow old healthily? Which types of sport are particularly beneficial? And which illnesses and ailments can be counteracted through sporting activity? The WHO has drawn up clear recommendations based on study findings.

More health for heart and brain

A whole range of diseases can therefore be prevented through regular physical activity. This is particularly well documented for cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure, diabetes and cancer, as well as pain syndromes such as chronic back pain. Regular exercise can also counteract the decline in mental performance in old age.

It has a beneficial effect on our memory and ability to concentrate, improves sleep and alleviates symptoms of depression and anxiety. And it increases our general well-being. Reason enough, therefore, to overcome your inner couch potato. The earlier and the more consistently, the better.

At least two and a half to five hours per week

Specifically, the WHO recommends that adults get at least 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week, i.e. two and a half to five hours. Types of exercise such as walking, swimming, cycling and dancing are generally recommended.

For those who prefer more strenuous exercise, 75 to 150 minutes of sport per week is sufficient according to the WHO. Strenuous sports are intensive endurance sports – be it jogging, rowing or, for example, cycling or cardio classes.

Focus on endurance, strength and balance

In addition, weight training should be practiced at least two days a week, training all the important muscle groups of the body if possible. This can take the form of push-ups and squats or targeted weight training with dumbbells and equipment training in the gym. The aim here is to build and maintain muscle, an important aspect with regard to age.

In general, regular exercise and targeted muscle training is particularly important for older people. The WHO also advises people over the age of 65 to do balance and coordination exercises at least three days a week in addition to the aforementioned exercise sessions, for example to prevent falls and associated injuries.

Every minute counts

You should by no means be discouraged by the WHO recommendations and the advice does not mean that you have to incorporate five hours of physical training into your daily routine week after week from now on. Rather, the times given should be seen as a guideline for optimal training. However, the point is to adopt a generally more active lifestyle than is often the case in our part of the world. According to the WHO, every form of exercise is important; physical activity contributes to “healthy ageing” practically minute by minute.

In general, therefore, exercise should be integrated more into everyday life again, for example by using the stairs instead of the elevator, cycling to work and/or shopping instead of driving, gardening and regular walks. The WHO advises gradually increasing the duration and intensity of such physical activity.

Dumbbells and co: strength training is still underestimated

But it’s not just about endurance and cardiovascular training. According to studies, the importance of strength training for health is still clearly underestimated. It serves to build muscle, for which at least two training sessions per week are necessary.

However, most people do not take this to heart: not even a fifth of Europeans train their muscles twice a week. In Germany, only around one in three people said in a survey that they train their muscles at least twice a week.

With muscle mass for longevity

Those who ridicule muscle jocks forget that, on the one hand, we generally lose muscle mass with increasing age and, on the other, that muscle mass correlates directly with life expectancy. In other words, people with a well-trained, muscular body usually have a better chance of longevity than so-called couch potatoes.

The reasons for this have been well researched scientifically: Not only a general lack of exercise, but also the loss of muscle mass have unfavorable consequences for the body, such as an increasingly limited ability to regenerate. They have repercussions on the metabolism and the hormonal system and promote inflammation and other degradation processes. Last but not least, muscle loss in turn promotes the development of typical age-related diseases, including general frailty. This not only reduces life expectancy, but also quality of life. However, targeted muscle training can halt the physiological decline in old age.

The fact that this phenomenon has been given its own name shows just how relevant the reduction in muscle mass and muscle strength is in old age. Doctors refer to it as sarcopenia, a term that includes the health consequences of muscle loss. Because when muscle mass and therefore muscle strength dwindle, this inevitably leads to functional limitations and an increased risk of falls and therefore injuries.

A protein-rich diet helps the muscle

This needs to be counteracted by targeted muscle building. Figures show that this is important: From the age of 50, people lose an average of one to two percent of their muscle mass and 1.5 percent of their muscle strength per year.

This cannot be compensated for with muscle training alone; a balanced diet is just as important. With regard to the muscles, this means above all that the body must be supplied with sufficient amounts of proteins. It is also important to ensure a good supply of minerals, trace elements and vital substances in general and to drink enough.

Sources:

• WHO guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behavior. 2020.
• Adam P Sharples, David C Hughes, Colleen S Deane, Amarjit Saini, Colin Selman, Claire E Stewart et al. Longevity and skeletal muscle mass: the role of IGF signaling, the sirtuins, dietary restriction and protein intake. Aging Cell.2015.
• Goncalo V Mendonca, Pedro Pezarat-Correia, João R Vaz, Luís Silva, Isabel D Almeida, Kevin S Heffernan et al. Impact of Exercise Training on Physiological Measures of Physical Fitness in the Elderly. Curr Aging Sci . 2016.
• Barbara Strasser, Konstantinos Volaklis, Dietmar Fuchs, Martin Burtscher et al. Role of Dietary Protein and Muscular Fitness on Longevity and Aging. Aging Dis. 2018.