The older you are, the greater the benefits you’ll reap from exercising. These are just four of the many benefits:

1. More rapid improvement in strength from strength training.
2. More improvement in endurance as a result of aerobic exercise, with less intense exercise required.
3. Prevention of disabilities as a result of aerobic training.
4. A 60% reduction in your chance of getting chronic diseases (such as Alzheimer’s disease) as a result of aerobic exercise and a good diet.

Many people say they are too old to start exercising. A physician I admire responds to this by saying “you’re too old not to exercise.”

I recently read about a guy who ran his first marathon at age 100—and he started training at the age of 87. Impressive! It is never too late.

Aerobic exercise reduces the incidence of most of the chronic diseases that occur with advancing age. The incidence of Alzheimer’s disease, colon cancer, and stroke are just three examples of a long list of diseases that occur less often in those who engage in exercise. For example, studies show that you’re 60% less likely to get Alzheimer’s disease if you engage in physical exercises combined with good eating habits.

The effects exercise has on preventing chronic diseases tells me that exercise benefits increase as we get older. Why? Because young people usually don’t get these diseases, regardless if they exercise or not. For example, 90% of all cases of colon cancer occur in people over 50. The issue is, as Dr. Bortz says in his book The Roadmap to 100:

 “You are not too old to exercise, you are too old not to exercise.”

My conclusion is that the benefits of exercise are immense for all ages, but even more so for those who are older because of its effects on chronic disease prevention.

Most people I see exercising are young—at least younger than me! This especially seems to be the case when it comes to aerobic exercise. I do not see that many people over 60 running or jogging. When I sign up for 10k or half-marathon runs, my age group (over 60) is almost always very small. I find this unfortunate, because so much of the science out there points to the benefits of aerobic exercise as we become older. In fact, these benefits, including the prevention of disabilities and chronic disease, actually increase as we age.

I highly recommend a book that elaborates on these benefits titled Roadmap to 100 by Walter M. Bortz II, MD. In one example, Bortz describes a 20-year Stanford University study of the health of older runners compared to the health of non-runners in the same age group. Both groups were followed for 20 years, and the median age for the start of the study was 59 for both groups.

Dr. Bortz notes a startling discovery of this study. “For those runners who encountered disabilities during the study period, those disabilities set in a full 16 years later on average than they did for the non-runners.”

16 years! And that is just one of the benefits demonstrated by these senior runners!

Did you know that the older you get, the faster you’ll improve in strength when you engage in strength training exercises? Did you know that the weaker you are, the less exercise you need to get stronger? These are just two interesting facts that our performance-oriented culture does not talk about. In fact, I believe that our society totally overemphasizes the idea that advancing age is associated with weakness and loss of function. This pessimistic viewpoint ultimately results in the loss of health and strength in our older population. Changing these false assumptions is something I am challenged with every day in my practice.

Today I am starting a discussion on the realistic and positive effects that the right types of exercise has on an aging body. It seems that every time I pick up a health-related magazine or journal, I find articles on this topic. New research pertaining to the relationship between exercise and aging is really exciting, and I’m anxious to share information on this topic with you in the days ahead.

The most effective tip I give patients for improving their walking is to “walk tall.” Habits like sitting at a computer for long periods or bending forward a lot cause our bodies to assume a forward position, and this translates to how we walk as well. This forward positioning may contribute to pain in the spine, knees, and shoulders. It can impact balance and diminish walking endurance. Usually people are not aware of this tendency so it goes uncorrected.

By pushing up your upper body when standing, a better alignment can be achieved as illustrated here:

For further reading, this article in Running Times makes a great case for the importance of staying “tall.”

I’ve found that having access to Google is wonderful when it comes to finding quick information on issues of health, fitness, finances and other topics. However, I do believe that the availability of all of this information also has its downside.

Take exercise for example. There are so many fancy exercise machines, heart rate monitors, complex exercise philosophies, and fads promoted in books and magazines. Some of this stuff may be good, but a lot of it is about making a quick buck for promoters. The fact is, experts agree that practicing the simple, time-tested exercise principles described here in this Balanced Lifelong Exercise Program is usually all that is necessary to maximize your health.

This week I came across this excellent Newsweek article titled “One Word Can Save Your Life: No!” Among other things, the article discusses how lots of medical information (from test results, for example) can contribute to worse, not better health. Check it out.

When in comes to health, knowledge is not always power.

As if we baby boomers don’t have enough to deal with, here’s another challenge I’ve been thinking about.

Baby boomers will live on average 10 years or longer than their grandparents. So considering we lose around 2% of our muscular strength per year due to the normal aging process, we will be at least 20% weaker when we die than our great grandparents were when they died. When you think about all the joint pain, the osteoporosis, the slower metabolism, and all the other health problems associated with age-related muscular weakness, it’s not pretty.

There is hope, and that’s resistance exercise. Most muscle strength lost from aging can be restored by engaging in a life-long exercise program that includes resistance exercises, and the great news is our bodies never lose the ability to restore strength through resistance exercise—no matter our age.

After thinking about this some more, I’ve decided to change my clinic motto. The motto is now “Strength and Health for the Journey.”

Do not take this impending weakness sitting down! Fight back with resistance exercise.

Science and the personal experience of countless numbers of people prove that muscular wasting of the core (and hips and legs too) from sitting 8 to 10 hours per day is extreme. Back and neck pain are two of the many undesirable results of sitting too long.

Many people try to counter the deleterious effects of sitting by engaging in aerobic exercises like walking or hiking. Aerobic exercise has amazing benefits, but it will not prevent muscle wasting and weakness from prolonged sitting. For that you need to engage in resistance exercises (see more info about this here). Resistance exercise is an antidote for countering the poison effects of sitting.

The American Academy of Sports Medicine recommends a balanced life-long exercise program that includes four types of exercise: aerobic, resistance, flexibility, and balance. For more information about this, I’ve written two articles (click here and here) that elaborate on how to incorporate these types of exercises into a life-long routine.

For many years now, there has been an increasingly larger volume of medical and popular literature on the health benefits of exercise. Numerous reports show that people who exercise have less heart disease, lower blood pressure, and lower rates of diabetes, cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease. People who exercise have better balance, greater strength, and more happiness. They have less stress in their lives, and they have more energy. The benefits of exercise are just huge. I have, at times, wondered if exercise triggers something in our bodies to keep our bodies younger. Maybe science now has an answer to this question.

I came across this article in Outside magazine that discusses how scientists who study human aging now believe that exercise may slow the mutation process of an important part of the human cell called the mitochondria. Scientists have found that the mitochondria in the cells of inactive people gradually wear out or mutate with the passage of time, which leads to the typical symptoms of aging. But for those who regularly exercise, the mitochondria in their cells remain healthy over time, with fewer mutations. It’s as if exercise is a “fountain of youth” trigger in our cells. You may be interested in checking out this article.

An acquaintance of mine recently was told by his doctor about his high blood sugar level, and that he would need to start exercising. While we were talking about this, he said, “Well, I guess I’ll have to start hitting the gym.”

Many people think that joining a gym is the only way to get in shape. But many exercisers do not like gyms, and so they don’t use them. I personally do not like to exercise at a gym. So I don’t.

One important aspect of an effective life-long exercise program is doing exercises you either enjoy or can tolerate somewhat comfortably. Don’t do exercises you don’t like. I have found exercisers will not continue doing exercises over the long haul if they don’t like them. Even if they’re highly motivated exercisers.