The Science of Longevity: Training As You Age
Picture your golden years: gentle strolls, constant cups of tea, wearing scarves indoors, bridge club… What about a HIIT workout?
The number of people aged 65 and older is expected to more than double by 2050.
Whether that category’s set to include you, or a loved one, it’s important to dispel some of the myths surrounding vigorous exercise as we age.
New research is nixing outdated notions – older bodies are far more capable than we care to believe.
HIIT for Seniors: How Vigorous Exercise Increases Longevity
A groundbreaking, far-reaching 2024 study of 116,000 adults over 30 years found that people who clocked in 150 to 299 minutes of vigorous exercise per week saw a 23% drop in all-cause mortality. 30 minutes per day… that’s manageable, right?
That same paper found no significant evidence that long-term, high-intensity exercise (like marathons and triathlons) causes cardiovascular harm in healthy older adults – so the idea that we run ourselves into the ground when we train hard as younger people doesn’t hold water.
Whilst injuries may prevent us from performing certain exercises as we age, if we’re free from specific ailments there’s no reason we should mitigate our ambitions. Overexertion is a real risk, but if you can’t listen to your body after 65+ years inside of it, you’ve probably dropped the ball.
Building Bone Density: Why Resistance Training is Essential as You Age
In direct contrast to what the Petis Filous lobby tells us, we need more than yoghurt pots to make our bones “stronger(er)”. As we age, our bones lose density and weaken, which increases the likelihood of fractures and falls. Exercise–resistance training in particular–is one of the best things we can do to improve bone density.
Bone is living tissue, much like a muscle. It changes in response to the force placed upon it. When our muscles pull on our bones, it stimulates the production of new bone tissue and they respond by renewing themselves. The stronger our muscles, the harder they pull, the more our bones are stimulated.
Suffice to say the notion that older bodies can’t handle the strain of vigorous exercise doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. A 2024 study revealed that lifting weights produces comparable levels of inflammation irrespective of age.
Of course, the most important thing as we age is to stay active, and there’s seemingly no reason why it can’t be more intense than soft walks and water aerobics. Maintaining strength is far more than mere vanity, it’s the path to continued autonomy.
Functional Fitness to Maintain Independence
Nearly half (48%) of 2000 Brits surveyed over 55 don’t believe exercise is “an important part of lifestyle for their age group.” This kind of thinking is a self-fulfilling prophecy. As we get older, our strength declines, our confidence wavers and we become less likely to train.
Too few people work out even in good health at younger ages, so it’s no surprise that the older one gets the more reasons are found to take the foot off the gas pedal. However, staying active is paramount to retaining independence.
The NHS website describes light activity as “getting up to make a cup of tea,” which isn’t the most barnstorming vision for our future. We may not be as fast, as strong or as physically ambitious as we age, but as with all things in life, difficulty often brings with it reward. It’s almost certain as the current generations continue to age, we’ll only see more elderly people redefine boundaries – take Peter Langsjoen, who just completed his second Hyrox aged 77.
Is High-Intensity Training Safe for Older Adults?
What about the often touted injury risk? A five-year study from the University of Bath examined hospital data to analyse all exercise injuries across all ages. Extrapolated for simplicity, running resulted in 0.7 injuries per 100,000 participants and fitness classes just 0.1 injuries. On the other hand, a significantly more dangerous activity like motorsport saw an injury rate of 546 per 100,000…
Though not specific to the elderly, this data shows the comparatively tiny risk of serious injury from everyday activities. In fact, the risks of inactivity outweigh those of continued training. A line of thought echoed by a well-cited 1990s paper that highlighted how “technical skills” and “musculoskeletal fitness” are important “in injury prevention among the elderly.”
We may be more prone to injury as we age, but that likelihood is increased by lower bone density and issues with flexibility/joints, factors that are actually strengthened by the exercises that people fear could potentially injure them.
Tough Love
Essentially you’ve heard it before. Get out of the comfy seat, get comfortable in the uncomfortable and upskill yourself. The more you do, and the more you attune you are with your body, the sooner you will be able to detect when something’s wrong.
Find modes of exercise you enjoy as your age crests and push yourself. We’ll inevitably slow down as we age. There’s no doubt about that. Shifting ambitions to align with your expectations is a necessary but humbling part of a life well lived, but let the science serve as motivation: the only thing telling you to stop is yourself.
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