Everyone knows that exercise is good for your body. But it’s not just good for the young, fit, and already fit. It’s also one of the best defenses against the harshest aspects of aging.
Exercise not only improves cardiorespiratory fitness, but studies show that even moderate physical activity is good for your brain, bones, muscles, and mood. Numerous studies have found that lifelong exercise can keep people healthier longer, delay the onset of 40 chronic conditions or diseases, prevent cognitive decline, reduce the risk of falls, reduce depression, stress, and anxiety, and even help people live longer.
“Exercise is our best defense and repair strategy against all causes of aging,” says Nathan LeBrasseur, an aging researcher and professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Exercise alone won’t reverse aging, he warns, but “there’s clear evidence that exercise activates mechanisms needed for DNA repair.”
Of course, the earlier you start and the longer you stay physically active, the better. But physical activity is important at any age. Studies of the effects of exercise on nursing home residents show improvements in their physical and cognitive abilities, as well as their mental health.
You should also keep in mind that while your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer or other diseases of aging doesn’t increase significantly until middle age or later, the underlying biological factors for these diseases start early in life, LeBrasseur says. Genetics and the lifestyle factors you choose determine the process, but those factors can affect your risk at any time. “So there’s no such thing as too little or too late.”
The good news is that you don’t have to run a marathon or hit the gym to reap the anti-aging benefits of exercise. Even moderate physical activity — taking the stairs instead of the elevator, gardening or walking the dog — can have physical and cognitive benefits if you do it regularly. Here are just a few ways that regular exercise can benefit your health, according to research.
It Boosts Muscle Strength
As people age, they lose muscle mass and strength, a condition known as sarcopenia. Resistance training is one of the best ways to slow that decline, scientists say. Not only does it preserve muscle strength (the strength needed to open a jar or push open a heavy door), but it also makes everyday activities like cooking, cleaning and climbing stairs easier. It can also help reduce susceptibility to disease, improve brain health and mood, and help you stay independent longer. Researchers at the University of Alabama found that resistance training is safe and effective for older adults, with injury rates extremely low and similar across all ages and intensities.
It Can Boost Bone Density
To keep bones strong, the body breaks down old bone and replaces it with new bone tissue—but around age 30, bone mass stops growing. In your 40s and 50s, you slowly start to lose more bone mass than you gain. Exercise can help you build bone density at a young age and prevent osteoporosis, a disease that weakens bones and increases your risk of fractures as you age.
Nearly half of adults 50 and older are at risk for fractures due to osteoporosis, costing the health care system $19 billion a year, according to the National Osteoporosis Foundation. But that doesn’t mean older adults can’t do anything. Lifelong strength training can help increase bone mass and strength.
Because osteoporosis affects women more than men, activities like walking or aerobic exercise are especially important after menopause. While older people can no longer build bone mass, physical activity can help prevent bone loss. Low-intensity activities like cycling, yoga, and swimming aren’t enough to prevent bone loss, but when combined with strength training, they can help improve balance and reduce the risk of falls and fractures.
Exercise can lengthen your telomeres
Telomeres are caps on the ends of DNA strands, similar to the caps on shoelaces. Their length decreases as we age, which causes cells to become senescent, meaning that cells stop dividing. Telomere length has been linked to certain chronic diseases, particularly high blood pressure, stroke, and heart disease. Multiple studies have found that higher levels of physical activity are associated with longer telomeres in some people compared to sedentary people. This is especially true for older people. However, it’s unclear whether this relationship is causal, and it’s likely that multiple processes influence telomere length. However, it’s generally accepted that longer telomeres are beneficial for reducing the risk of age-related diseases.
They can improve cognitive ability
According to the National Institute on Aging, your ability to quickly switch between tasks, plan activities, and ignore irrelevant information are all signs of good cognitive function. Physical activity is now considered one of the most promising ways to improve cognition throughout life and reduce the risk of age-related cognitive decline. Although researchers can’t yet say for sure whether exercise can actually prevent dementia, studies suggest that more physical activity can reduce the risk of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.
As scientists continue to study the effects of exercise, they’re finding all kinds of exciting benefits, says Steven Austad, senior scientific director of the American Federation for Aging Research and chair of the biology department at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. For example, “muscle training produces myokines, small molecules that have all kinds of benefits for the brain,” he says. “It’s also a way to really improve sleep quality, which we know is tied to quality of health.”
We still don’t know a lot about how exercise affects the aging process, but we do know this: Regular exercise — at least 30 minutes a day, five times a week — is better than less exercise. Exercise is cumulative; you don’t have to do it all at once (and, of course, talk to your doctor before starting any new activity). A combination of aerobic and resistance exercise seems to offer the best benefits for most people.
The best thing: It’s never too late to start.