It is commonly assumed that as you get older you start to slow down. An older person does not expect to be as agile or as quick as their twenty or thirty-something self used to be. However, what if we told you that you were wrong for thinking this? Would you wish you kept up this one task a long time ago or will you change your lifestyle from here on out to really redefine the test of time?
According to a new study from the Journal of Applied Psychology, researchers found that the muscles of active 70-year-olds were nearly indistinguishable from the muscles of active 25-year-olds. Go ahead, take a moment to let that sink in… researchers were unable to tell the difference between 70-year-old muscles and 25-year-old muscles in active persons! Say what!? In fact, the study concluded that these active 70-year-olds appeared to be biologically 30 years younger than their actual age.
You don’t have to be a professional athlete to prove this true either. The studies did show that professional athletes that did still keep moving into their old age were slightly ahead of the curve but really the results were pretty marginal thus showing that the physical effects of aging, in fact, may be avoidable by anyone. Staying active aerobically really can slow the negative effects of biological aging for all of us.
Being active aerobically means doesn’t mean running a marathon every year but doing cardio like brisk walks, running, swimming, cycling, rowing or hiking. The intensity does not define if you will get ahead of aging, in fact, it didn’t really matter too much as long as you are moving somehow, in some way, for decades and incorporating into your lifestyle, not just picking it up for a year, then taking a year off, etc.
So next time you are thinking about not showing up for your cycling class, try to think about your future self. If that cycling class still doesn’t feel like the right thing for you that day, then go for a brisk walk instead. Also, we have shared in the past a couple of treadmill workouts we often like to do when we don’t feel motivated on our own to come up with a workout – HIIT Treadmill Workout and An Incline Treadmill Workout.
