Staying active the key to staying alive longer – and you’re never too old to start exercising
- A 74-year-old who took up yoga, a 75-year-old who plays golf and tennis every week – these elderly Hongkongers practise the active ageing a study recommends
- Exercise can be adapted to cope with most health conditions. Talk to your doctor
If you are looking to finally rest your weary body and do a lot less physically in your twilight years, you may want to rethink your plan.
According to new research from the UK, if you want to prolong your life, staying active is what matters. Published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, the study found that all physical activities, even light-intensity ones, could significantly reduce an elderly person’s risk of death.
At the moment, the World Health Organisation recommends that adults aged 18 and above perform at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity, 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity physical activity, or an equivalent combination of moderate- and vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity in a week.
It’s also recommended that this activity be carried out in bouts lasting 10 or more minutes. Unfortunately, if you are an elderly person, this amount of exercise can be difficult to achieve.
The study, carried out by researchers at University College London, focused on more than 1,000 men – whose average age was 78 – and found that there was a 15 per cent reduction in all-cause mortality risk for every 1,000 steps a day, regardless of intensity. The researchers also observed that what mattered was the total amount of time the subjects spent exercising and not how the time was divided up.