Which Exercise Should You Do for the Rest of Your Life?
Whether you loathe working out or love it, no one has unlimited time for it, so getting the most out of each session is important. Some forms of exercise only address one or two of the four pillars of fitness — muscular strength, muscular endurance, aerobic capacity and mobility. Others can carry an increased risk of injury, especially if we do too much too soon, or don't learn the proper techniques.
"They're looking for a magic pill, but we'd be hard pressed to ever come up with a pill that can replicate all of the anti-aging benefits of exercise." | Credit: Getty
We wondered, is there a best type of exercise in midlife and beyond? To find out, we asked three experts from different backgrounds: If you could only recommend one type of exercise for people over 50, what would it be? Each had a different answer, but all stressed a common theme.
We asked our experts for their recommendations based on some specific factors: The exercise had to be easy enough for a beginner to learn, accessible at any income level and available to people no matter where they lived. This ruled out things like pool jogging, cross-country skiing and other activities requiring special access to unique or costly equipment or specific terrain and weather conditions.
We also asked them to consider the exercise's impact on mental health, cognitive function and balance. Considering all of that, could the best exercise be dancing? Functional strength training? Pole-trekking? What about pickleball? Here's what each of our experts picked and why.
The Exercise Physiologist: Out-Walk the Grim Reaper
Lance Dalleck, Ph.D., is a professor of exercise and sport science at Western Colorado University in Gunnison, Colorado, and the scientific adviser on exercise programming for the American Council on Exercise.
Before answering our question directly, Dalleck stressed that different forms of exercise each have unique benefits. Then he quoted Steven Blair, a renowned epidemiologist and one of Dalleck's heroes: "The best exercise is the one you'll do consistently."
OK, but if you had to pick just one? "For health and prolonged aging, I'm going to say walking," Dalleck says.
"The best exercise is the one you'll do consistently."
We were underwhelmed, until he told us why.
"If we could pick any kind of risk factor and eliminate that risk factor, the biggest bang for buck in terms of longevity would be raising low cardiorespiratory fitness." To back this up, he cited a study by Blair, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, which found that low cardio-respiratory fitness is responsible for more deaths than high cholesterol, diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity or even smoking.
According to Dalleck, walking is a great way to move from a level of low cardio-respiratory fitness out of the danger zone.
"It's an activity that's accessible to most people and pretty much everybody knows how to do it. It's also something you can do at whatever level you're at."
He liked our idea of pole-trekking — especially up and down hills — for people who are more fit, and agreed that walking on unpaved surfaces adds more of a balance challenge. He suspects that walking outside is better for brain and mental health, and hopes to find out in an upcoming study with the American Council on Exercise that will look at differences between walking on a treadmill indoors versus out in nature.
Dalleck even knows how fast we need to walk for optimal benefit. The answer is 3 mph, according to a British Medical Journal study of more than 1,700 healthy men over 70 titled, "How Fast Does the Grim Reaper Walk?" At the end of the five-year study, death hadn't caught up to a single one of the men who walked at that pace or faster.
The Orthopedic Surgeon: Heavy Strength Training
Vonda Wright, M.D., of Orlando, Florida, is an orthopedic surgeon, expert on healthy aging, and the author of "Unbreakable: A Woman's Guide to Aging With Power."
Like Dalleck, she says that a variety of exercise is important for healthy aging. "I use an acronym for my four-part exercise recommendation: FACE. F is for flexibility and joint mobility. A is for aerobic conditioning. C is carry heavy things and E is for equilibrium and foot speed."
Wright needed no coaxing to choose the one form of exercise she believes reigns above all others, though. She said, matter-of-factly, "It's lifting heavy weights."
"Aging has been misunderstood as a long decline into frailty but we can do something to stop that."
"Aging has been misunderstood as a long decline into frailty," she says, "but we can do something to stop that. Research shows that exercise can revive old, dying stem cells, but the loads have to be heavy enough. That's why it's so important to develop a heavy weight lifting practice."
We asked about the risks of heavy weight lifting for those new to exercise. "You'll have to work up to that," she advises, "and you'll need instruction. I'm talking about hiring a personal trainer to learn the proper technique." She noted, however, that there are many knowledgeable trainers offering instruction online at a fraction of the cost of in-person sessions.
Wright, who grew up on a farm, also has ideas for those who don't have access to a gym or the means to create a home gym. "You can lift a bucket or a rock or a log." And research suggests that, especially for those just starting out, certain bodyweight exercises can provide the stimulus your muscles need.
The Longevity Expert: Lunges
Nathan K. LeBrasseur, PhD, is a research scientist and director of the Kogod Center on Aging at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. His work has long been focused on how lifestyle interventions can counter the biology of aging. His answer was the most specific of the three, though it began the same way the others had.
"We know there are incredible benefits to different forms of exercise for different reasons," LeBrasseur says. "Cardio exercise benefits aerobic fitness. Strength training is especially important as we get older because of the loss of skeletal muscle. There are also changes to the neurological system that present challenges to balance, and as we age, we can lose the ability for quick, explosive movement."
"My favorite, if I had to pick one for people over the age of 50 to get really good at, would be lunges."
But if he had to pick one? "My favorite, if I had to pick one for people over the age of 50 to get really good at, would be lunges," he says.
"There's no equipment required. It's a movement that uses most of the muscles in our lower body. It's a dynamic movement related to walking, climbing stairs and getting out of a chair, and because it's a dynamic movement, there's also a strong balance component."
He went on, "The more I think about this answer, the more I like it. It can be a powerful stimulus for muscle adaptation. After 10 or 15 of them, you get out of breath, so you're getting a little cardio benefit as well as engaging the brain and nervous system."
LeBrasseur also noted that lunges are easily modifiable for people at different strength and skill levels. "Going forward is the most challenging, but backwards is a little easier, and you can put a hand on a countertop to help with balance and remove some weight. You also don't need to go all the way down at first."
The Bottom Line: Get Up and Move
The experts we asked each had a different "best" exercise for people over 50, but they were united in their insistence that we all do something to move our bodies most days of the week.
"Exercise is a silver bullet when it comes to extending health into older age."
A variety of workouts that target different physiological systems is probably best, but anything that gets you up and moving will do your body good. "Exercise is a silver bullet when it comes to extending health into older age," LeBrasseur says.
"I lead this big, fancy center on aging, and some people are disappointed when they ask what they can do and I tell them exercise. They're looking for a magic pill, but we'd be hard pressed to ever come up with a pill that can replicate all of the anti-aging benefits of exercise."
