Long Term Benefits of Exercise

In a society that tends to focus on the “here and now” sometimes it’s hard to think about and focus on things like the long-term benefits on exercise.

I wrote about my own experiences with how to age well and how even though I’m still fairly young, I can feel the benefits already of exercising and eating right over the last decade than probably someone who hasn’t followed that same healthy lifestyle.

But I came across an interesting article that looked at the true long term benefits of exercise in men that had been taking a bootcamp style class for over 20 years.



The class was 45-minutes in length and involved no exercise equipment, just the use of bodyweight exercises such as pushups and situps.

The results over a 20 year period are pretty staggering:

Among the 20 who continued coming to class -- 3½ times a week for more than 20 years -- low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, the bad type, dropped 27 percent after the first year and 60 percent over 20 years. High-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, the good type, increased by 60 percent after the first year and continued to improve for the next 15 years, according to research published in 2009 in Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport.

Total cholesterol (LDL, HDL and other lipid components) dropped nearly 18 percent after year one and 40 percent over 20 years, the study found. Triglyceride levels decreased every year, including 23 percent after the first year and 61 percent over 20 years.

The men also lost, on average, 27 pounds.

The article goes on to cite other studies that eleven percent of men that exercise five or more times a week developed heart failure compared to 14 percent of men who didn’t exercise.

Another study of women with an average age of 55 found that over the course of eleven years, the women who exercised were 40 percent less likely to have a heart attack then those women that didn’t exercise.

I think this is a great statement in the article:

"The most important organ in an older person's body is their legs," said Dr. Walter Bortz, a professor of medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine. "If your legs stay good, everything else takes care of itself. You don't fall down and break your hip. Your heart stays good. You don't get frail. Your sex stays good, your brain stays good and you cost less money."

Keeping those legs moving is essential. These are some of the strongest muscles in your body working together and the workhorse for any type of fat loss that you want to obtain. It’s also the muscles that are most involved in pushing various hormones out when you stress them that are then used across your entire body.

How much exercise is needed for middle to older age folks?:

So how much should middle-age people or seniors strive for? At least three, 30-minute sessions of exercise a week, though more is better, Bortz said.

Which is interesting because my 30 Minute Workout that I offer is all of this put together: minimal exercise equipment needed, using just your bodyweight, 30 minutes long, three days a week.

Although it’s great to look at the immediate short-term fat loss and health benefits of exercise, don’t underestimate the long term benefits of exercise on what you are doing now and to just stay consistent with it.

www.leanbodytraining.com
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