Right now, the current average life expectancy for American men clocks in at 74.8 years. But not everyone makes it that far—and some guys live a lot longer. While certainly no one has complete control over how long they’ll live, there’s actually a lot you can do to add a few more decades to your lifespan. It’s nothing super weird or expensive either: The cornerstones of increasing your lifespan are still maintaining a healthy diet and exercising.
How much exercise, exactly? A new study published in the journal Circulation set out to answer that. Taking into account 116,221 U.S. adults and repeated 15 times over the course of 30 years, researchers concluded that the sweet spot was between 300 and 599 minutes of exercise a week, which is four times more than the current physical activity guidelines. That’s a pretty major jump.
Is spending between 5 and 10 hours a week exercising really what it takes to max out your lifespan? Doctors who study longevity have some thoughts, including the types of workouts you should do if you want to live longer.
The verdict on how much exercise it takes to live longer
Monisha Bhanote, MD, a triple-board certified physician, longevity expert, and author of
The Anatomy of Wellbeing, says the
Circulation study makes clear what numerous past studies have already shown: The body is meant to move. She explains that there are several reasons why exercise is linked to longevity. The first is that it improves mitochondrial function.
“Mitochondria are inside every cell and are responsible for energy production. As we age, the number of mitochondria decreases. That’s why when people age, they often have less energy, more muscle weakness, and a slower metabolism,” Dr. Bhanote explains. Exercise, she says, stimulates mitochondrial biogenesis, or in non-science speak, produces more mitochondria. “That means cells function better, so there is less disease and metabolism is improved, which slows aging,” Dr. Bhanote says.
Andy Galpin, PhD, the executive director of the Human Performance Center at Parker University and host of the podcast Perform with Dr. Andy Galpin, says that the other big reasons why exercise improves lifespan are because it improves cardiovascular health (key, since heart disease is the number one cause of death in the U.S.) and improves body mass index (BMI). Despite all the controversy surrounding BMI as an appropriate measure of health, Dr. Galpin says it’s hard to deny the many scientific studies showing that obesity is a risk factor for many diseases and an all-cause mortality risk.
There’s no doubt that exercise and longevity are related, but how much should you be doing? Are the tried-and-true recommendations of 150 to 300 minutes of moderate intensity exercise or 75 to 100 minutes of vigorous exercise a week no longer enough? Sanjeev Goel, MD, the CEO of Peak Human, an anti-aging and regenerative medicine practice, says that it’s important to remember that only 24% of adults in the U.S. are meeting the current exercise guidelines at all—and that going from no exercise to any exercise is what has the most profound impact on health.
“When looking at the study, even though it’s a big jump from the current exercise guidelines, the impact isn’t that big. The increase from following the current exercise guidelines to doing 300 minutes of vigorous exercise a week was only a 4% decrease in mortality. That’s small compared to the 25% decrease in mortality that happens when you go from not exercising at all to meeting the minimum exercise guidelines,” he says.
Dr. Goel says that for people who are already meeting the current exercise guidelines, increasing how much they work out will benefit their health (as the study shows), but he says what’s most important is to have an exercise routine that’s realistic enough to maintain. If you set a goal of working out for between 5 to 10 hours a week but you don’t know how to actually make that happen, you won’t reap any of the benefits.
On top of that, more isn’t always better when it comes to exercise. “There is a U-shaped curve in terms of how much physical activity is beneficial,” Dr. Goel says. “When we’re looking at longevity, you want to put a certain amount of stress on the body so that the body adapts and becomes more resilient. But putting too much stress on the body leads to a huge release of cortisol, which can cause an earlier death.” —
Emily Laurence Read on for the best specific workout routine for life extension.
