How much exercise do we need?

[Allan]

We've all heard that we should try to walk at least 10K steps a day. I've read that specific target is the result of a marketing campaign for of all things a Japanese clock and has no science behind it.

So how much exercise do we need? The NYT looked at studies that showed how lifespan is impacted by exercise and the results are good news in two ways - exercise has an associational impact on lifespan and we don't need to do all that much of it to see a benefit.

To increase our chances for a long life, we probably should take at least 7,000 steps a day or play sports such as tennis, cycling, swimming, jogging or badminton for more than 2.5 hours per week, according to two, large-scale new studies of the relationship between physical activity and longevity. The two studies, which, together, followed more than 10,000 men and women for decades, show that the right types and amounts of physical activity reduce the risk of premature death by as much as 70 percent.

Rest of the article

 

[lurchadams]

We've all heard that we should try to walk at least 10K steps a day. I've read that specific target is the result of a marketing campaign for of all things a Japanese clock and has no science behind it.

So how much exercise do we need? The NYT looked at studies that showed how lifespan is impacted by exercise and the results are good news in two ways - exercise has an associational impact on lifespan and we don't need to do all that much of it to see a benefit.



Rest of the article

I'm sorry, Allan - I have a smart watch and count my steps every day. It also has a workout module where, when I do my speed-walks, it keeps track of my speed, heart rate, and mile split times. I wear it 24/7 and it keeps track of my sleep patterns.

But the good news: My resting heart rate is in the mid-40's, I can walk forever and not get tired, I've not been in this good shape, physically, since I was a HS wrestler.

Yes, I do think it's important to stay active. That 7,000/step/day policy is a great start!

 

[OrphanSlug]

Talk about opening up Pandora's Box...

To illustrate how little consensus there is on this subject type into Google "how much exercise per week" or "how many steps per day" and you will find the first 20 results for both searches are all over the place.

What the whole matter boils down to is you, as in you personally.

What is your fitness level now, where are you on the BMI scale, do you have any physical concerns or medical issues, what are you looking to achieve, that sort of thing.

As terrible as this will sound, because there is a plethora of opinion I would suggest asking a doctor about what you should do and how to get to your goals. Whatever those may be.

But in a general sense, no one seems to know for sure how much walking or exercise we should do per day or per week to lean towards the better longer life part.

 

[Manc Skipper]

I recently skimmed through "Exercise" by Daniel Lieberman, and his estimation seems to be that we don't need much more than to move around normally every day. Comparing activity levels between other primates, we are most active of all our group, and certainly none of them actually "exercise" as in keeping fit. In general terms the expend the minimum necessary for survival!

 

[Allan]

Talk about opening up Pandora's Box...

To illustrate how little consensus there is on this subject type into Google "how much exercise per week" or "how many steps per day" and you will find the first 20 results for both searches are all over the place.

Right and you'll find the same divergent results when you look up anything on Google - economic forecasts, stock price targets and of course Covid 'cures' - all over the place. That's why I tend to skip 'opinions' and look for properly done studies.

 

[SNOWFLAKE]

Best exercise to get that heart rate up is .............

They even invented a little blue pill for us oldtimers so we can "keep up" the pace.

 

[Allan]

I'm sorry, Allan - I have a smart watch and count my steps every day. It also has a workout module where, when I do my speed-walks, it keeps track of my speed, heart rate, and mile split times. I wear it 24/7 and it keeps track of my sleep patterns.

But the good news: My resting heart rate is in the mid-40's, I can walk forever and not get tired, I've not been in this good shape, physically, since I was a HS wrestler.

Yes, I do think it's important to stay active. That 7,000/step/day policy is a great start!

I'm not anywhere near the rigorous level of discipline you demonstrate in terms of fitness. I do about 6500 steps a day. Part of the walk includes a hilly forest and a brisk pace is set by my young and very energetic dog.

 

[Big Eye]

Just keep moving and don't eat between meals. Packing on a bit of muscle with weights or bodyweight exercises can also increase your resting metabolic rate ( 20 minutes a day is enough)..and comes in handy when you have to fight off muggers ...

 

[Gaius46]

I really don’t like the ”steps” metric because unless you‘re very unhealthy there’s a huge difference between just shambling along and walking at a pace at actually gets your heart pounding. There’s certainly a benefit to just moving around, hell it’s good to just stand up but it‘s not the be all and end all.

As well the steps metric doesn’t speak at all to weight bearing exercise. My view here is prejudiced by a lifetime of weightlifting including a couple decades competitively but there are huge benefits to strength training that most people completely overlook.

For me the goal isn’t to live longer - or more accurately increase my lifespan beyond what’s normal for humans - but to keep the time spent dying to a minimum. After watching my parents and in laws die in hospitals after prolonged illnesses I want none of that. My best friend‘s dad was an active man, he worked with his hands all his life and after he retired he kept busy working on his house, gardening etc. After a very short illness he died at 87. I want to be healthy and active right up until the instant the lights go out, whenever that may be.

The formula no matter what you do it simple. If you do the exact same thing today that you did yesterday you stay the same. If you do a little more - walk a little farther, a little faster, lift a little more weight, your heart will be a little healthier or you’ll be a little stronger. Personally at age 60 I train weightlifting 3x a week at about an hour a session and do cardiovascular work 3x a week for about 30 minutes a session. Sunday is a day of rest.

 

[Allan]

Just keep moving and don't eat between meals. Packing on a bit of muscle with weights or bodyweight exercises can also increase your resting metabolic rate ( 20 minutes a day is enough)..and comes in handy when you have to fight off muggers ...

If you are having frequent mugger problems you might want to put away the Sunderland AFC shirt.

 

[Big Eye]

If you are having frequent mugger problems you might want to put away the Sunderland AFC shirt.

Pompey around here mate…funnily enough a few years ago I was talking to some welders from Sunderland who were working in the dockyard…we were all a bit pissed in a dodgy back street pub down the town …they were keen football fans ( I’m not)… they were telling me that Fratton park was the worst stadium in the premiership ( at the time)… but they found the atmosphere down there amazing...loud as **** and the language is quite ripe lol.

Portsmouth F.C. - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[lurchadams]

I'm not anywhere near the rigorous level of discipline you demonstrate in terms of fitness. I do about 6500 steps a day. Part of the walk includes a hilly forest and a brisk pace is set by my young and very energetic dog.

<thumbs up, man!> My favorite walk is a 3-miler on a very well-kept hiking trail that encircles one of our local municipal golf courses and community colleges. My pace is now about 14:15 min/mile

 

[Manc Skipper]

Best exercise to get that heart rate up is .............

They even invented a little blue pill for us oldtimers so we can "keep up" the pace.

You take those and they divert much needed blood from the brain where it's most useful!

 

[SNOWFLAKE]

You take those and they divert much needed blood from the brain where it's most useful!

I prefer other working parts

 

[JasperL]

We've all heard that we should try to walk at least 10K steps a day. I've read that specific target is the result of a marketing campaign for of all things a Japanese clock and has no science behind it.

So how much exercise do we need? The NYT looked at studies that showed how lifespan is impacted by exercise and the results are good news in two ways - exercise has an associational impact on lifespan and we don't need to do all that much of it to see a benefit.

Rest of the article

I'll try and read the studies later, but one general problem with studies like that is there's going to be a strong correlation between people who are healthy, who tend to be more active because their good health means that's fun for them, and those who are not healthy and don't exercise because they are unhealthy. The exercise contributes to health but the point is the study has to distinguish between similarly healthy people at baseline then show that those who can exercise and do are better off than those who can exercise and do less of it.

My morbidly obese brother in law simply cannot exercise because of his obesity, but the lack of exercise isn't likely what caused his obesity. Most studies show exercise has little effect on weight gain or loss. So the recommendations are not useful to him until/unless he loses a bunch of weight. Someone with serious heart issues might not be able to exercise, but it's not accurate to attribute the lack of exercise to the early death.

For me the best reason to exercise is I enjoy life more when I'm fit and able to do what we love doing, like hiking, biking, fly fishing, and everyday activities are easier. Mowing the yard for an hour with a push mower (power assisted....) doesn't do me in for the day. So we work out 4 mornings a week at 5:45-6:45 in a old person's 'bootcamp' class. Average age is about 60!

 

[JasperL]

I really don’t like the ”steps” metric because unless you‘re very unhealthy there’s a huge difference between just shambling along and walking at a pace at actually gets your heart pounding. There’s certainly a benefit to just moving around, hell it’s good to just stand up but it‘s not the be all and end all.

As well the steps metric doesn’t speak at all to weight bearing exercise. My view here is prejudiced by a lifetime of weightlifting including a couple decades competitively but there are huge benefits to strength training that most people completely overlook.

For me the goal isn’t to live longer - or more accurately increase my lifespan beyond what’s normal for humans - but to keep the time spent dying to a minimum. After watching my parents and in laws die in hospitals after prolonged illnesses I want none of that. My best friend‘s dad was an active man, he worked with his hands all his life and after he retired he kept busy working on his house, gardening etc. After a very short illness he died at 87. I want to be healthy and active right up until the instant the lights go out, whenever that may be.

The formula no matter what you do it simple. If you do the exact same thing today that you did yesterday you stay the same. If you do a little more - walk a little farther, a little faster, lift a little more weight, your heart will be a little healthier or you’ll be a little stronger. Personally at age 60 I train weightlifting 3x a week at about an hour a session and do cardiovascular work 3x a week for about 30 minutes a session. Sunday is a day of rest.

You might be interested in reading "Younger Next Year." Link here - I get nothing if you buy it....

There's as I recall a couple of graphs, and it's been a while but the point is clear. One shows someone reaching about 50 or so, then a long steady decline till death. The other shows a person at 50 then a slight decline over time - we are getting older - then dropping off a cliff near the end, then death. That's what you and I want. Anyway, it's a fascinating book IMO. The useful lesson for me was to treat exercise, especially for retirees, as a very easy, low hour per week job. His point is we happily go to work every day for decades, 8, 10 hours, whatever, and that when that's gone treat daily movement as a new "job" at least at the beginning. Just get up and do it - every day, no excuses, at least a little bit. I'm doing a poor job rephrasing but I found it interesting reading.

 

[Helix]

I try to do 10k steps. Unless I'm sick or incredibly busy, i set the minimum at about thirty minutes of cardio a day, which is mostly brisk walking. We also travel in our state a lot, so i handle the heavy carrying and loading as well as the stair climbing. I need to increase my strength training, so that's on the list.

I picked walking as my main exercise more than a decade ago, as it's something that I've always enjoyed, and i can do it almost every day. When i worked near a campus, i noticed on multiple occasions that semi-retired professors who walked and biked a lot seemed to stay in pretty great shape. I thought, "yeah, that's for me."

 

[Gaius46]

You might be interested in reading "Younger Next Year." Link here - I get nothing if you buy it....

There's as I recall a couple of graphs, and it's been a while but the point is clear. One shows someone reaching about 50 or so, then a long steady decline till death. The other shows a person at 50 then a slight decline over time - we are getting older - then dropping off a cliff near the end, then death. That's what you and I want. Anyway, it's a fascinating book IMO. The useful lesson for me was to treat exercise, especially for retirees, as a very easy, low hour per week job. His point is we happily go to work every day for decades, 8, 10 hours, whatever, and that when that's gone treat daily movement as a new "job" at least at the beginning. Just get up and do it - every day, no excuses, at least a little bit. I'm doing a poor job rephrasing but I found it interesting reading.

Thanks I‘ll check the book out.

It’s surprising how little it actually takes. When I was competing I was in the gym 2-3hours a day 5 days a week. That was actually serious overtraining. As a young athlete you don’t need more than about 5-6 hours a week. At my age it’s down to 3 hours a week plus another hour on the rower (3x20 minutes). It’s really a matter of putting together a schedule and sticking to it and as you say treating like a job.

 

[RetiredUSN]

Just staying busy is good for you. The mental stimulation is every bit as important as the physical conditioning, and I'll use Ruth Bader Ginsberg as a excellent example.

I keep saying that I am going to retire, but I can't stand sitting home everyday watching TV, and you can only play so much golf before you burn out on that too. My son laughs every time I bring it up.

I'm looking at doing more "pro bono" residential rehabs/repairs to help financially strapped people out in the next year or so. I have a lady friend over in Virginia Beach Social services that is looking into funding for materials from local & state.

 

[Allan]

Just staying busy is good for you. The mental stimulation is every bit as important as the physical conditioning, and I'll use Ruth Bader Ginsberg as a excellent example.

I keep saying that I am going to retire, but I can't stand sitting home everyday watching TV, and you can only play so much golf before you burn out on that too. My son laughs every time I bring it up.

I'm looking at doing more "pro bono" residential rehabs/repairs to help financially strapped people out in the next year or so. I have a lady friend over in Virginia Beach Social services that is looking into funding for materials from local & state.

You are taking the Jimmy Carter approach to retirement. Stay busy with good works.

 

[Gaius46]

Just staying busy is good for you. The mental stimulation is every bit as important as the physical conditioning, and I'll use Ruth Bader Ginsberg as a excellent example.

I keep saying that I am going to retire, but I can't stand sitting home everyday watching TV, and you can only play so much golf before you burn out on that too. My son laughs every time I bring it up.

I'm looking at doing more "pro bono" residential rehabs/repairs to help financially strapped people out in the next year or so. I have a lady friend over in Virginia Beach Social services that is looking into funding for materials from local & state.

Good for you. I admit that since retiring my tv watching has increased, but so has my reading - up to about 2 hours a day. The “honey-do” list gets worked through much quicker and I’m spending most of time my earning some money from those things that were basically hobbies when I worked for the man.

 

[CaughtInThe]

i've been on a field, court or in a gym for probably around 50 years. almost daily.

it's why i feel so good and sleep so well. it's like a magic.