Mr. Lopez-Garcia worked as a car mechanic and didn’t exercise at all until retiring at the age of 66. He then decided that it was time to take up a casual exercise routine to help stay healthy, so he began to run a few times per week. Initially he found this very difficult to do and, in his own words, could barely make it a mile. But he grew to love running and kept at it, gradually improving over time, and now at the age of 82 is successfully competing in ultramarathons. When scientists recently put him through a battery of tests, they found that on a number of key metrics – particularly vo2 max, a measure of how efficiently a person’s heart and lungs work – he can match up with healthy people in their 20s and 30s.
The parallels between Mr. Morgan and Mr. Lopez-Garcia are obvious: both are perfectly ordinary men who didn’t start exercising until late in life, and both managed to essentially reverse their biological age by decades through a dedicated program of regular exercise.
What can we learn from these two inspiring examples? There are a few simple lessons:
Exercise is perhaps the single most important habit one can adopt to stay healthier and live longer. That’s not to say other habits (diet, good sleep, stress management, the avoidance of addictions, etc) aren’t important, just that exercise in particular seems to boost longevity and health span.
No matter how old you are or how much you have neglected your health, it’s never too late to start
For exercise, it matters a lot less what you do than that you do it consistently and with some intensity. So pick something you enjoy doing and stick with it.
