Whether it is aerobics, fitness, or a team sport, physical movement and staying active are vital to a person’s health and long life. The Roze Team wants you to know which exercises can help you to live longer.
Every Exercise Is Beneficial
Exercise is an essential component of a healthy lifestyle, as is widely known. Can certain forms of exercise, however, extend our lives? Perhaps, according to Connor Sheehan, Ph.D., an assistant professor at Arizona State University’s T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics.
Researchers wrote, collaborated, and submitted a report with the help of a graduate student in Family and Human Development Longfeng Li that was recently published in the Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. In it, they said that all kinds of exercise are good for you. But they found a link between some categories, like stretching, volleyball, and fitness activities like cycling, walking, and aerobics, and a lower risk of dying.
Volleyball, Stretching, and Aerobics
Dr. Sheehan and Li looked into the impact of 15 different exercises on mortality rates using information gathered by the National Health Interview Survey from 26,727 American people ages 18 to 84. In 1998, the participants were asked what kind of exercise they did, and their deaths from all causes were then tracked until the end of 2015.
Dr. Sheehan notes that activities like walking, jogging, aerobics, stretching, weight lifting, and stair climbing were all linked to longer lifespans even after statistically correcting for demographic, socioeconomic, and health-related behaviors. When we looked at all the different ways to work out, we found that stretching was especially good for health.
Dr. Sheehan was surprised by this because he thought that cardio exercises (like running, cycling, etc.) would be the best for your health. In addition to extending other activities, stretching can promote calmness and awareness. Consequently, it improves both the body and the psyche.
Stretching helps both the body and the mind. It makes it easier to do other things and makes you more calm and aware.
Sheehan admits that in the case of volleyball, this might be a matter of choice because individuals who played in the late ’90s might have been in better condition. However, he adds that volleyball is a great way to get in shape and socialize because it is a team sport. Social activities have been shown to be good for our overall health.
The researchers discovered that baseball was connected to greater mortality rates, which they blame on the chewing tobacco habit associated with that sport.
How Can You Be Flexible?
Study Restrictions
The fact that the individuals were questioned in 1998—more than 20 years ago—is only one of the study’s many flaws. Dr. Sheehan adds that because society is constantly changing, popular workouts from the past may no longer be as popular now.
As an example, he points to the huge rise in the popularity of soccer over the past eight to ten years. And compared to the late 1990s, yoga is more popular today. We could only determine the exercise a participant performed at the time of the interview; this could have changed over time.
A Study of Observations
Glenn Gaesser, PhD, a professor at Arizona State University’s College of Health Solutions and a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine, says that the study is entirely based on observations. He asserts that cause and effect cannot be proven.
Although the overall findings—that participating in diverse forms of exercise is related to a lower mortality risk—are in line with earlier published studies, Dr. Gasser advises against drawing too many inferences regarding the advantages of certain activities.
He stresses that the participants were not asked if they were still doing the same kind of physical activity that they said they did in 1998.
He questions whether all 26,727 participants continued their behavior from 1998 for the following 17 years. Because they were never questioned about their physical activity after 1998, we don’t know.
Also, he says that over the next 17 years, some of the participants might have changed how active they were, maybe more than once. As an illustration, a person who engaged in a lot of aerobic exercises in 1998 might move to cycling in 2005 and then volleyball in 2010.
Dr. Gaesser warns that there are just too many factors at play to be able to say how different sports might affect the risk of dying.
Every Exercise Is Beneficial
We can be certain that regular exercise has several positive effects on our health. According to Dr. Gaesser, doing aerobic and strength exercises is supported by a large body of scientific research.
The current recommendation for public health is moderate to intense exercise for 150–300 minutes (such as brisk walking) or 75–150 minutes of vigorous to intense exercise each week (e.g., jogging, at an intensity where you notice your breathing but you are not out of breath). Additionally, resistance training two to three days a week is advised.
According to Dr. Gaesser, studies repeatedly show that aerobic exercises like walking, running, cycling, swimming, etc., are linked to better health and well-being and a lower chance of mortality. Resistance exercise is good for adults of all ages and has a lot of other benefits as well.
Studies repeatedly demonstrate that aerobic activities like walking, running, cycling, swimming, etc., are linked to better health and well-being and a lower risk of mortality.
According to Dr. Gaesser, resistance training can include six to ten exercises that target the upper and lower bodies, with one to three sets and eight to fifteen repetitions for each.
He says that the weight or resistance does not have to be at its most intense for each set of exercises. A decent weight/resistance, for instance, for a set of 10 repetitions would be something you could certainly do 11–12 reps of but only go to 10.
Dr. Sheehan also thinks that any exercise is beneficial. He says to keep doing your favorite physical activity, even if it wasn’t on our list of things that can help you live longer. It’s better to do some exercise than none, and if you enjoy it, you’ll keep doing it.
What Exercises Should You Do?
Keep doing the workout you like if you like it! All forms of exercise have numerous advantages. If you want to start exercising regularly but don’t do it yet, finding an activity you enjoy will make it more likely that you’ll keep doing it.
If you have never done resistance (strength) training before, a personal trainer can help you learn how to do it and develop a program that fits your fitness level and way of life.
The Roze values exercise and wants readers to achieve better health and a longer lifespan from various forms of movement.