In the previous article, it was explained that exercise may help to prolong your life while also making you look younger. Not only from the outside, it turns out that exercise can also make the inside of your body “younger”.

According to research conducted by Ball State University, those who are 70 years old and above and exercise regularly have the same conditions of the heart, lungs and muscles as those in their 40s. This benefit can be felt in both women and men.

To obtain these results, the researchers observed one group consisting of 7 women and 21 men who were known to exercise regularly and aged 70 and above. To determine the endurance of participants in doing aerobic activities, the researchers measured VO2 Max rate of each participant. Also, the researchers also performed muscle biopsies to determine the formation and distribution of small blood vessels in the muscles. After that, the results were compared with the other two groups. One is for those aged 70 years and over but did not exercise, and the other one is for those in their 20s and like to exercise.

Exercise can be done by anyone and anywhere, whether just light exercise or strenuous ones. Using stairs instead of riding an elevator or escalator is also a form of exercise that you do every day. With a myriad of benefits you can get, do you still want to laze around and not exercise?

Text by Anggie Triana
Stock photos from Pixabay

Source(s):

• Gries, K.J., Raue, U., Perkins, R.K., et all (2018). Cardiovascular and skeletal muscle lifelong exercise. Physiology, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1152/japplphysiol.00174.2018.
• Medical News Today - Regular exercise can keep the body decades younger (2018). https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/323850.php, April 22, 2019.