What Is the Role of Physical Activity in Promoting Longevity?
What Is the Role of Physical Activity in Promoting Longevity?
A study by Lieberman et al. incorporate what’s now known about the difference between “healthspan” (i.e., years of healthy life) and “lifespan” (i.e., years of life, healthy or not) to suggest that, more than burning calories, “the stresses of Physical Activity stimulate investments in health-span preserving somatic repair and maintenance processes that are activated less in the absence of Physical Activity.”
To understand this, think now about the kinds of damage you may do to your body when you exercise. You might get some muscular aches and pains, you feel physically a bit tired, you have to breathe heavier, temporarily you raise your heart rate and blood pressure.
This kind of “damage,” according to the 2021 study by Lieberman et al, actually helps contribute to physical activity effect on your health span and lifespan. Your body has to do something to repair the damage, which can include restocking your depleted energy, producing antioxidants, clearing away harmful waste products of metabolism, reducing inflammation, and getting your nervous system to turn down some of that autonomic (e.g., breathing rate control) activation. The other changes in your body that occur after you exercise directly promote the growth of muscle tissue and bone strength.
When people aren’t active, their bodies don’t engage in those health span-promoting repair and maintenance activities and they suffer changes such as loss of muscle mass. Older individuals then become weaker and less able to perform the kinds of exercise that would keep those muscles stressed and toned. Once people begin to engage in physical activity, there’s substantial evidence to show that many previously lost functions can be regained.
In the perfect world you want allocate some piece of your day to devote to even the minimum of 10 to 20 minutes of some form of organized exercise. However if you’re truly doing plenty of walking, running, and lifting weight (including those children), you’re still better off than if you were a completely sedentary couch potato. If you are busy and aren’t we all, then here are some more incidental physical activities to incorporate into your day:
Walk to get your groceries
Take the stairs if you can
Park the car further away from work and walk
Take the train and get off a station early and walk to your destination
Park in the furthest carpark at a shopping centre park.
Get a standing desk- standing more is good physical activity because when you are standing you are burning more calories
Clean the house
Wash the car
Play with your kids- kick or throw a ball to them.
If you are struggling with getting enough physical activity into your day and need support with a personalised exercise program please don’t hesitate to call me on 0411553804 or hello@jackandhill.com.au