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Best Exercise Regime for Longevity

One of the best decisions you can make for your ultimate longevity plan for a longer life is to exercise.

We’ve all heard it. It’s nothing new, and you’ve probably learned a bit about why it’s so important, but many of us are stuck on how to actually increase our lifespan with exercise.

Ageing well isn’t just about looking youthful; it’s also about feeling good in your body, which is why a regular anti-aging exercise routine is important.

The Science Behind Exercise

Does exercise reduce ageing?

It’s well known that you need to get your body moving to stay healthy. This is because exercise is incredibly important to keeping our cells healthy and preventing ageing.

Researchers found that active individuals had longer telomeres, the end caps of our chromosomes that shorten with age, than those who often sat down for long periods of time — a 9-year difference in cell aging, in fact!

Another study compared the heart, lungs and muscles of three groups: active 70-year-olds, inactive 70-year-olds and 40-year-olds. The results found that the active older individuals, both men and women, had a similar heart and lung capacity, as well as muscle strength, to those 30 years their junior.

A further review of clinical studies found that regular physical activity is associated with an increase in life expectancy by 0.4 to 6.9 years.

But how does exercise slow the ageing process?

• Exercise can lessen inflammation in the body associated with ageing.
• It boosts our mood and mental abilities, including reducing memory loss.
• Can improve our sleep.
• Can improve our immune and digestive systems.
• It can improve the function of our cells.
• Improve our metabolism.
• Strengthen our muscles, balance and joints.
• Improve our breathing.

To see the benefits of improved health and longevity, we should exercise frequently and with greater intensity.

A 2020 study found that doing more than the recommended 150 to 300 minutes per week of moderate exercise (walking, weightlifting, low-intensity exercise) and 75 to 150 minutes each week of vigorous movement (running, bicycling, swimming), can help adults live longer.

It found that those who worked out two to four times more than this had a lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease, as well as lower all-cause mortality when working out two to four times more than the vigorous activity recommendations. This contradicts previous thought that long-term, high-intensity exercise may cause adverse health effects, like sudden cardiac death. More studies are needed to learn the optimal amount of intense, long-term exercise on our health.

Try to achieve 30 minutes of moderate exercise daily, even if you can’t do this at once. You could even consider using your phone or smartwatch to track your steps.

Tip: If you have a smartwatch, also check if it can monitor your glucose levels. When your blood glucose levels increase, a process called glycation occurs, creating a chemical called advanced glycation end-product (AGE), which causes our collagen to become more rigid. This is linked with increased risks of heart disease, varicose veins, blood clots, wrinkles and cataracts, so by tracking your glucose levels and stabilising them through diet, when you eat, exercise, sleep and lower stress, you can help extend your lifespan.

Top 10 Anti-Aging Exercises

• Walking
• Squats
• Yoga and Pilates: keeps us flexible and less stressed.
• Standing Calf Raises
• Stair Climbing
• Cycling
• Aerobics: during aerobics, our bodies may restore levels of cyclin D1 in dormant stem cells, which is a protein that helps our body heal.
• Arm and Leg Crosses
• Resistance Training
• Sports that help coordination, balance and reaction time, like dancing, zumba and tennis

Some great exercises and things to keep in mind include:

• High-intensity interval training (HIIT): combines aerobic and strength training and studies have found it improves mitochondrial capacity, which is important for our metabolism.
• Trying to raise both your heart and respiratory rate.
• You should be sweating during your workout.
• Try the SRT test to measure your biological age.
• Look up the best anti-aging exercises for face.

Remember, it’s never too late to start exercising!

Have a goal to integrate a solid workout into your daily routine. To ensure you stick with it, you must create the best anti-aging workout routine for you. Don’t like running? Walk instead. Hate the stairs? Try standing calf raises or cycling.

Tailoring an exercise routine to your preferences helps you continue doing it each day, but make sure to also do it intuitively. You may not feel like cycling one day, so instead, do some stretches and some walking. If you feel pressured to exercise, you won’t find enjoyment in it and you will stop within a few months, if you make it that far.

Also, try combining different exercises for the best anti-aging exercise regime. Like at the gym, you wouldn’t work your arms every day. Combine strength training, cardio, balance training and flexibility training exercises for a well-rounded workout to ensure you’re addressing ageing from different areas.

The great thing, too, is that if you’re self-conscious about exercising, you can create the best exercise anti-aging routine at home for you! Many of the exercises mentioned are ones you can do from the comfort of your bedroom or living room.

Simple Anti-Aging Routine for Exercise

• 30-minute walk
• 3 sets of bicep curls
• 20-minute YouTube Pilates video
• 15 minutes of stretches, including the muscles you just used to reduce pain.

This is a rather calm and tame routine and is great for days you’re not looking for anything heavy. You can do a 30-minute HIIT session or do some leg exercises, or even hit up a class at your local gym.

Or, when exercising, try to incorporate HIIT exercises. For example, if swimming, swim fast for 200 metres then rest for 1 minute; if doing cardio, do reps for 30 seconds, then rest for 1 minute; or if cycling, pedal fast for 30 seconds, then slow for 2 to 4 minutes.

The key is to keep your heart rate up, which has the potential to help your cells stay young for longer.

Get creative with your exercises, too. Do it with your family or friends, whatever you need to stay consistent and fit as you age.

Other than exercise, be sure to incorporate meditation practices and breathing exercises into your daily life to help you relax and reset. You can also try cold therapy to help improve circulation.

Remember, exercise isn’t to be used in isolation. Make sure to eat healthy meals to give yourself the right fuel, get enough sleep, stop smoking, drink in moderation, continue learning to keep your brain active, stay positive and, if needed, take multivitamins and longevity supplements. It’s all about building healthy habits.

Want to learn about more Xandro lab anti-aging routines? Check out our posts on Nutrition, Skincare and Supplements.