Are You Fit, Strong and Agile Enough to be Elderly?

 Are You in Good Enough Physical and Mental Shape to Enter Your Senior Years?

“Old” people need to be strong and aerobically vital. “Old” people need to be agile. ”Old” people need to be mentally acute.  Reading the above, it doesn’t sound like I’m describing anyone elderly, does it?

The fact is, though, I am. In your sixties, seventies and beyond the aerobically fitter you are, the stronger you are, the more supple you are and the more mentally acute you are, the easier it is to cope with the toughest life stage of all.

Imagine being able to lift heavy objects such as a bag full of shopping or a big bag of dog food with ease. Your toddler grandchild runs up to you and you easily scoop them up and place them on your hip with hardly any effort at all. As we age, we are more prone to over balancing and losing our footing so that we fall – often with a crash to the ground. Imagine if we were strong enough to prevent ourselves falling in the first place. Then Imagine, that if we did fall, we could simply stand up and brush ourselves off – no damage done.

As we age, from the age of 30, we lose muscle mass at 3% – 8% per decade; most men will lose 30% of their muscle mass during their lifetimes.  Also, as we age, our store of energy progressively leaves us. It’s so much harder to do anything physical even if we have the strength to complete the task

The evidence is clear.  Left to itself, our bodies will simply deteriorate until we are typically too weak and fragile to function normally.

Keep Yourself as Strong and Fit as you Can

Gerontologists are clear; allowing yourself to become physically weak in your later years is a bad idea. They are not talking about simply living longer, although being physically fit helps us live longer under ordinary circumstances. They talk about the concept of ‘health span’ and other terms that describe the same phenomenon. That is the part of a person’s life during which they are generally in good health. Say a person dies at the age of 85 and was ill and bedridden from 77; it might be said that his or her health span was poor compared to their longevity. Compare this to a person who dies at the same age and was vital and energetic until months before their death. The latter person would have had an excellent health span.

Of course, keeping oneself in excellent physical and mental shape need not necessarily extend one’s lifespan. While there may be indicative evidence that being physically and mentally health can keep dread diseases at bay, no one is claiming categorically that this is the case. One can still contract cancer, dementia or Parkinsons disease, to name but a few, no matter your physical condition and the proponents of physical fitness for the elderly in no way state that good physical condition can prevent death from a range of conditions.

However, excluding the causes of death by the group of diseases and conditions alluded to above, several physical abilities correlate with extended longevity. Among these are:

A higher VO2 Max than Average for your age

VO2 Max is a measure of the maximum quantity of oxygen, measured in millilitres of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per minute, that your lungs can absorb from each breath you take during physical exertion. Oxygen enters your lungs; it diffuses into the alveoli and then into the blood stream via capillaries. The oxygenated blood is pumped throughout the body and taken up by the working muscles.   It determines how much oxygen can travel along your arteries to be utilised by the muscle groups that are being activated at that time and once used, how quickly CO2 can be brought back to your lungs to be expelled into the atmosphere. The benefits are simple; the greater your VO2 Max, the more oxygen your body can consume and the more effectively your body can use the oxygen to generate the maximum amount of energy.

Medical professionals can use your VO2 Max to assess your heart and lung health. A vital finding is that there is a very strong correlation between a high VO2 Max and improved life expectancy.

What is a good VO2 Max? The following tables show categories of VO2 Max for gender and age groups.

VO2 Max for males. In ml/kg/min

Age	20 -29	30 – 39	40-49	50 -59	60 – 69	70 – 79
Superior	55.4	54.0	52.5	48.9	45.7	42.1
Excellent	51.1	48.3	46.4	43.4	39.5	36.7
Good	45.4	44.0	42.4	39.2	35.5	32.3
Fair	41.7	40.5	38.5	35.6	32.3	29.4
Poor	<41.7	< 40.5	< 38.5	< 35.6	<32.3	<29.4

 

VO2 Max for Females. In ml/kg/min

Age	20 -29	30 – 39	40-49	50 -59	60 – 69	70 – 79
Superior	49.6	47.4	45.3	41.1	37.8	36.7
Excellent	43.9	42.4	39.7	36.7	33	30.9
Good	39.5	37.8	36.3	33.0	30.0	28.1
Fair	36.1	34.4	33.0	30.1	25.9	25.9
Poor	< 36.1	< 34.4	< 33.0	< 30.1	< 25.9	< 25.9

 

At whatever age or gender, once a person’s VO2 Max falls below 20, it means that the individual is frail and weak and probably unable to stand up from a chair unaided, for example.

How do you determine your VO2 Max? The best means to determine your VO2 Max is to have it tested at a sports laboratory. However, sports laboratories are not generally available particularly away from large cities. Provided your mechanical ability to among others, run, row, cycle, swim is fair, one can use a proxy to reasonably accurately determine your VO2 Max. One test, the Cooper Test, involves running for 12 minutes and recording the distance after this time. Then this distance can be looked up on a table to read off the equivalent VO2 Max.

 Leg Strength.

Leg strength is a key indicator of longevity, with research showing that individuals with stronger leg muscles tend to live longer and experience fewer age-related health issues.  This connection is not just about physical activity but also about maintaining muscle mass and strength which supports overall health and reduces the risk of falls and chronic diseases. There is a saying among health and fitness advisers: “muscle is medicine”.

The major benefits of stronger legs are:

Reduces risk of falls and injuries. Among persons over 75, fracturing of hips is a major cause of death.

Lower risk of chronic diseases – leg strength is associated with lower risk of chronic diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, emphysema

Improved brain health

Enhanced functional longevity (Health Span) Individuals with strong legs can maintain their independence and physical function for a longer period.

Please refer to our other posts to learn to get started on an exercise regimen