A longevity coach shares 3 exercise signs to watch for longevity

• Three important fitness metrics can help you optimize your fitness for longevity.
• Your VO2 max can help monitor cardiovascular health, while muscle mass and balance are key to staying active.
• This article is part of the “Healthy Lifestyles,” a series about the innovations and industry leaders shaping patient care.

Exercise is one of the closest things we have to a miracle drug when it comes to living a long, healthy life – and three important tips to exercise can help you get the most money.

Understanding the important dimensions of exercise, from cardiovascular health to body composition, can help you manage your workouts to stay young, said Caitlin Donato, a certified personal trainer and director of practice at the Pritikin Longitudinal Center in Miami.

“If you’re going to take 30 minutes out of your day, then make the most of it,” he told Business Insider. “Your time is valuable.”

Pritikin offers a team of fitness professionals who work with registered dietitians and physicians to create personalized health improvement plans.

Part of Donato’s job involves guiding clients through an assessment of their fitness level and overall health, which includes functional mobility testing and exercise tolerance testing.

Paying attention to your cardio, muscle health, and balance can help you tailor your workouts to your lifestyle and achieve optimal performance and health, he said. they are long term.

“One size doesn’t necessarily fit all,” Donato said. “And if you have the ability to understand what to prioritize to the person on your left or right, that’s where you can maximize your efforts, and that’s where you see more benefits what you need.”

VO2 max is an important indicator of longevity

A healthy heart is one of the first lines of defense against chronic diseases and other risks associated with aging. While many metrics can help you track your heart rate, including blood pressure and cholesterol, one exercise-related test can help you see if your heart is healthy. how well it works.

VO2 max is a measure of how much oxygen your body can use during exercise. Research suggests that the higher your VO2, the greater your endurance and chances of living longer. An increase in VO2 max can indicate that you are getting healthier over time.

“Effectively it’s a sign of how well your body is working, how it’s using oxygen. So we’re able to see how that improves with these lifestyle changes, which are really neat,” Donato he said. “VO2 max is one of our best indicators of life expectancy.”

Sports medicine experts suggest combining steady cardio work at a conversational pace and interval training with bursts of high-intensity exercise to improve VO2 max.

Muscle mass is important for healthy aging

Your heart isn’t the only muscle that can help you live longer. Building and maintaining muscle mass helps prevent frailty and promote good health as we age, Donato said.

A growing body of research suggests that lifting weights is just as important for longevity as cardio, and a combination of the two is ideal.

Donato said that while muscle mass can begin to deteriorate in our 30s and 40s, “that’s not a foregone conclusion.” He added that resistance training can help.

You don’t have to lift as much weight as possible or spend long hours in the gym to see results. Focus on good form, and gradually increase your effort to keep moving forward.

“Strength management isn’t necessarily about improving your single position on the bench press, unless you want it to be,” Donato said.

Good balance is associated with a long, healthy life

Most people know how to work on cardio and strength in the gym, but they may be missing the bottom line of exercise for longevity: balance.

“When we talk about longevity, we look at equity,” Donato said. “It’s one of the things we want to make sure we practice as we get older, because the risk of falling and having a fall-related injury increases.”

Research suggests that although slips and falls are a serious risk as we age and become unsteady, balance training can help.

Another low-tech way to test your balance at home is to stand on one leg for 10 seconds — a basic test that one study linked to longevity.

To improve your stability and balance, practice a simple exercise like a quick knee raise. Core exercises such as the Pallof press, plank or farmer can also improve stability by strengthening the abs, hips and glutes.

Donato said that incorporating exercises that mimic daily movements — such as getting up from a chair, lifting a child, or picking up groceries — is essential to staying active and independent.

“It’s meant to improve the physical processes and the movement patterns of the things we do every day, the things we care about doing,” he says.