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Maintaining a healthy lifestyle well into old age is something that we all aspire to. As it turns out, there are even more benefits to being an active senior than we thought.
A new study now shows that older athletes’ fitness age is an average of twenty years younger than their chronological age.
“Fitness age” is an idea based around research that shows that good cardiovascular fitness leads to a much longer lifespan. Your fitness age is based on your chronological age combined with your activity level, height, and weight.
The study was done on participants in the Senior Olympics, a competition in which athletes over 50 compete in sports activities. This year, the competition has almost 10,000 participants. While they’re not professional athletes, they all lead lives more active than other seniors.
Around 4,000 of the senior athletes contributed, and the results were astonishing. The New York Times reports that the average age of the participants was 68, but their average fitness age was 43.
Dr. Peeke, the senior athlete who was one of the leads in the study, said that she results will inspire people of all ages to get active.
“A majority of the athletes at the Senior Games didn’t begin serious training until quite late in life, including me,” she said. “So you can start any time. It’s never too late.”
