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Rev Up Your Walk, Live Longer
This Week's Tips
A comfortable daily walk is a good place to start if you want to live younger and longer.
But include a few spurts of power walking, too. This kind of "interval training" can be a great way to boost your exercise capacity -- an emerging marker of longevity.
Build Up Your Steam
In a large study of women, exercise capacity -- a measure of how hard you're able to work out -- was tightly connected with mortality rates. The women who had low exercise capacity were almost twice as likely to die during the study follow-up period, compared with the women who had more exercise power. Find out about the hidden symptoms women may experience during a heart attack.
Boost Your Grade with Intervals
So how can you increase your exercise capacity? Interval training helps. Just add a few short bouts of more intense exercise to any moderately paced activity. For example, throw some 1- to 2-minute jogging sessions into a long, brisk walk. Or if you're a steady biker, add a block of rapid pedaling here and there. Interval training can help you burn more fat, too.
Power up with these other helpful exercise tips:
- Pick up the pace. Learn why simply walking a bit faster overall may help you live longer.
- Mind your timing. Here's how to pick the right time of day to optimize your workouts.
- Build brawn. Interval training can help with this, too.
Watch this video to get the lowdown on some of the newest exercise equipment.
RealAge Benefit:
A physical activity program that builds stamina, strength, and flexibility can make your RealAge as much as 8.1 years younger.
The prognostic value of a nomogram for exercise capacity in women. Gulati, M. et al., New England Journal of Medicine 2005 Aug 4;353(5):468-475.
