Exercise & Longevity #1 – How Exercise Specifically Helps One To Live A Long & Healthy Life

Muscles deteriorate with age and therefore strength too  (“sarcopenia” – after the age of 25, muscles decrease by around 3-8% per decade.  ie. up to 25% from age 25 to 55). All the resistance/strength exercises we do will mitigate this effect to a degree, and can certainly more than offset this if exercises are done with sufficient regularly and intensity. 

More specifically, the loss of “Type 2” muscle fibres is more pronounced and these are responsible for power generation and by extension reaction ability (eg. to falling, or catching etc etc). 

Exercises which work to increase power are the more explosive movements such as box jumps and squat jumps and med ball slams but also heavy movements such as deadlifts which have an explosive element to them.

(taken from a number of sources including the National Library of Medicine and longevity expert Peter Attia – wiki link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Attia )