Is It Too Late For Me To Start Exercising Now?

Exercise As A Way To Improve Health

There are a lot of definitions which have been given to define "health" in general but the thing I understood about health is that it can't be defined merely with the absence of disease; Well, partly it is, if you aren't sick then, in a way, we can consider you to be healthy but the scope of health is much wider than that. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), health can be defined as:

A state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

Picture By Runway Pilates - Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

One of the domains of health being described above, physical, doesn't necessarily means exercise. Any bodily movement can be described as the physical aspect of health which means, the more you move, the healthier you are. Even though it sounds like exercise, according to Caspersen et al, movements in exercise are purposeful and usually planned; in a way, we can say that exercise is a subset of the physical aspect of health which includes all purposeful and involuntary movements.

The importance of exercise in maintaining good health has been proven and recognised way back in 2500 BC; clearly, the concept of exercising to be healthy is not novel. Even one of the most prominent philosophers named Plato said:

Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being while movement and methodical physical exercise saves and preserves it

So can I be healthy without exercise? Of course, you can but it would depend on a few factors and one of them, which I like to mention here, is the relative movement you were able to perform in a specific duration. In the 1950s, Morris et al conducted a study to measure the relative risk of people who were working as a bus conductor to develop coronary heart disease as compared to a bus driver. We know that even though driving a bus can be quite tiring, a bus conductor usually facilitate a much greater physical movement be it voluntary or involuntary.

They found that bus conductors are 30% less likely to be affected by coronary heart disease compared to a bus driver. Clinically speaking, there are a lot of parameters that need to be explored, for example, their diet, their behaviour (smoking, alcohol consumption and exercise) and their attitude towards chronic illnesses. Not every single bus conductor out there are healthier than bus drivers. Nevertheless, if all of the stated parameters have been considered, according to that particular study, the association between movement and chronic diseases is inversely related which make exercise a good preventative measure.

How Much Is Enough?

Picture Source - Max Pixel (CC0)

So tell me, how much is enough? Some people said that I need to exercise for at least thrice a week and for each session, I need to exercise for at least 30 minutes to one hour but some said a totally different thing. Currently, there are two types of exercise guidelines which have been provided by the Department of Health and Human Services:

For aerobic exercise:

Get at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity a week, or a combination of moderate and vigorous activity. The guidelines suggest that you spread out this exercise during the course of a week. Even small amounts of physical activity are helpful, and accumulated activity throughout the day adds up to provide a health benefit.

For strength training:

Do strength training exercises for all major muscle groups at least two times a week. Aim to do a single set of each exercise, using a weight or resistance level heavy enough to tire your muscles after about 12 to 15 repetitions.

Picture Source - Pxhere (CC0)

It is not easy to determine the right dosage for exercise as if they are pharmacological agents. We know that there is a certain level at which exercise can be beneficial for our health but if we exceeded the upper beneficial boundaries, it would impose a much higher adverse effect as opposed to beneficial effects.

There are a lot of studies which have been conducted in the past to determine the right duration of exercise that could accomplish a certain goal, for example, weight loss and longevity, but unfortunately, most of them yield different results which made issuing a standardised duration for recommended exercise time difficult and usually subjected to criticism. According to Warburton et al, there are two types of exercise:

• Moderate exercises which are defined as any form of exercise that could raise breathing and heart rate but people can still converse quite comfortably i.e. brisk walking
• Vigorous exercises are defined as any form of exercise that is associated with heavier breathing, higher heart rate and the fact that it's difficult for people to converse while performing it i.e. jogging

Each type of exercise came with a different set of recommendation and performing them for 50% less than the recommended duration would improve nothing in terms of cardiovascular risk factors; however if we are talking about fitness level, there would be a slight improvement in that attribute and this can be a significant development as we need physical fitness, desperately, to perform a much intense exercise for a specific duration. Nothing that you did isn't worth your time.

In 2007, a paper which was published by Lee IM recommended an exercise session of at least 60 minutes per day to optimise weight loss and health benefits. As you can see, different studies yield a different pattern of outcomes which can be very difficult especially for laymen to understand but the point is, as long as you were exercising every day, you would have a very low risk to contract cardiovascular diseases or any form of diseases which include a few malignancies. In 2011, a study which was conducted by Wen et al has found that brisk walking for at least 15 minutes per day would contribute greatly in terms of prolonging life expectancy and reducing cardiovascular risk.

Is It Too Late For Me To Start Now?

Picture Source - Max Pixel (CC0)

If there were a drug that could do for human health everything that exercise can, it would likely be the most valuable pharmaceutical ever developed. - Dr Mark Tarnopolsky

Now, let's imagine. You are a 50 years old gentleman with underlying diabetes mellitus, dyslipidaemia and hypertension, trying to do whatever you can to reduce your risk of dying from cardiovascular complications. You were trying to contemplate exercise as a mean for achieving your goal but you were wondering, is it too late for you to reap all of the available benefits of exercise as compared to if you start when you were 20 years old? Well, the latest research which was published in JAMA Network (8th of March 2019) has found that being physically active in between 41 to 60 years old could provide comparable benefits to people who were constantly being active from adolescence to adulthood. This is great news for every single one of us! Well, I mean for those in between that particular age range.

It's not too late to do anything and I would like to point out that, people who were exercising constantly throughout their lives are protected from a wide range of diseases especially those which are associated with obesity and diabetes mellitus. Even if you were being active for an hour for the whole week, it will still confer your with a certain advantage in terms of reduced mortality rate and according to that particular study, it's a 16% reduction in mortality rate of all-caused of mortality related diseases. Now, we have compelling evidence which tells us that it is not too late to start now.

Picture Source - Max Pixel (CC0)

Maintaining higher leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) levels and increasing LTPA in later adulthood were associated with comparatively low risk of mortality, suggesting that midlife is not too late to start physical activity. Inactive adults may be encouraged to be more active, whereas young adults who are already active may strive to maintain their activity level as they get older.

Source

This study was supported by previous studies which were conducted in 2003, 2009 and 2017. In studies which were conducted in 2003 and 2009, it was found that people, regardless of gender, who start to exercise in their 50's could have the same reduced rate of mortality of people who exercise consistently. In 2017, a study which was conducted by Sara et al has found that late bloomers were found to enjoy fewer benefits in term of reduced mortality risk as compared to people who were exercising consistently since they were adolescents, however, they will still be able to reduce their mortality rate as much as 25% which is quite significant.

So what can we infer from this article? Start exercising now no matter what age group you are currently in. There is no reason why we can't spend for at least 15 minutes of our 24 hours to have a brisk walk, going to the gym or run on the treadmill. There are a lot of things which we can be benefitted from exercise and trust me, the future 10 years of you would be grateful if you start now.

References and further reading materials

• Exercise acts as a drug; the pharmacological benefits of exercise. Retrieved on March 11th, 2019.
• Late-blooming exercisers may get the same benefits as lifelong gym rats. Retrieved on March 11th, 2019.
• ‘Fat but fit’ is absolutely possible. Retrieved on March 11th, 2019.
• Association of Leisure-Time Physical Activity Across the Adult Life Course With All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality. Retrieved on March 11th, 2019.
• Total mortality after changes in leisure time physical activity in 50 year old men: 35 year follow-up of population based cohort.. Retrieved on March 11th, 2019.
• Changes in physical activity and cardiovascular mortality in older adults. Retrieved on March 11th, 2019.
• Changes in Leisure-time Physical Activity and Risk of Death: An Observational Study of 7,000 Men and Women. Retrieved on March 11th, 2019.
• How much should the average adult exercise every day?. Retrieved on March 11th, 2019.

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