A 93 Year-old Man Rows Like a 25 Year-old

Since January 17 2024, I have been writing in a way you can understand about a new body of science that explains how a combination of diet, exercise, and a few specific medications can extend your healthy, more youthful life right now! Everything in this series is based on science, evidence, and data. Let’s talk about a specific example of what is possible.

Richard Morgan is a 93 year old who did not participate in rigorous exercise until he was 73. Richard is a regular guy. He worked as a baker and battery maker, and he has creaky knees. He still trains in a shed on his property, but he has the strength and endurance of an average 25 year old as documented in this very extensive evaluation.

What makes Richard’s story so interesting is that he is like many of the rest of us. He was retired and not doing too much. One of his grandsons was a rower in college, and Richard went to one of the rowing practices when he was 73. The coach said he could use one of the machines and Richard  never looked back.

Here are the details of his workout.

“Perhaps most impressive, he developed this fitness with a simple, relatively abbreviated exercise routine, the researchers noted.

• Consistency: Every week, he rows about 30 kilometers (about 18.5 miles), averaging around 40 minutes a day.

• A mix of easy, moderate and intense training: About 70 percent of these workouts are easy, with Morgan hardly laboring. Another 20 percent are at a difficult but tolerable pace, and the final 10 at an all-out, barely sustainable intensity.

• Weight training: Two or three times a week, he also weight-trains, using adjustable dumbbells to complete about three sets of lunges and curls, repeating each move until his muscles are too tired to continue.

• A high-protein diet: He eats plenty of protein, his daily consumption regularly exceeding the usual dietary recommendation of about 60 grams of protein for someone of his weight.”

The message here is clear. The rapid decline in fitness in elderly people can be much slower. You can function like a younger person much longer. Aerobic exercise activates AMPK. That is a consistent part of our model. If Richard applied the whole model and started younger there is every reason to believe the results could be even better.

If you are elderly, frailty causes the greatest interference with your life and that problem can be addressed effectively. Progressive resistance exercise makes the biggest difference. Institutionalized patients in their 90s were able to increase their muscle strength, on average, an astounding 174%, and their mid-thigh muscle size 9.0%. They could also walk 48% faster with 8-weeks of high-intensity progressive resistance exercise treatment. We can enjoy our favorite activities longer.

I go to the local Y three times a week to do some resistance exercises because I am so convinced by Richard’s story and these other resources I have put before you. We can be fully functional longer.  I frequently see people using a technique that simply will not work. If you are on a bench press machine, you are not doing yourself a bit of good by just moving the weight back and forth 4 inches. Let the weight go as far down toward your chest as it will go and then push it out as far as you can with a weight that you can move 20 times like that. When that becomes pretty easy, add more weight. It is important to go through the full range of motion on each exercise and to move the weight that makes you ready to stop after 20 repetitions. With that technique you can increase your strength quickly even in your 80s and 90s.