From the Experts: Does exercise and going to a gym help you live longer?

From the Experts: Does exercise and going to a gym help you live longer?

We continue our From the Experts series by quizzing Dr. RobertKane about exercise, gymming and their benefits for longevity.

Dr. Robert Kane, M.D, is director of the Center on Aging and the Minnesota Geriatric Education Center at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis

Today's Question:

What about going to the gym? Wouldt that add more quality years to our lives?

Robert Kane: Exercise has several quite distinct functions. You have cardio-vascular exercise, which we describe as aerobic exercise, which increases your body's capacity to process oxygen. That's where you go out and work really hard and raise your heart rate. Swimming would be a good way to get that kind of exercise.

There's also anti-gravity exercise. For example, if you're trying to prevent osteoporosis, swimming is not a good thing to do, because it doesn't increase the strength of your bones. There, working against gravity, walking, standing does more to increase bone metabolism than swimming does.
Then there are balance exercises-those designed to improve your balance. Tai Chi is one people talk about, or yoga. Those are exercises that have been associated with reducing the risk of falls.

Then there are strength exercises, which run all the way from weightlifters, who probably put themselves into a disadvantageous state from overdeveloping their muscles, to some modest amount of weightlifting, or anti-gravity exercise that strengthens your muscles.There the data suggest that a moderate level of exercise that is sustained is quite helpful. There are studies that show that people who do marathons tend to have much better cardio-vascular systems than people who don't. You could say that that says more is better, but those exercises generally pay a price on your joints. So they have good cardio-vascular systems, but they will probably have to have their joints replaced.

But in general, if somebody could do a minimum of 30, maybe we could raise it to 60 minutes, of exercise at least five times a week that would help. And it doesn't appear to have to be all at one time, although that seems to be better. If you did that and you could sustain it that would be good. The problem is that our health behaviors are all binge behaviors. Half the population at any one time is on some kind of diet, none of them work, and they are never sustained. People go out and run but then at a certain point they stop running, it's too much work. They've done it for a while, but it's not sustained. We don't have enough good data to suggest whether you would be better off to exercise more moderately but to work it into a lifestyle that you could sustain over a long period.

Some people don't exercise as a recreational activity, or even a health-promoting activity; they exercise because it's part of their lifestyle. If you live on the side of a mountain, and you want to go up or down, you've got to work pretty hard to do that. Building it into your lifestyle is going to help you sustain that practice better than simply doing it as an add-on, even if you're motivated to live longer, or to stay healthier.

Click below for the previous questions the doctors and scientists have answered:

From the Experts: The best diet for the long haul.

From the Experts: Do Vitamins and Omega-3 supplements help?

From the Experts: Can drugs increase increase our longevity?

From the Experts: How Long Can an Average American Expect to Live?