Friday, January 25, 2008

People Who Exercise Live Longer

Need another reason to exercise? A study came out this week showing people who are classified as "highly fit" died at half the rate as those with a low fitness score. The more fit you get, the longer you'll live. Scientists studied 15-thousand military veterans to get these answers. While these results come from older men, we can pretty much assume the results wouldn't be that different for women.

To quote the article, Kokkinos said achieving the "highly fit" level would not require a personal trainer or a gym membership.

"All you need is between two and three hours of brisk walking a week. You can spread that out between four and six days a week," said Kokkinos, whose research appears in the journal Circulation.

Kokkinos said 30 minutes of brisk walking 5 to 6 days a week would be enough to push an older or middle-aged man from the "low fit" to the "very highly fit" category in a matter of months.

It sounds like we're all right on track using this Twitter fitness challenge to boost our fitness. A couple of people posted comments yesterday saying what they were planning on doing after this initial January Twitter Fitness Challenge is over. It'd be great to hear from the rest of you. Please post any thoughts you have in the comments section.

2 comments:

Danacea said...

Tomorrow, I face the target that January has been preparing me for - the ladies' 5,000 meters rowing 'championship' (we're doing it in groups of five, there will probably be about 20 people actually taking part) at my local Cannons gym.

I did well last year, and was hoping to best my time - but am now wondering of I can participate at all due to a burn on my back that's right under the elastic of the support in my top.

I don't want to back out - but whether I do or not, following everyone's else's progress and gains has been a real help. After a month, we should all be feeling the benefits - let's keep it going into the Spring!

GoOrange said...

Catching up on posts:

Friday, workout 17 of 25. Weights: squats, deadlifts, calf presses, crunches. Just over an hour.

Sunday, workout 18 of 25. Took the dog for a long hike through the snow. Time: One hour.

Monday, workout 19 of 25. Weights: Bench presses, shoulder presses, rows, pullups, reverse crunches. One and a half hours.