This Exercise Is Linked To 9.7 Extra Years Of Life – And You Can Do It In Your Back Yard
But once you've committed to a solid workout routine, you might start to wonder whether your plan is the most efficient one.
Strength training is touted as a bone-protecting habit that'll save you from frailty in older age; while cardio, such as running, is linked to better, not worse, joints, and improved heart and lung health.
And a 2018 Danish study found one of the best individual sports might be the season's trendiest: tennis.
In the paper, scientists followed 8,577 Danish residents aged 20-93 from 1991 to 2017. Participants were all part of the Copenhagen City Heart Study (CCHS), a population study which gave people detailed questionnaires about their activity levels.
Researchers wanted to 'evaluate the differential improvements in life expectancy associated with participation in various sports'. They found that regular tennis players lived 9.7 years longer than those who didn't work out at all.
They also outperformed other sports like badminton (linked to 6.2 years of added longevity), football (4.7 years), cycling (3.7 years), swimming (3.4 years), jogging (3.2 years), and callisthenics (3.1 years).
Among the participants studied, those doing 'health club activities' – like running on the treadmill, using a stair master or cross-trainer, and cycling on a stationary bike – were only linked to 1.5 extra years.
No – as the scientists themselves note, 'because this is an observational study, it remains uncertain whether this relationship is causal'.
The benefits of strength training are very well-established, too.
But the researchers did find that the social aspect of tennis may have had benefits for players, which other experts have also suggested.
A 2019 study found that tennis players had better grip strength, linked to increased longevity; a British Medical Journal paper linked playing racket sports like tennis, badminton, and squash to a 47% lower chance of all-cause mortality (higher than swimmers, cyclists, and those who did aerobics).
I reckon I need to take up a new sport this Wimbledon season...
Your Postcode Is Ageing You: New Report Exposes North-South Longevity Gap
HRV Is Linked To 'Exceptional Longevity': Here's What It Can (And Can't) Tell You About Your Health
Is The 'Japanese' Or 'Mediterranean' Diet Healthier? I Asked A Longevity Doctor
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Washington Post
24 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Stone Age humans were picky about which rocks they used for making tools, study finds
WASHINGTON — Early human ancestors during the Old Stone Age were more picky about the rocks they used for making tools than previously known, according to research published Friday. Not only did these early people make tools, they had a mental picture of where suitable raw materials were located and planned ahead to use them, traveling long distances.
Associated Press
24 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Bad diets, too many meds, no exercise: A look inside the latest 'Make America Healthy Again' report
WASHINGTON (AP) — A report that U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has promised will improve the health of America's children does not call on the government to make significant changes to its food or farming policies, according to a draft document obtained by The Associated Press. The 'Make America Healthy Again' strategy report is supposed to be one of Kennedy's signature achievements as the nation's health secretary, giving the government a roadmap to help its citizens lose weight, reduce chronic diseases and exercise more. Before coming to Washington, Kennedy had spent much of his career decrying the harms of chemicals sprayed on crops, prescription drugs, ultraprocessed foods, and vaccines. His coalition, then, has expected him to take bold action as the nation's top health leader. But a draft of the so-called 'MAHA' report, first reported by The New York Times Thursday night, mostly calls on the government to further study chronic diseases, bad air quality, Americans' diets and prescription drug use. The report lays out four problem areas – poor diet, chemical exposure, lack of physical activity and overuse of medications -- that are to blame for chronic diseases in the U.S. The White House has held off on publicly releasing the report, which was submitted to President Donald Trump on Tuesday. The latest report is the policy companion to a 'MAHA' report released in May, which was found to have several errors in it. White House spokesman Kush Desai refused to confirm whether the copy obtained by the Associated Press was a final version, though HHS officials have insisted the report has been finalized since Tuesday. 'President Trump pledged to Make America Healthy Again, and the Administration is committed to delivering on that pledge with Gold Standard Science,' Desai said. 'Until officially released by the White House and MAHA Commission, however, any documents purporting to be the second MAHA Report should be considered as nothing more than speculative literature.' Some in the agricultural industry had warily anticipated the report, fearing it would call for bans or investigations into the use of pesticides and herbicides that farmers in the U.S. regularly spray on crops to control weeds and enhance yields. Other farmers were concerned about how the report may target the use of corn syrup, a common sweetener, in American foods. Both products have been a central talking point in Kennedy's 'MAHA' movement, which has attracted a diverse coalition of suburban and rural moms, Trump supporters and liberals concerned about the nation's food supply. Instead, the report calls for an 'awareness' campaign to raise confidence in pesticides. Concerns from the agricultural industry waned as the report hit the president's desk, with one of Kennedy's closest advisers, Calley Means, calling for MAHA supporters to work with major farm companies on Tuesday. Means also acknowledged that the 'pace of political change' can be frustrating. 'We need to build bridges,' Means said, adding that: 'We are not going to win if the soybean farmers and the corn growers are our enemy.' Means did not respond to a request for comment on Friday. A spokesman for Kennedy also declined to comment. The report urges the National Institutes of Health – which is facing a 40% cut to its budget under the Trump administration – to undertake several studies on Americans' health, including research on vaccine injury, autism, air quality, water quality, prescription drugs, and nutrition. The report also calls for changes to the foods served in schools and hospitals, something that will be hard to deliver with the Trump administration's funding cuts, said Kari Hamerschlag, the deputy director of the food and agriculture at the nonprofit Friends of the Earth. Earlier this year, the Republican-led administration wiped out $1 billion set aside that helped food banks and schools procure food directly from local farmers. 'This is not going to transform our food and farming system,' Hamerschlag said. 'This is not going to make people healthier. They need to put resources behind their recommendations.' ___
CNN
an hour ago
- CNN
Remember ‘The Biggest Loser'? Docuseries ‘Fit for TV' explores the harm the show did in the name of health
Millions of Americans watched for 18 seasons as people pushed their bodies to the limits physically, ate as few calories as possible, and underwent sometimes mortifying challenges to be crowned 'The Biggest Loser.' It was discomfort worth grappling with for a shot at better health and a new life, many of the contestants said. But 'Fit for TV: The Reality of 'The Biggest Loser,'' a Netflix docuseries premiering Friday, suggests that the cultural phenomenon may not have been healthy for the contestants or the country at large. When creating the new show, filmmakers asked themselves whether 'The Biggest Loser' was, in fact, part of an industry promoting health and wellness in the United States, said Skye Borgman, the director of the docuseries. 'Everybody always wants a magic bullet that's real. And the thing about magic bullets — they're never real.' 'Fit for TV: The Reality of 'The Biggest Loser'' investigates how the highly popular show affected the contestants and conversations around health. The docuseries also explores the implications of so many viewers being willing to watch –– and sometimes laugh at –– people attempting to lose weight. 'It was such a huge phenomenon and absolutely reflected and perpetuated some of the really harmful messages around weight and weight loss,' said Dr. Rebecca Pearl, associate professor of clinical and health psychology at the University of Florida. In a show claiming to transform people's health, what did the contestants' regimens look like? Men were advised to cut their calories down to 1,500 to 2,000 per day and women to 1,200 per day, said Dr. Robert Huizenga, physician on 'The Biggest Loser,' in the series. But sometimes, trainers might have recommended as few as 800 calories daily, he added. The amount of exercise was also intense, sometimes spanning eight hours a day, former contestant Danny Cahill said in the docuseries. The series showed clips of contestants dropping to the floor from a treadmill run, many people vomiting in the gym, and instances when caffeine pills were utilized to curb appetite. 'There's not any way that an entertaining show and a health show can 100% exist together. … One of them is always going to take the lead,' Borgman said. 'In the case of 'The Biggest Loser,' I feel like the entertainment value of the show far outran the health aspects of the show.' An extreme diet and exercise regimen is associated with significant health risks, Pearl said. Losing too much weight too quickly or not getting enough calories can lead to gallbladder complications, muscle loss and nutritional deficits, she said. Overexercising can result in heart problems, dehydration and injury –– which also prevents people from maintaining healthy behaviors. Eating a balanced diet and getting movement in your day is generally good for health, but the punishing approach to food and exercise showcased on 'The Biggest Loser' also worked against long-term health-promoting activities, Pearl added. 'One predictor and one recommendation for engaging in physical activity long term is to find an activity you enjoy,' she said. 'The kind of grueling, suffering activity that was shown on that show is not setting someone up to build a healthy, positive relationship with physical activity or with their body.' One theme that may have kept viewers coming back to the show was the hope that someone could make a dramatic, lasting change to their body. But a weight loss transformation that stood the test of time wasn't always necessarily the result even in 'The Biggest Loser,' Borgman said. A 2017 study following 14 contestants in the years after 'The Biggest Loser' wrapped found that many regained much or all the weight they had lost over the course of the show. The return of the weight makes sense, said Dr. Larissa McGarrity, clinical psychologist in physical medicine and rehabilitation at University of Utah Health. The degree of calorie restriction and intensity of exercise were at levels that neither the contestants nor the viewers could implement at home in a realistic way, she said. Also, the amount of weight lost from week to week was extreme. At times, show participants were losing up to double digits at each weekly weigh in. Experts tend to recommend a sustainable weight loss rate of 1 to 2 pounds per week, McGarrity said — adding that the best guidance is to utilize the methods you can keep up long-term. 'The answer instead is probably, 'how do I slowly make changes in my life that help me to get in the right nutrients to help my body feel good? How do I move in a way that will allow my body and mind to feel at its best over time?'' she said. 'Making too many changes at once tends to not go well for most people from a psychological or behavioral standpoint.' Even if viewers at home could implement the stringent protocol followed by 'The Biggest Loser' contestants, research suggests metabolic changes from the dramatic weight loss depicted on the show made it harder to keep the weight off. Six years after contestants were on the show, the 14 studied on average still had a slower metabolisms, even if they had regained about two-thirds of the weight they had lost, according to the study. Their bodies were naturally burning fewer calories throughout the day and increasing hunger cues. 'It essentially means that keeping the weight off long term is nearly impossible without continued extreme measures over many years, because your body will fight against you to maintain that weight or defend that weight at that initially higher level,' McGarrity said. Often interwoven into 'The Biggest Loser' –– from coaches, in depictions of bodies, and in the audience interactions –– was a lot of shame, McGarrity said. The format supported a myth around weight: that the size of a person's body is totally under their control, and having a larger body is a sign of lack of willpower or moral failing, she said. That myth ignores the realities of things like genetics, environment and individual metabolisms, and it paves the way for denigration and callousness, she said. 'Cruelty, verbal abuse, sort of indirect physical abuse, in terms of being forced to really torture your body in unhealthy ways –– there was a sense that if you're in a larger body, you deserve this,' said Oona Hanson, a parent coach who specializes in helping families navigate diet culture and eating disorders. 'It made us participate as viewers in kind of like a pity or even disgust response in terms of the way people's bodies were portrayed, in the way they talked about their bodies,' she added. The docuseries showed just how dehumanizing or degrading those images could be, with cameras shaking as contestants fell to make it look like they caused an earthquake or challenges asking contestants to carry whole loaves of bread in their mouths. 'Without really being completely aware of it, the show succeeded in making fun of fat people,' Borgman said. Some contestants did say that they found empowerment and representation in being part of a competition in which they succeeded in goals and accomplished physical feats, she added. But it isn't hard to find a clip from 'The Biggest Loser' in which contestants are put in disparaging situations, Pearl added. Content that stigmatizes the size of a person's body and emphasizes thinness at all costs impacts not just the contestants, but also the viewers at home, Hanson said. It's hard for those viewers not to internalize those negative stereotypes, affecting how people see their communities and themselves. 'The Biggest Loser' may have been canceled years ago, but 'Fit for TV' shares that the reality show's lasting influence underscores the fact that the United States has not elevated the way people talk about weight and bodies, Borgman added. 'We as a culture feel like we're super evolved. … We don't judge. We take people for who they are,' she said. 'I don't think that's true at all. So, I hope people walk away from this series and look at themselves a little bit more and how we treat people.' Get inspired by a weekly roundup on living well, made simple. Sign up for CNN's Life, But Better newsletter for information and tools designed to improve your well-being.
