Study reveals this type of exercise lowers your biological age by 9 years
Specifically, sweating due to high-impact exercise, which can lower your biological age by nearly a decade, according to researchers.
The study, conducted at Brigham Young University and published in the Preventive Medicine medical journal, looked at the data of more than 5,800 adults aged 20-84. The study looked at the participants' biological age by examining the length of their telomeres — these are the protective DNA caps at the end of chromosomes.
Telomeres prevent your DNA from getting damaged; they shorten as we get older, and shortened telomeres are often associated with age-related diseases. The measurement is taken through blood samples.
The researchers found that people who consistently performed high levels of physical activity, specifically high-impact activity, had longer telomeres than those with sedentary lifestyles.
For the study, to be highly active, women had to engage in 30 minutes of jogging per day and 40 minutes for men, five days a week. They concluded that regular high-impact exercise added nine years of reduced cellular aging.
'If you want to see a real difference in slowing your biological aging, it appears that a little exercise won't cut it,' exercise science professor Larry Tucker said. 'You have to work out regularly at high levels.'
Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips.
If you're new to jogging, it can be difficult to know where to start. Mixing jogging with walking intervals as you get fitter and build up your distance, also known as Jeffing, can be beneficial. Here's everything you need to know about Jeffing, and a round-up of the best running shoes on the market.
That said, if you're not a runner or you're worried about the impact of running on your joints, high-intensity training doesn't have to involve pounding the sidewalk or hours on the treadmill.
HIIT training, cycling sprints on a stationary bike, taking a spin class, or using the rowing machine in the gym all count as high-intensity exercise. Find the one that works for you, and you'll increase your cardiovascular fitness while lowering your biological age.
Follow Tom's Guide on Google News to get our up-to-date news, how-tos, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Tom's Guide
a day ago
- Tom's Guide
Forget the gym — build muscle from home with this 5-move resistance band workout
Whether you're at home or heading away on a trip, it can be difficult to stick to a workout routine. Your apartment or hotel may not have a gym, and even if it does, it might not have the necessary equipment. As a personal trainer, I am often asked how people can stay active when they're away. I always say, walk as much as possible, and always pack a resistance band. One of the best resistance bands is a lightweight piece of kit that can help you work your full body, adding tension throughout exercises and challenging your muscles. If you're not sure how to use a resistance band, I've put together a workout that targets your lower and upper body, challenging your muscles and stamina. Let's be clear from the start — a resistance band isn't going to shape your body like a set of dumbbells or a heavy barbell. You are limited with resistance bands and can't progressively overload (continually keep increasing the weight over time) as much as you can with actual weights. I will always advocate for heavy weightlifting, as this is the best way to build strength and muscle, but bands certainly have their place. Research has even found that resistance band exercises can help to improve strength in exercises such as squats, bench presses, and bicep curls. Participants in the study added an average of 6kg to their lifts after eight weeks of resistance band training. Resistance bands are also a great tool in helping to activate muscles before your main workout. Activating your glutes, for example, before a lower-body workout means you work the correct muscles during certain exercises. For example, on hip thrusts, your glutes will be fired up and ready to work rather than your lower back taking the load. This also helps to reduce the chance of injuries. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. For the workout below, all you need is a small loop resistance band. This workout will activate your muscles, help to improve your muscular endurance, and raise your heart rate. Aim to do the allocated number of reps per move, leaving 20 to 30 seconds between each exercise. Repeat the whole circuit three or more times. 20 reps 20 reps 40 pulses 15 reps on each side 15 reps each arm Follow Tom's Guide on Google News to get our up-to-date news, how-tos, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.
Tom's Guide
2 days ago
- Tom's Guide
Tom's Guide Awards 2025: Our favorite mattresses, pillows and more
Actually getting a good night's sleep can make such a difference the following day, when you wake up feeling refreshed and energized. Whether it be your mattress or your pillow, using the wrong bedding for your preferred sleeping position can leave you feeling groggy with aches and pains all over. From hybrid mattresses to memory foam ones or even more affordable 'in a box' style mattresses, you have plenty of options when it comes to upgrading your bedding to get the kind of rest your body deserves and we've tried them all. Our team of experts has tested and reviewed all of the latest mattresses, pillows and other bedding gear for the Tom's Guide Awards 2025. Below, we highlight our favorite mattresses, toppers, protectors, pillows and more from the last 12 months that have transformed the quality of our sleep. We've been testing mattresses for nearly five years at Tom's Guide and the Saatva Classic has been our top-recommended bed for nearly as long. In fact, this is the fourth year in a row we've crowned the Classic our overall winner. After retesting it from top to base, we awarded it 5 out of 5 stars, praising the stunning balance of comfort versus support. Our Managing Editor of Sleep, Claire Davies, who slept on the Classic for seven months, declared that it revolutionized her sleep. 'Post-pregnancy left me with ongoing hip and lower back pain that got worse whenever I tried to lie down,' she said. 'I just couldn't get comfy for long enough on any bed or mattress topper I tried, until I started sleeping on the Saatva Classic. From the first night on the Saatva, all that discomfort melted away. It was such a relief to feel comfy in bed again.' Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. 2025 has seen the arrival of some very strong Saatva rivals (the Helix Midnight Luxe and the Brooklyn Bedding Copperflex Pro being two), but so far none of them are the whole package like the Saatva Classic. To us, it is still the best mattress you can buy for superb comfort and support, tailored to your exact sleeping position and body weight, and made from natural and organic toxin-free materials right here in America. The DreamCloud is another repeat Tom's Guide Award Winner, earning the title of the best mattress in a box for the second year in a row. Updated for 2025, the DreamCloud Classic offers exceptional support and comfort at an affordable price (roughly $699 for a queen), outperforming many expensive rivals in our lab-based tests. At 12' tall and with a soft-touch quilted cover, it also looks the part; more a hotel-style mattress than a budget-friendly boxed bed. One of the big attractions with the DreamCloud is the use of therapeutic foam that contours your body to relieve pressure points. You don't normally get this level of pressure relief from a cheaper mattress, making the DreamCloud a unicorn in the affordable bed market. The benefits (a forever warranty and year's sleep trial) are also relatively unheard of for a sub-$700 queen mattress. Add all of that up and there's no doubt as to why the DreamCloud Classic has taken home this award once again. The Saatva Classic is our overall mattress winner for the Tom's Guide Awards 2025 and our best hybrid mattress of the year too. Why? Because it comes in three firmness levels and two heights it's easy to match it to your sleeping position and body weight, making it one of the most customizable beds on the market. But there's much more... The large majority of our testing panel also awarded the Saatva Classic top marks for lumbar support, pressure relief (no more sore points across your body), and how it doesn't cling on to excess heat and turn your bed into an inferno at night. We loved sleeping on the 11.5' Luxury Firm version of the Classic and found it hard to fault (see our Saatva Classic mattress review for our full testing notes). The slightly bouncy feel makes it easier to move around on, and the edge support is the strongest we've tested – you could park a truck on the edge of this bed and it would not fall off. (Ok, maybe not a truck, but the edge support is so superb you can sleep on every inch to maximize space.) Even with a recent $40 price hike due to mattress tariffs the Saatva Classic is still good value for a luxury handcrafted hybrid bed made from non-toxic, premium materials – a comparable mattress sold in store would cost lots more. So when you add this to the unbeatable performance, high hotel-style build quality, and generous benefits (year's sleep trial, lifetime warranty and free White Glove Delivery), it's easy to see why the Saatva Classic is still our most-recommended hybrid bed. The Nectar Premier is the slightly softer and more luxurious alternative to the Nectar Classic, the previous top ranking option in our best memory foam mattress guide and a prior Tom's Guide Award winner. The Premier has earned its spot in this year's Tom's Guide Awards by delivering that classic memory foam feel most of us love and crave: a full body 'hug' and a plush, contouring surface you just can't wait to sink into after a long, hard day. We found the Nectar Premier to be most comfortable for side sleeping, as the dense cushioning cradles the hips and shoulders to minimize numbness or aching. We enjoyed it for back sleeping too (there's good lumbar support here), making it a decent choice for combi sleepers who switch positions through the night. And while we're not saying that the Nectar Premier can put an end to your sleep divorce, the superb motion isolation is ideal for couples as the generous layers of foam eat up any movement from your partner for a more peaceful night's sleep. Side sleeping is the most popular and healthiest sleep position in the world but it isn't without its challenges. Chief among those is intense pressure on your shoulders and hips if you're lying on the wrong mattress for this sleeping position and your body weight. With the majority of our testing panel comprising side sleepers, we really know our stuff when it comes to recommending the best mattress for side sleepers. For us, the Helix Midnight Luxe is the cream of the side lying crop. This hotel-style bed is opulent from tip to toe, delivering bags of pressure relief (goodbye, painful pressure points) without hanging on to excess heat (yep, it's hot sleeper safe). The other big draw is motion isolation: as Nicola Appleton explains in our full review, you'll barely feel any movement from those you share a bed with. Expensive, but worth the price — and a worthy winner of this Tom's Guide Award. We know from rigorous testing that the best mattresses for stomach sleepers are all about support and that's something the Helix Dawn Mattress delivers by the bucketful. This hybrid bed has stared-down some tough competition in 2025 (the Plank Firm Mattress is a double-sided dream for stomach sleeping), but the Helix Dawn takes the win here by pairing immense support with a good value price. Tom's Guide Senior Sleep Writer Ruth Jones tested the Dusk Luxe and said that while stomach sleeping normally puts pressure on your back, she felt 'refreshed and rested' when sleeping on this mattress. The best mattress toppers aren't just for fixing up old mattresses. They're also good for softening hard beds, cooling hot beds, and enabling you to experience the comfort of a better mattress for a fraction of the price. For us, the Tempur-Pedic Tempur-Adapt + Cooling Mattress Topper does all that and more. We first tested the original 3' Tempur-Adapt topper and found it to provide cloud-like plushness, yet it had a tendency to trap body heat. We tested it again with a + Cooling upgrade (with cool-touch cover) for our review and the difference in sleep comfort was enormous. 'I spent two weeks sleeping on the Tempur-Adapt + Cooling Topper loved how it delivered Tempur Pedic's signature comfort without the usual heat retention,' said reviewer Alsion Barretta.'If you're not ready to invest in a new mattress, this topper is an easy, affordable way to add a big upgrade to your bed.' Since our new bedding writer Becky George joined our team last September we've been testing more pillows than ever. The one that stood out from the crowd as our top recommended pillow is the Coop Home Goods Adjustable Pillow, a foam and fiber fill design that uses an adjustable loft to appeal to all sleep styles. While the flat support of the Tempur-Pedic Tempur-Cloud pillow is perfect for stomach sleeping and the ergonomic build of the Nest Bedding Easy Breather Pillow suits side sleepers, the Coop Home Goods Adjustable Pillow can be made taller or smaller to suit your needs. Becky praised the 'feathery softness' of the fill and noted as a combination sleeper who tends to change sleep position, the Coop Home Goods Pillow kept her comfy in all of them. If ever there was a Goldilocks pillow, this is it. Mattress protectors might seem like a boring purchase at first, but in reality they make a huge difference to how long your bed lasts and how healthy you feel when sleeping on it. Fancy lying face to face with stale sweat, dust mites, body oils and more? No, we didn't think so. The Coop Home Goods Waterproof Mattress Protector is the number one rated product in our best mattress protectors guide and our top-recommended option for all sleepers. It takes home this Tom's Guide Award because we feel it offers excellent quality for the money, it's breathable, quiet (no annoying crinkly noises here), and fully waterproof. In short, the Coop Home Goods Waterproof Mattress Protector delivers everything you need to keep your mattress safe from stains, spills, allergens, and other nasties. Our Managing Editor of Sleep, Claire Davies, uses it on her mattress and wouldn't be without it now. TikTok favorite the Hatch Restore 3, aka our best sunrise alarm clock of the year, packs a whole load of functionality into one sleek device. We're talking authentic sunrise simulation, 60+ sleep soundtracks, and a sundown setting to help you chill out and drop off. All that, plus a variety of alarms and cheerful sunrise settings to get you out of bed fast and raring to go in the morning – a godsend during the depths of winter. The Hatch Restore 3 is our top pick for anyone who needs a hand creating a consistent bedtime routine and wake-up time, both of which will improve your sleep health and your overall wellbeing in turn. An absolute must for Fall and winter sleep, and a worthy winner of our first ever Tom's Guide Best Sunrise Alarm Clock Award. Follow Tom's Guide on Google News to get our up-to-date news, how-tos, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Over 60? Here's how walking faster can help unlock healthy ageing and increase independence
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Fast walking is one of the best ways to exercise as you get older, because it can help you get fitter and healthier without putting too much impact on your joints and muscles. A new study led by researchers at the University of Chicago Medicine has also found that increasing your walking cadence — the number of steps you take per minute — by 14 can help reduce frailty and increase physical function in older adults. This advice differs from previous suggestions on how fast to walk to enjoy greater health benefits by providing a clear target, which you can target using apps or one of the best fitness trackers to monitor your cadence. What does the research say? There were 102 participants in the study that was designed to see if increasing walking cadence could improve physical independence in older adults deemed as frail or at risk of becoming frail. Frailty is a medical condition that makes older adults more vulnerable in general, increasing the risk of falls and decreasing independence. The study found that those who increased their cadence by 14 steps per minute — to around 100 steps per minute — experienced clear improvements to their physical function, and were able to walk further in a standardized test. How to put these findings into practice If you're concerned about frailty then you can put this advice into practice by first determining your normal walking cadence. You can measure this manually by counting the steps you take per minute, or by using an app or fitness tracker that monitors cadence. Once you have your baseline increase your cadence to a level that feels brisk but still comfortable. To help you maintain a faster cadence you can use an app or fitness tracker, or a simple metronome app set to the right beats per minute. Any kind of walking can help you get fitter though, especially if you include some faster intervals in your walks, and you don't have to push to exactly 14 extra steps per minute if that's proving too challenging. Follow Tom's Guide on Google News to get our up-to-date news, how-tos, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button. More from Tom's Guide Forget push-ups — according to a scientist, these are the only two upper-body exercises you'll ever need Forget pull-ups — you only need 5 moves and a pair of dumbbells to build upper body strength and improve your posture Ditch the gym! This 5-move strength workout sculpts upper body muscle with just a pair of dumbbells
