The Lifelong Habit Linked To More Resilient Ageing

The useful part

There are many reasons to start running in autumn – the cooler temperatures and lower humidity are ideal conditions, for starters. If you need a bit more motivation, this might help: new research suggests that decades of aerobic activity could keep us more resilient in our old age. The study, published in GeroScience, took a look at what happened to people's bodies after years of cycling, swimming, and jogging.

How it works

• Vitality capacity, meanwhile, is the "body's physiological reserve", which determines how much intrinsic capability a person has.
• In this research, scientists assessed vitality capacity across 12 biomarkers.
• Researchers compared people who had done some form of aerobic activity at least three times a week for 30 years with those who were mostly sedentary.
• As it turns out, these activities seemed to boost their "vitality capacity" as they aged.

What to take from it

Organisation (WHO) describes intrinsic capacity as "the composite of all the physical and mental capacities that an individual can draw on at any point in time". In short, the higher your vitality capacity is in your later years, the more functional and resilient you may be.