The results suggest that in many ways he is the epitome of fit, healthy aging – something that is not found in the heart, muscles and lungs of someone less than half his age. But in other ways he’s ordinary: a one-time baker and battery maker who didn’t exercise regularly with his kneecaps and didn’t start exercising regularly until he was in his 70s, and still trains mostly in his backyard.
Although his fitness began later in life, he has now rowed around the world nearly 10 times and won four world championships. So what did the researchers say his late-life exercise did to his aging body?
“If we want to understand aging, we need to look at the most active elderly,” said Bas van Huren, a doctoral researcher at Maastricht University in the Netherlands and one of the study’s authors.
Many questions remain unanswered about the biology of aging, and the cooling and loss of muscle mass that normally occurs as we age is normal and inevitable, or perhaps partly due to a lack of physical activity.
If some people stay strong and make it into their golden years, the implication is that many of us can too, he says.
His colleague Lorcan Daly, assistant professor of exercise science at Ireland’s Shannon University of Technology, knows the example of successful aging well. His grandfather is Morgan, the 2022 indoor rowing world champion in the lightweight 90 to 94 age group.
What made Morgan particularly interesting to the researchers was that he didn’t start playing sports or exercising until he was 73 years old. Retired and somewhat absent, he attended rowing practice with one of his other grandsons, a competitive college rower. . The trainer invited him to use one of the machines.
“He never looked back,” Daley said.
The highest heart rate on record
At the time, 92-year-old Morgan was invited to the Physiology Laboratory at the University of Limerick in Ireland to measure his height, weight and body composition to collect detailed information about his diet. Also check his metabolism and heart and lung function.
Then they put him on a rowing machine and asked him to run a simulated 2000m time trial while monitoring his heart, lungs and muscles.
“This was one of the most inspiring days I’ve had in the lab,” said Philip Jackman, professor of healthy ageing, fitness and nutrition at the University of Limerick and senior author of the study.
Morgan has proven to be a static powerhouse, his 165 kilograms composed of 80 percent muscle and only 15 percent fat, a body composition considered healthy for a man decades younger.
During the time trial, his heart rate rose to 153 beats per minute, higher than the expected maximum heart rate for his age and among the highest for a man in his 90s, the researchers believe, indicating a very strong heart.
His heart rate also accelerated to this point, meaning his heart was able to supply the working muscles with oxygen and fuel more quickly. These “oxygen uptake kinetics,” a key indicator of cardiovascular health, were comparable to those of a typical healthy 30- or 40-year-old, Daly said.
Exercise 40 minutes a day
Perhaps most surprisingly, the researchers noted that he developed this fitness through simple, relatively short bouts of exercise.
- Consistency: Every week, he walks about 30 kilometers (about 18.5 miles), an average of 40 minutes a day.
- A mix of easy, medium and hard training; About 70 percent of these exercises are easy, and Morgan rarely gets tired. Another 20 percent is at a hard but tolerable pace, and the final 10 is at a full, easily sustainable intensity.
- Weight training: He trains weights two or three times a week, using adjustable dumbbells to complete about three sets of lunges and curls, repeating each movement until his muscles are too tired to continue.
- High protein diet Eat a lot of protein, the daily intake is usually more than 60 grams of protein for an overweight person.
How physical activity changes with age
“This is a fascinating case study that illuminates our understanding of the adaptation of physical activity across the lifespan,” said Scott Trappe, director of the Human Performance Laboratory at Ball State University in Indiana. He has studied many older athletes but was not involved in the new study.
He added: “We are still learning about starting an exercise program late in life, but the evidence is clear that the human body retains the ability to adapt to exercise at any age.”
In fact, Morgan’s fitness and physical strength at 93 suggests he has a significant amount of muscle and aerobic capacity “we shouldn’t lose” as we age, Jackman said. He says exercise helps us build and maintain a strong and fit body regardless of age.
Of course, Morgan probably had some genetic advantages, the scientists pointed out. Rowing talent seems to run in the family.
And its competitive performance in recent years is slower than it was 15, 10 or even five years ago. Exercise does not reverse the effects of aging. But it can reduce our body’s losses, Morgan’s example seems to tell us. It can fix the slump.
It also offers other, less physical rewards. “There’s a certain joy in making it to the world championships,” Morgan told me through his grandson, almost joking himself.
“I started from nowhere, and I suddenly realized that there’s a lot of fun in doing this,” he said.
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