Detailed, evidence-based and personalized recommendations on optimal exercise for healthy longevity were recently released by the World Health Organization (WHO). The 58-page pdf delves deeply into the rationale for regular exercise, important contributing factors to exercise capabilities, and importantly, the impact of physical activity on mortality and age-related diseases.

“The decline in exercise capacity due to inactivity and a sedentary lifestyle results in significant health consequences, impairing the ability to perform daily activities and maintain independence,” WHO warns. “These declines are also associated with cognitive deterioration, particularly in reasoning, processing speed, attention, executive function, and memory.”

The guidance emphasizes personalizing exercise by understanding interindividual variability and the potential effects of various “doses.” Overall, the WHO experts write, “adopting a personalized approach and prescribing PRT [progressive resistance training] as a cornerstone of physical activity for older adults, combined with aerobic

and balance training where indicated and feasible, holds the potential to

maintain functional autonomy and enhance quality while mitigating the

risk of various age-related conditions.”

Similar to US guidelines, WHO recommends that adults ages 65 and older engage in at least 150 min of moderate-intensity or 75 min of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity weekly, plus muscle-strengthening activities on two or more days per week. The experts highlight: “The actual value of exercise as medicine includes 1) preventing

diseases for which [pharmacological] treatments are available, 2) supplementing effective medical or surgical interventions, 3) substituting less safe treatments with

exercise, a safer alternative, and 4) mainstreaming exercise in the management of conditions without other effective treatments, including addressing the most debilitating conditions affecting older adults globally, such as sarcopenia, frailty, disability, and dementia.”

To download the full report and all recommendations, click here