A 31-day healthy aging plan to improve strength, mobility and heart health

 Did your competent? doctor get you recovered enough for this? Or was failure the only response?

A 31-day healthy aging plan to improve strength, mobility and heart health

If someone asked you why you exercise or make healthy food choices, what would your answer be? Maybe you want to boost your mood and energy, see muscle definition or feel better in your clothes.

But at the end of day, all of us can agree on one goal: living a long, healthy life where we avoid injury, stay strong and remain independent for as long as possible.

But if aging well is a priority, how exactly do we move and eat in a way that supports this goal?

Start TODAY dietitian Natalie Rizzo and TODAY Fitness Contributor Stephanie Mansour have the answers.

In honor of Healthy Aging Month, they are sharing the simple diet and fitness habits you can add to your daily routine that will help you prioritize cardiovascular health, maintain muscle mass and bone density and stay mobile as you age.

30-Day Healthy Aging Workout Plan

The most important thing to know is that it’s never too late to improve your health.

“Physical concerns like joint issues, a decrease in mobility, less balance and flexibility, deceased strength, and a reduction in cardiovascular endurance can all be addressed through your fitness routine!” says Mansour. “We’ve had Start TODAY members who have been winded after a slow 5-minute walk. After being consistent with their daily walks over a few months, they are walking a mile at a faster pace without getting winded! Similarly, adding a simple stretch routine to the end of your walks or workout can help tremendously. One of our Start TODAY Members committed to a daily, 5-mibute flexibility routine and was able to reach her toes in just a few weeks!”

This 31-day plan includes 3 important modalities that support longevity:

• Strength training: Combats muscle loss, improves bone density, boosts metabolism
• Cardio: Improves and maintains cardiovascular health, bone health, mental health, and balance
• Mobility and balance: Lowers risk of injury and chronic pain, helps increase independence as you age

Why Is Strength Training Important As We Age?

The bad news: we start losing muscle mass after the age of 30.

The good news: It’s never too late to build muscle.

“Start by adding strength training into your workout routine a few times a week,” says Mansour. “Adding muscle mass, building strength, and increasing bone density all help improve your quality of life as you get older.Think of aging as one of your motivators to do strength training!”

Why Is Cardio Exercise Important As We Age?

“The heart is a muscle and we keep it healthy by doing cardiovascular exercise,” says Mansour. “Things like walking, riding your bike, or doing cardio machines at the gym all help improve your heart health and endurance as you age.”

And you don’t have to do high-intensity or high-impact movement to reap the benefits. “Focusing on low-impact cardio is actually better for your joints and bones, especially as you age, unless you previously have been a runner or doing high-impact cardio with no issues,” says Mansour.

Why Is Mobility and Balance Important As We Age?

As we age, mobility and balance are good indicators of our physical health.

“Balance requires your body, brain, and nerves to all work together. This is one of the reasons why balance has been increasingly linked with longevity,” says Mansour. Not to mention, that better balance helps reduce trips and falls, which can lower your risk of injury.

“Start adding balance exercises into your workout routine by simply balancing on one foot for 10 seconds. If that’s easy, close your eyes and try it again. Other exercises to focus on balance include tree pose in yoga, and weighted one-legged exercises for strength training.”

Using mobility exercises to improve our range of motion is important for avoiding aches and pains, moving safely and efficiently through daily activities, and maintaining independence as age. “Doing simple things like arm circles, hugging one knee into your chest, and sitting up with your legs extended and folding forward to stretch the backs of your legs can go a long way towards improving your overall flexibility and mobility,” says Mansour.

For expert-led balance and mobility routines, download the Start TODAY app!

Why is Rest and Recovery Important As We Age?

Don’t forget about recovery! “Think about recovery as a ‘thank you’ for all of the hard work during your workout plan,” says Mansour. “It’s so important, especially as we age, because our bodies do so much for us in our daily lives. Stretching, foam rolling, deep breathing, and even massages help sustain our bodies in addition to our workouts.”

Tips for Starting a Fitness Routine That Supports Longevity

• Ease into it: “Starting a routine too fast and too hard is one way I see people sidelining themselves due to injury or strain because their bodies just aren’t as agile, flexible, or adaptable as they were when they were younger,” says Mansour. “Think about it: over time, all of your repetitive positions like sitting at a desk, lying on your bed, relaxing on a couch, sitting at a dinner table or in the car, etc. take a toll on your body. When you add in day in and day out usage and age, plus repetitive sedentary positions, it’s hard to go from 0 to 100 with a workout plan.”
• Don’t forget core strength: “Core strength helps to keep the middle of the body strong and tight to reduce the likelihood of lower-back injuries,” says Mansour. “Core strength also helps increase overall strength and balance!”
• Incorporate power: “Power is how quickly you can apply strength. Training power focuses on exercises like standing up quickly from sitting on a bench,” says Mansour. “Focus on things like quickly walking while carrying a heavy weight or quick jumps. But remember to honor your body’s current state and if lifting heavy objects or doing high-impact exercises are not appropriate for your body, focus on other things like balance and mobility.”
• Remember that 5 minutes is better than nothing: “I have spent almost two decades working with people primarily age 40 and up. The old school mentality of long workouts, dripping in sweat, and pushing yourself to your limits is what we grew up thinking was right,” says Mansour. “However, that hasn’t motivated all of us to commit to exercise. Dialing it back and thinking about how you can make fitness a part of your everyday life and something that you look forward to is how I’ve helped thousands of people become consistent with their fitness routine.” That’s why she always encourages people to start with just 5 minutes a day. “I do recommend walking because all you have to do is lace up your shoes and get moving,” she says. “After that, add in stretching. And after that, focus on strength training.”

• Breakfast: Greek yogurt with berries and nuts, or eggs with whole-grain toast and cottage cheese
• Lunch: Salmon salad, turkey sandwich, or a wrap with mashed chickpeas
• Dinner: Fish, chicken, tofu, or lentils with vegetables and whole grains
• Snacks: Cottage cheese, edamame, roasted chickpeas, or nuts
• Diet Tips That Promote Longevity

As with any health goal, we can’t ignore the food on our plate. Dietitian Natalie Rizzo shares simple eating strategies that promote longevity.

Make Protein the Star of Every Meal

“As we get older, we naturally lose muscle mass, but eating enough protein throughout the day can help preserve strength, mobility, and independence,” says Rizzo. “Instead of saving all your protein for dinner, aim for 25–30 grams at each meal.”

She shares some easy examples:

Eat the Rainbow

“The natural pigments that make fruits and vegetables colorful are packed with antioxidants that help protect our cells from damage and support heart health, brain health, and healthy aging,” says Rizzo. She suggests setting the simple goal of including at least two different colors of fruits or vegetables at every meal.

“Some easy ways to do that are to add mixed berries to oatmeal or yogurt, toss spinach and chopped tomato into eggs, snack on carrots, peppers, or snap peas with hummus or stir frozen vegetables into soups, pasta, or grain bowls,” she says. “This simple Sweet Potato and Black Bean Quesadilla is one of my favorite colorful meals from the Start TODAY app.”

Feed Your Gut

“Your gut microbiome plays a surprisingly important role in healthy aging, influencing digestion, immunity, and even brain health,” Rizzo says. “One of the best ways to support it is by eating enough fiber. Aim for 25–35 grams of fiber per day by including high fiber foods, like oats, vegetables, especially sweet potato and broccoli, fruits, like raspberries or pears, beans or lentils, and almonds or chia seeds.”

This article was originally published on TODAY.com

For maximum healthspan, you need both HIIT and steady-state cardio. Here’s exactly how much you need to extend your healthspan.

Your competent? doctor WILL 100% GUARANTEE that HIT will not cause a stroke? By verifying that your aneurysms will not blow out? Not just pooh poohing your question? I will never be doing any high intensity training.

Do you really want to do high intensity training?

Because Andrew Marr blames high-intensity training for his stroke. 

Can too much exercise cause a stroke?

Or maybe something here:

healthspan (3 posts to December 2024)

The latest here:

For maximum healthspan, you need both HIIT and steady-state cardio. Here’s exactly how much you need to extend your healthspan.

When it comes to cardio, there are Zone 2 zealots, and others who hammer session after session of HIIT. Who’s right?

If your goal is an increased healthspan, a new research review says you shouldn’t take sides: You need both.

Scientists looked at 18 different studies on older adults that examined the 

[lon-jev-i-tee] noun

Living a long life; influenced by genetics, environment, and lifestyle.

Learn More

longevity-boosting effects of continuous aerobic activity (regular old cardio) and high-intensity interval training (HIIT), where bouts of intense work are alternated with periods of lighter exercise or complete rest. 

The results: HIIT aficionados increased their VO2 max, a measure of how much oxygen muscles can use, and a key indicator of healthy longevity, by 15-20 percent within six months. High-intensity work boosted study participants’ muscle strength by 12 percent and reduced fall risk. HIIT also bumped up brain power, increasing cognitive function by 10-15 percent, especially giving a jolt to memory.

Cardio work also juiced VO2 max (by 10-15 percent), and had particular benefits for mental health: Cardio exercisers had a 5-10 percent reduction in depressive symptoms, and had better mental well-being.

To get down to the nitty-gritty on using the research’s findings in your own training—how each type of cardio works, how much you should do of each, and how intense those sessions should be—I spoke with a known preacher of the aerobic gospel, Mike Nelson, Ph.D., C.S.C.S., an associate professor at the Carrick Institute.

First, Let’s Talk (Regular) Cardio

For years, “cardio” was the whipping boy of the fitness world. Why do boring, steady-state aerobic work when you could get all kinds of sexy benefits by upping your intensity? You could “torch fat” and “burn more calories for days after your workout” by trading in medium-intensity work for all-out intervals. Cardio’s benefits? They stopped as soon as you got off the “dreadmill.”

The problem, Nelson says, wasn’t with aerobic work. It was how we did it.

“What people ended up doing was saying, ‘I’m going to go for a run,’” he says. They ran as hard as they could for as long as they could with joint-busting form. As a result, they weren’t actually doing aerobic exercise, where the body can get oxygen to their muscles, and they often got injured. They didn’t get better at the exercise, or reap its benefits. They just got hurt.

The “why” for doing aerobic work, Nelson says, is that it works different muscle fibers.

“If I have a muscle fiber, and I want to make it as big as possible, I don’t have to worry about oxygen diffusing into the fiber. It’s an anaerobic fiber,” he says. Our “fast-twitch” muscles, made of these anaerobic fibers, are used to do intense work, and they draw on the carbohydrate stores in our muscles for fuel. Work these muscles, and they get bigger … but you don’t get better at using oxygen.

Cardio, on the other hand, builds aerobic fibers, or “slow-twitch” muscles. These fibers allow oxygen to pass in and out, and are able to use oxygen to fuel contraction—that’s what “aerobic” means. When these fibers get more efficient, your aerobic capacity (a.k.a. your VO2 max) improves.

So, How Intense Should My Cardio Be?

You might have heard about “Zone 2” cardio, an easy level of aerobic work that is easy to do almost every day with minimal recovery, and that builds aerobic capacity. When pro runners and elite athletes talk about “easy runs,” it’s shorthand for Zone 2. To know if you’re in this zone, you should be to do the cardio work while rattling off a long sentence—15 or so words—without needing to stop to take a breath.

This pace can be tough to find, though, and can feel uncomfortably slow, especially if you’re from the “just go for a run” school. For Nelson, finding an “easy” aerobic intensity can be even simpler than using a talk test. His goal, he says, is to go slow and be smooth.

“I think people get too stuck in, ‘oh, I need to be in this or that heart rate zone,’” he says. “Run one or two miles. Try to make it as quiet as possible … my whole goal is to be able to breathe through my nose, and see how fluid and simple and easy I can make it.”

Over the course of a few weeks, Nelson says, short workouts focused on ease and smoothness will let you do longer cardio sessions while feeling comfortable at this “easy” pace.

Cheat Sheet: How much cardio should I do?

• Aim for at least 20-30 minutes of this “easy” work six times per week. The more you do, the more your aerobic capacity will grow, Nelson says. To maintain your VO2 max and grow it slowly,

How to Use HIIT

In high-intensity interval training (HIIT), short, intense bursts of exercise are alternated with periods of easier exercise, or complete rest. This type of cardio exploded in popularity in the early aughts, and with good reason: HIIT sessions are time efficient, and burn off more body fat even when sessions are shorter than with steady-state work. There’s also all those longevity-boosting benefits explored in the 2025 review—improved cognition, memory, VO2 max, and muscle mass.

The trouble with some HIIT sessions, though, is that they aren’t HIIT at all. In order to reap all these high-intensity efforts, the intensity of the “work” sections of a HIIT workout need to be near your maximum capacity. Many exercisers just work kind of hard, doing medium-intensity intervals, Nelson says.

How Do I Do HIIT So It’s Truly High Intensity?

“The biggest bang for your buck is with intervals that target increasing your VO2 max, and we’ve got pretty good literature on that now,” Nelson says. To do this, you’ll want intervals that are longer than you might be used to, and performed at or near your VO2 max. Here’s Nelson’s tips for designing a HIIT interval session that accomplishes both:

1. Choose a cardio modality where it’s easy to get to your max, and repeat it: Running and normal cycling are tough for true high-intensity interval training, because it’s hard to reach and maintain a maximum effort. Nelson recommends the rowing machine, or a stationary bike with arm action (like an Assault bike).

2. Perform intervals of 2-6 minutes: While some intervals have shown results with shorter work durations, Nelson says, most of those studies were on untrained populations. Your best bet is to go over 120 seconds per effort.

3. Work at or near your VO2 max during the work portion: This is the key to getting results, Nelson says. You want to be working as hard as you can for the length of every interval. If you’re using a rower, you can do a simple VO2 max test: Just row 2,000 meters as fast as you can in one session, then put the number into this calculator (there’s science behind this). During the work portion of your intervals, that’s how fast and hard you should row.

4. Rest completely between intervals: Stop working all together after your 2-6 minute bout, and let your heart rate come down below 100 or 90 bpm. This may take several minutes.

5. Repeat only as many times as you can maintain the same work intensity: When you start your second interval, the intensity of your work and speed needs to match the first interval. Same goes for the third, fourth, or however many you do. If you can’t maintain that level of intensity, end the workout, Nelson says: You’re not getting the benefits anymore. Come back in your next session, and see if you can complete the “failed” interval at the full intensity.

Cheat Sheet: How much HIIT should I do?

• One VO2 max interval session per week. Start trying to do just two or three intervals. It may take months, but try to build up to 5-7.

The information provided in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Do not use this information to diagnose or treat any health condition. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives. Read our disclaimers.

Brain scans reveal benefits of a cardio workout for stroke survivors

So where did you put the stroke protocol for this so that all the 10 million yearly stroke survivors  can find it? Oh, you did nothing of the sort, you expect this to magically appear to all stroke survivors? You're full of lazy shit then. Good to know we can count on your incompetence. 

Brain scans reveal benefits of a cardio workout for stroke survivors

A world-first Australian study funded by the Heart Foundation and undertaken at The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health is using brain imaging to understand how exercise can repair brain function after a stroke.

Stroke survivors have a high risk of developing problems with memory, processing information, speaking and dementia, as well as physical disabilities such as impaired vision, weakness and paralysis.
While it is already known that exercise can help stroke survivors recover brain function after a stroke, this is the first time that MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) has been used to precisely track the level of neuron regeneration following exercise programs.
Researchers from the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health were able to measure the regrowth in total brain volume (TBV) and hippocampal volume (HV) of stroke survivors who took part in two eight-week exercise programs.
They are using the scans, combined with memory tests, to identify how effective exercise is regenerating brain tissue after an ischaemic stroke, which is the most common form of stroke in Australia.

The Post Ischaemic Stroke Cardiovascular Exercise Study (PISCES) pilot study followed 35 stroke survivors. They were divided into groups that did aerobic, strength and resistance exercises.
Two months after their stroke they did one hour of exercise, three times a week for eight weeks and had an MRI scan. The MRI scan was repeated 12 months after their stroke.
The PISCES researchers focused on the growth of the hippocampus, which governs memory, emotional responses, spatial processing and navigation.
On the side of the brain damaged by the stroke, they found there was a 2.9 percent growth in HV compared to a group of stroke survivors in another observational study.
Researcher, Dr Amy Brodtmann, who is the co-head of Dementia at the Florey Institute, said they monitored brain atrophy, or shrinkage, because it was an accurate predictor of cognitive problems after a stroke, especially if there was a reduction in the size of the hippocampus.
“Exercise seems to have slowed or stopped the atrophy on the opposite side of the brain while possibly leading to new neuron growth on the side of the lesions,” Dr Brodtmann said.
“With more research, MRI scans could help us understand how exercise protects the brain after stroke. The study will help us pinpoint the intensity and frequency that is needed to improve brain function after a stroke,” she said.
She stressed that these were early but encouraging results that would be further tested in larger studies.
Dr Brodtmann said this was the first time in the world that such a mechanistic approach, using MRI, had been used to assess the effect of exercise on brain regeneration after an ischaemic stroke.
Amanda Kelly, 57, was part of the exercise program and believes it helped her to recover from her stroke three years ago.
The South Morang resident confesses she did virtually no exercise before her stroke, but she slowly built up her fitness during the program. She lost vision in one eye after the stroke and had to give up her job of 40 years as a hairdresser, but she is more active now, walking the dog and taking her two-year-old granddaughter to the park.
“I don’t know where I would be without all of their wonderful work.”
Heart Foundation CEO, Adjunct Professor John Kelly, said more research was needed because it would improve the quality of life for hundreds of thousands of Australians living with the impact of stroke.
“Stroke is still a major cause of death in Australia, but advancements in research and treatment mean many people are surviving strokes and living with serious, ongoing health problems,” Professor Kelly said.
In 2017-18, more than 66,000 Australians suffered a stroke(1).
References
1. Australian Bureau of Statistics 2018, National Health Survey: First results, 2017-18, Australia, ABS cat. n

Proof That Intense Cardio May Help You Live Longer

If you don't think you can do this try this. Why didn't your doctor tell you about this?

Want to Exercise Harder? Try Drinking Beet Juice

Proof That Intense Cardio May Help You Live Longer

If you knew that simply adding more cardio to your life would help you live longer, would you work out more?

A new study published in Science Advances shows that that exercise endurance (a sexy term for intense cardio that increases your breathing and heart rate) may help keep our telemores(sic) in tact. Telemores(sic) are the protective “caps” on the ends of our DNA chromosomes which keep us young.

And just to underscore this study’s significance, as we age — and with added effects of stress and disease — our telemores(sic) structures start to break down. So, finding ways to keep our telemores(sic)long and strong give us a better chance of living a longer life.

To prove that exercise could add on years to our life, a research team had ten healthy and young volunteers cycle for 45 minutes. They found that the amount of telomere transcripts (which control telemores)(sic) increased in volunteers post-workout.

The experiment results also support recent theories that exercise and diet (another potential influence on telemores)(sic) could delay or reduce the effects of aging. (Wrinkle prevention? Sign me up!)

If you're interested in increasing your lifeline, add more endurance to your workout routine. Endurance exercise includes everything cardio — from swimming to dancing — at an intense level for extended periods of time (hello romp session!).

In addition to longevity, exercise also keeps us sharp as a whip, influencing everything from our brain’s blood flow to cognitive functioning. In fact, research shows that specific cardio strengthens specific mental functions. For example, ballroom dancing helps with memory, or Tai Chi can help with problem solving.

If this new research won’t get you to get out there to break a sweat, we don’t know what will.