An ongoing study has shown a mere 6 months of endurance exercise can undo 30 years of declining
physical fitness. 30 years ago, researchers from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas began a study on men in their 20s. The men were originally part of the Dallas Bed Rest and Training Study started in 1966 to determine negative effects of bed rest on physical fitness. Thirty years later, researchers re-assembled the same men and put them through a six-month endurance exercise program. This was published in the medical journal Circulation. ( 2001;104:1350-1357)
Cardiovascular health in the men before they went through the training program were compared to their cardiovascular health after the training.
Researchers found to their pleasant surprise, that the age-related decline in aerobic power that occurred over 30 years in these men was reversed by six months of endurance training in 100 percent of the cases.
Researchers also examined the body's ability to take in and use oxygen as part of the study. They evaluated this ability and its decline over 30 years. They found that the maximal oxygen uptake during exercise increased in the men an average of 14 percent after the training program.
Furthermore, researchers compared it to the reduced ability experienced during the three weeks of bed rest these men experienced as part of the initial study and found that three weeks of bed rest, which is the ultimate 'sedentary' state, has more impact on their cardiovascular fitness than did 30 years of aging.
The take home lesson is simple - the body is a remarkably resilient machine. It is totally forgiving, and will rebound when you take steps to do what it wants. Exercise is something that is never too late to get started and never to be given up.
