Older and Stronger

Want to have a heart as strong as a 25-year-old’s when you’re 80? You can, with a lifelong exercise routine.
We all know what happens to our muscles when we don’t use them: They lose mass and start to wither. Not pretty. Well, the heart is no different. Research shows that when people are sedentary, their heart muscle mass shrinks with every passing decade.
You can avoid that frightening prospect by getting and staying active. Turns out, a lifetime of working out will not only preserve your heart’s muscle mass but build upon it. According to research presented at the annual scientific meeting of the American College of Cardiology in New Orleans, fit elderly people who exercised six or seven times a week consistently during their adult life had greater cardiac muscle mass than sedentary adults between the ages of 25 and 34.
Start pumping up your heart with a daily 30-minute walk. In addition to preserving the muscle in your heart, regular exercise can reduce your risk of developing coronary heart disease, the number one killer of men and women in the United States.