Primetime Fitness doesn’t just promote mobility; it can turn back the clock.


No news flash here: Physical activity is good for you. Study after study proves it. What might surprise you it that it’s never too late to start.


According to a 2009 study by Jochan- an Stessman, M.D., and colleagues at Hebrew University Medical School, seniors who exercise—even if they start as late as age 85—live longer, healthier, happier lives.


Dave Lewis Hiking James River Face


“Despite the increasing likelihood of comorbidity, frailty, depen- dence and ever-shortening life expectancy, remaining and even starting to be physically active increases the likelihood of living longer and staying functionally independent,” wrote the research- ers. “Our findings clearly support the continued encouragement of physical activity, even among the oldest old.”


And physical activity promotes more than mobility. Neurosci- entist Peter Snyder, a researcher at Brown University’s Alpert Medical School, says the hippocampus—a small structure deep within the brain that plays an essential role in learning and memory—can continue to form new cells and make new con- nections between cells.


Fellow neuroscientist Art Kramer and colleagues at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign found that a moderate amount of aerobic exercise over the course of a year increased the volume of the hippocampus by two percent in a group of seniors.“We can think of [it] as turning back the clock about two years,” Kramer says.


Parkinsons Yoga Class 7


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