Longevity: Why Strength and Cardio Are the Best Investment You Can Make

The Real Goal — Not Just a Longer Life, But a Better One

When most people think about living longer, they often picture a future of extended retirement, more birthdays, and watching their grandchildren grow up. But is simply adding extra years to life really the ultimate goal?

Increasingly, experts in health and longevity are shifting focus from merely extending lifespan to something much more valuable: healthspan. Healthspan is the number of years we live in good health—active, independent, and free from serious illness. In other words, it's not just about living longer; it's about living better for longer.

Think about the life you'd like to lead at 70, 80, or even 90. Would you rather be independent, able to play with grandchildren, go on walks, or travel without restrictions? Or would you prefer to merely exist, dependent on medications, caregivers, and limited in everyday activities? Most people would opt for independence and vitality, yet very few realise that these future outcomes are shaped by the choices we make today—especially concerning our physical fitness.

Emerging scientific evidence clearly shows that the most powerful tool we have for extending our healthspan and lifespan isn't just medical intervention—it's fitness. Strength, muscle function, and cardiovascular health aren’t simply about aesthetics or athletic performance. They're fundamental to preserving independence, mobility, and overall quality of life as we age.

In this article, we’re going to dive deeper into what science reveals about the remarkable connection between physical fitness and a long, healthy life. We'll explore why building strength and maintaining cardiovascular fitness are among the most important decisions you can make, especially after the age of 35.

Because the real goal isn't simply to live more years, but to live more life—stronger, healthier, and happier.

Strength — The Forgotten Biomarker of Longevity

When people think about strength training, they often imagine bodybuilders lifting enormous weights, or perhaps younger athletes striving for peak performance. Strength training is often viewed as something only needed by those chasing muscle definition or elite athleticism. Yet, the truth couldn't be further from this stereotype—strength is a fundamental cornerstone of healthy ageing, vital for everyone, especially those over 35.

In fact, scientists now understand strength as one of the most reliable indicators—or biomarkers—of how well we age. A biomarker of ageing is something measurable in your body that predicts how long you might live and how healthy you’ll be along the way. Among these biomarkers, muscle strength, particularly grip strength, consistently emerges as one of the strongest predictors of longevity and quality of life in older age.

Numerous studies from the past 15 years have clearly demonstrated that stronger individuals tend to live longer and experience far fewer health issues in later life. For instance, a landmark analysis involving hundreds of thousands of adults showed that those with greater grip strength had around a 30% lower risk of early death compared to their weaker peers. This wasn't about muscle size or appearance—it's purely about functional strength, the kind you use every day to open jars, carry shopping bags, or simply get out of a chair comfortably.

The implications of strength are profound. One influential study of older adults found that people who had the lowest muscle strength were nearly 50% more likely to die prematurely. Kate Duchowny, an expert epidemiologist, sums it up clearly: “Maintaining muscle strength throughout life—and especially in later life—is extremely important for longevity and ageing independently.”

It’s crucial to understand that strength matters independently of other health factors. This means even if you're not particularly athletic, improving your strength can still significantly enhance your healthspan. Researchers even suggest that muscular strength might be more important than muscle mass itself. Having large muscles is less relevant; what truly matters is how effectively you can use them.

But why does strength have such a big impact on ageing? As we grow older, muscles naturally weaken and shrink—a process called sarcopenia, which accelerates noticeably after around age 50. Left unchecked, this can lead to frailty, loss of independence, increased risk of falls, and reduced ability to cope with illness or injury. Yet, strength training can dramatically slow, and sometimes even reverse, these declines.

Ultimately, maintaining strength is about preserving your independence. It's about having the physical freedom to choose how you live your life, even as the years advance. It ensures you can play with your grandchildren, remain active in your community, travel, and enjoy your favourite hobbies without fear or limitation.

Strength training isn't a luxury reserved for the young or athletic—it's a vital investment in your future health, independence, and happiness.

VO₂ Max and Cardio Fitness — Your Lifespan Insurance Policy

If muscular strength is the cornerstone of ageing independently, then cardiorespiratory fitness—often measured as VO₂ max—is your ultimate insurance policy for a longer life. While the term VO₂ max might sound overly technical, it simply refers to how efficiently your body uses oxygen during exercise. It’s essentially a measure of your cardiovascular health and overall endurance.

Why is this important? Simply put, cardiorespiratory fitness has emerged as one of the strongest predictors of how long—and how well—you’ll live. Numerous studies conducted over the past decade clearly demonstrate that individuals with higher VO₂ max levels experience dramatically lower risks of early death, chronic diseases, and disability.

Consider this remarkable finding: research involving over 100,000 adults revealed that those with the highest levels of cardiorespiratory fitness had up to an 80% lower risk of dying prematurely compared to those with low fitness. To put this into perspective, having poor cardiovascular fitness poses similar risks to smoking. Public health researchers have even started referring to low fitness as the “new smoking” because its effects on life expectancy are comparably severe.

Importantly, the benefits of improving your cardiovascular fitness don't have an upper limit—the more you improve, the healthier you become. This doesn’t mean you need to become an elite marathon runner to see benefits. Even modest increases in aerobic fitness can significantly reduce your risk of heart disease, certain cancers, diabetes, and cognitive decline such as dementia.

But what does improving your VO₂ max actually look like in real-life terms? It doesn't mean spending hours running or cycling every day. Instead, it can be as simple as regularly engaging in activities such as brisk walking, swimming, cycling, or even dancing. Studies have shown that every small step towards better aerobic fitness pays off: for example, for every slight improvement in your aerobic capacity, your risk of early death drops noticeably.

And the benefits go far beyond longevity alone. Maintaining good cardiovascular fitness significantly enhances your daily quality of life. As we age, simple tasks—climbing stairs, carrying groceries, or even gardening—can become challenging. Those with higher cardiovascular fitness maintain their ability to comfortably perform these everyday activities, preserving their independence and freedom.

Experts have identified specific thresholds in VO₂ max that relate directly to your ability to live independently. For example, older adults who maintain a VO₂ max above certain levels (around 15 mL/kg/min for women and 18 mL/kg/min for men) tend to remain independent and mobile far longer than those who drop below these thresholds.

In short, your cardiovascular fitness is one of the most effective and accessible tools you have for increasing both the length and quality of your life. Rather than being intimidated by complicated fitness routines, think of cardio fitness as your straightforward insurance policy—one that guarantees not just extra years, but vibrant and active ones too.

Why Strength and Cardio Together Are the Gold Standard

If muscular strength is the foundation of independent ageing, and cardiovascular fitness acts as your insurance policy for a longer, healthier life, then combining both strength training and aerobic exercise is truly the gold standard. This powerful combination is greater than the sum of its parts, delivering benefits that neither can fully achieve alone.

Many people assume that exercise is an “either/or” choice: either you’re lifting weights and building strength, or you’re running, cycling, or doing aerobic exercise. Yet research clearly demonstrates that the greatest benefits for longevity and overall health occur when these two types of training are combined consistently.

Recent studies involving hundreds of thousands of adults from both the UK and US found striking results. Those who engaged in regular strength training had significantly lower risks of premature death compared to people who didn't train at all. Similarly, people who regularly performed aerobic exercise also experienced lower death rates. However, when researchers analysed people who performed both types of exercise regularly, the results were even more impressive—this group experienced the lowest risk of premature death by far.

Why does combining strength and cardio exercise provide such a profound advantage? The answer lies in how each type of training complements the other. Strength training builds muscle and improves functional capacity—your ability to handle everyday physical tasks with ease. It helps maintain bone density, reduces injury risk, and preserves mobility and independence. Meanwhile, aerobic exercise boosts cardiovascular health, dramatically reducing the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and other chronic illnesses. Together, these activities support overall health in ways neither could individually.

A key takeaway from recent research is that you don't need to engage in extreme routines to see significant results. Modest levels of combined strength and aerobic exercise consistently outperform high volumes of either alone. For example, performing just two sessions of moderate-intensity strength training per week combined with about 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity (such as brisk walking, swimming, or cycling) provides substantial longevity benefits.

This means that the barrier to entry isn't as high as you might think. You don’t need to spend countless hours in the gym or run marathons to significantly improve your life expectancy. Small, manageable lifestyle changes—like adding a couple of short strength sessions and taking daily brisk walks—can produce tremendous health dividends over time.

The real beauty of combining these two types of exercise is that you address multiple aspects of the ageing process simultaneously. While cardio fitness strengthens your heart and lungs, helping you stay energetic and disease-free, strength training ensures your muscles remain functional, resilient, and strong enough to support your daily activities.

When you put them together, you create the ideal recipe for a long and vibrant life—one where you’re not only extending your lifespan but significantly enhancing your healthspan. In short, if longevity, independence, and quality of life are your goals, strength training combined with aerobic exercise is your ultimate path to success.

Training for the Life You Want at 85, Not Just the Body You Want at 35

For many people in their 30s, 40s, and even 50s, the motivation to train often revolves around weight loss, aesthetics, or improving performance. And while there's nothing wrong with wanting to look and feel good now, there's an even more compelling reason to stay consistent with exercise: you're laying the foundation for the life you'll be able to live decades from now.

This is where the concept of training for longevity becomes a game-changer.

Dr. Peter Attia, a leading voice in longevity science, popularised the idea of the “Centenarian Decathlon” or “Centenarian Olympics”—a thought experiment that asks a simple but powerful question: What physical tasks do you want to be able to do when you're 85, 90, or even 100? These tasks might include getting up from the floor unassisted, carrying shopping bags, lifting your grandchildren, climbing stairs without pain, or maintaining balance on uneven ground. Seemingly ordinary abilities—but ones that define your independence.

Here’s the catch: if you want to be able to do those things at 85, you need to start training for them at 45, or even earlier. That’s because our physical capacities decline as we age. Muscle mass decreases. Bone density drops. Balance deteriorates. Cardiovascular endurance fades. If you wait until you’re frail to start training, it may be too late to recover what’s lost.

But there’s good news: you can dramatically slow—and in some cases reverse—these declines by taking action now. By strengthening your muscles and improving your cardiovascular fitness in midlife, you effectively build a “reserve” of physical capability. That reserve becomes a buffer that protects you later on. The stronger and fitter you are now, the more margin you have in later life to absorb life’s physical challenges without losing independence.

This is why strength and fitness matter even more after 35. You’re not just training for the next 12 weeks—you’re investing in your future self. The time you put in now can determine whether you’ll be able to live independently in your 80s or rely on assistance. Whether you’ll enjoy travel and hobbies in your retirement or be limited by chronic pain and frailty.

The irony is, many people in midlife stop training just as it becomes most important. Work gets busy. Injuries accumulate. Priorities shift. But this is the exact period when your decisions have the greatest long-term payoff. Midlife is when the trajectory of your physical ageing is largely set.

So, the next time you’re wondering whether it’s worth doing that gym session, walk, or workout class, zoom out. Picture your future self. Picture the life you want to be living decades from now—and realise that the path to that future starts today.

You don’t need to train like an athlete. You just need to train like someone who cares about being independent, capable, and full of energy for as many years as possible. Because the body you want at 35 is great—but the life you want at 85 is priceless.

What the Science Tells Us — and Why Most People Still Ignore It

By now, the message should be clear: strength and cardiovascular fitness are not just good for you—they are essential for living a long, healthy, independent life. And the science backing this up is not vague or debatable. It’s extensive, consistent, and incredibly compelling.

Over the past 15 years, hundreds of studies from around the world have examined the impact of physical fitness on mortality, disease prevention, and healthy ageing. The verdict? People who maintain good muscular strength and high cardiorespiratory fitness live longer, stay healthier, and retain their independence far better than those who don’t.

This research doesn’t just come from fringe studies or fitness magazines—it includes meta-analyses of tens of thousands of people, massive cohort studies like the UK Biobank, and decades-long follow-ups. The evidence shows that low VO₂ max (a marker of poor cardiovascular fitness) increases your risk of early death to the same extent as smoking. It shows that grip strength alone can predict whether you’ll need long-term care in later life. It shows that people who combine aerobic and strength training live longer and experience fewer years of illness and disability.

So if the evidence is so strong, why do so many people still ignore it?

Part of the issue lies in how society has traditionally viewed exercise. For years, fitness has been packaged as something primarily for weight loss, athletic performance, or aesthetics. The idea of exercise as medicine—or as an investment in future health—has only recently begun to gain traction in mainstream thinking.

There’s also a widespread misconception that age is a barrier to improvement. Many people believe that once they reach 40 or 50, it’s too late to build strength or improve their fitness. But this simply isn’t true. The human body is incredibly adaptive, and even people who begin exercising in their 60s or 70s can make substantial gains in strength, balance, endurance, and overall function.

Another factor is time and lifestyle. Midlife is often a demanding period—careers, families, and responsibilities all compete for attention. Exercise can feel like a luxury, or something to be postponed until life settles down. But here’s the irony: by postponing fitness, we often guarantee that our later years will be more limited and less enjoyable.

Then there are the cultural norms around ageing itself. We’re often told to expect physical decline as an inevitable part of getting older—to accept stiff joints, weight gain, fatigue, and loss of mobility. But much of what we associate with ageing is actually the result of inactivity, not age. People aren’t falling apart because they’re old—they’re falling apart because they’ve stopped moving.

This is where a mindset shift becomes powerful. When you understand that fitness is the most accessible, evidence-based tool we have to combat the effects of ageing, everything changes. You stop viewing exercise as a short-term obligation and start seeing it as a long-term investment—one with perhaps the best return you’ll ever get.

The science is clear. The tools are available. And the time to act is now. Because the biggest regret isn’t usually starting too early—it’s realising, too late, that you could have done something to change the outcome.

Your Move — How to Start Investing in Your Future Health

So, what does it actually look like to put all this into action? If you’re over 35 and thinking, “Okay, I get it—fitness matters. But where do I start?”—you’re not alone. The good news is, you don’t need to overhaul your life, join a bootcamp, or train like an Olympian. You just need to start. And starting small is not only fine—it’s often the best approach.

Step One: Move More, More Often

If you’ve been largely inactive, the first step is to simply start moving more. Take regular walks. Use the stairs. Cycle to the shops. It might sound basic, but these small actions begin to rewire your habits and build momentum. Just 20–30 minutes of walking a day can have a measurable effect on your cardiorespiratory fitness, especially if done briskly.

Aim for the NHS guideline of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity per week—but don’t worry if you’re not there yet. Even 10 minutes a day is a solid start. The most important thing is consistency.

Step Two: Add Strength Work to Your Week

Next, you want to integrate strength training into your weekly routine. This doesn’t mean hours of weightlifting or complex gym sessions. Bodyweight movements like squats, press-ups, lunges, and planks are highly effective—especially when done with proper form and regular progression.

Aim for 2 sessions per week, working all major muscle groups. You can use dumbbells, resistance bands, or even everyday objects at home. The key is to challenge your muscles enough to promote adaptation. You want to feel like you're working—but not to the point of pain or injury.

Don’t be discouraged by initial difficulty. Everyone starts somewhere. In fact, it’s often those with the most to gain who see the quickest improvements.

Step Three: Make It Realistic and Sustainable

One of the biggest mistakes people make when starting out is going too hard, too fast. They join an intense programme, feel overwhelmed or sore, and then give up. The goal isn’t to break yourself—it’s to build a habit.

Start with what you can do regularly, not what sounds impressive. If that means three 20-minute walks and two 15-minute strength sessions each week, that’s a brilliant foundation. You can always build from there.

Think of exercise as a long-term investment, not a short-term fix. The habits you establish in your late 30s, 40s, and 50s will compound—just like financial savings—and will shape the quality of your later decades.

Step Four: Keep It Interesting and Enjoyable

You’re far more likely to stick with a routine that fits your lifestyle and brings you some sense of enjoyment. That could be a weekly yoga class, a hike with friends, a home strength session, or dancing in your living room. Enjoyment isn’t optional—it’s a strategy for sustainability.

You don’t need to “love” exercise right away. You just need to value what it does for you. Often, that respect and appreciation grow as your body starts to feel stronger, more capable, and more energetic.

Step Five: Don’t Go It Alone

Accountability and support can make a world of difference. That might mean training with a friend, working with a personal trainer, joining a local group, or using a simple tracker to monitor your progress.

Having someone to guide, encourage, and adjust your plan can remove much of the guesswork and boost your confidence—especially if you’re new to training or returning after a long break.

Getting stronger and fitter doesn’t require perfect conditions. It requires a decision. A decision to stop waiting, to start small, and to prioritise your future self. Because while genetics and luck do play a role in how we age, the biggest variable is you—your habits, your movement, your choices.

Start today, and your future self will thank you for it—every time they walk up a flight of stairs, lift a heavy bag, or spend a sunny afternoon chasing grandchildren around the garden.

Conclusion — Stronger, Fitter, and Ready for the Long Run

If you take one thing away from all of this, let it be this: your physical strength and cardiovascular fitness are two of the most powerful levers you have to shape your future health, independence, and quality of life. They’re not optional extras or nice-to-haves. They’re core to how well you age—and how fully you live.

The research is clear. Strength and fitness protect against chronic illness, extend your lifespan, and—just as importantly—add more healthy, active years to your life. They help you stay mobile, functional, and mentally sharp. They allow you to remain involved with the people and activities you love. And they give you the freedom to choose how you live, right into your 80s, 90s, and beyond.

And here’s the most encouraging part: it’s never too late to start. Whether you’re already active or you’ve been on the sidelines for years, the body responds. Muscles can grow stronger. Heart and lung capacity can improve. Energy levels can rise. Function can be restored. The process of decline that many people think is “just part of ageing” is, in many cases, simply the result of long-term inactivity—and it’s reversible.

So instead of waiting for a health scare or a wake-up call, choose to take action now. Not out of fear, but out of vision. Imagine a future where you can travel freely, play with your grandchildren, remain in your own home, and enjoy the simple pleasures of daily life without struggle or restriction. That future isn’t just possible—it’s achievable. But it starts with the choices you make today.

Strength isn’t just about lifting weights. Fitness isn’t just about running fast. They’re about building a body that works for you, now and long into the future.

Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can. Because every step you take towards improving your strength and fitness is a step toward living stronger, living better, and living longer.