More Exercise Better Even in the Elderly

A randomized controlled trial in Norway suggested a lower all-cause mortality trend after high intensity interval training at about 90% of peak heart rate (HIIT) compared with controls and moderate intensity continuous training at about 70% of peak heart rate (MICT) in older adults. The trial included 1567 participants (790 women) with mean age of 72.8 years. Overall, 87.5% of participants reported to have overall good health, with 80% reporting medium or high physical activity levels at baseline. When two sessions weekly of HIIT was compared with MICT and control group, an absolute risk reduction of 2.9% and 1.7% (hazard ratio 0.51 and 0.63), respectively was observed for all-cause mortality. However, the controls achieved an exercise dose at an intensity between the MICT and HIIT groups due to more control participants chose to perform more of their physical activity as HIIT. The findings are in line with accumulating evidence that some exercise is good, more is better even in the elderly. Source: https://www.bmj.com/