A 93-year-old is winning world championships in rowing.
The human body maintains the ability to adapt to exercise at any age, showing that it’s never too late to start a fitness program
At 93, the Irishman is a four-time world champion in indoor rowing, with the aerobic engine of a healthy 30- or 40-year-old and the body-fat percentage of a whippet. He’s also the subject of a new case study, published last month in the Journal of Applied Physiology, that looked at his training, diet and physiology.
Its results suggest that, in many ways, he’s an exemplar of fit, healthy aging — a nonagenarian with the heart, muscles and lungs of someone less than half his age. But in other ways, he’s ordinary: a onetime baker and battery maker with creaky knees who didn’t take up regular exercise until he was in his 70s and who still trains mostly in his backyard shed.
If the above article is paywalled, the details are also reported in a physiology journal. The full open access paper is available below.
This study assessed the physiological, performance, nutritional intake, and training characteristics of a 92-yr-old four-time master world champion indoor male rower. Body composition was assessed via bioelectrical impedance. Oxygen uptake, carbon dioxide production, ventilation, and heart rate were measured at rest and during a 2,000-m time trial on a rowing ergometer. Maximal power was assessed to compute anaerobic power reserve. Training included ≈ 30 km/wk on the rowing ergometer. Herein, 70% of distances were covered at light intensities (RPE, 10–12), 20% at hard (RPE, 13–17), and 10% at near maximal or maximal (RPE, 17–20). Resistance training was performed during ≈ 2 sessions/wk, and involved three sets of dumbbell lunges, rows, and curls, respectively, taken close (or to) failure. Dietary intake was high in protein [2.3 ± 0.1 g·kg−1 lean body mass (LBM)], conferring a caloric intake of 33.4 ± 1.7 kcal·kg−1 LBM. The participant demonstrated muscle mass of 47.7 kg, fat mass of 9.1 kg (15.4% body fat), forced vital capacity of 3.36 L, time constant (τ) to steady state of 30.2 s, peak relative oxygen pulse of 0.18 ([mL·O2/beats/min]/kg), peak heart rate of 153 beats/min, and maximum power of 220 W (140 W anaerobic power reserve). This 92-yr-old athlete demonstrated remarkably fast oxygen uptake kinetics, akin to values for a healthy young adult, indicating well-developed and/or maintained cardiopulmonary function. The high values for cardiopulmonary function, muscle mass, metabolic efficiency, and maximum power output may infer the pliability of these systems to maintain high functionality at an advanced age.
One detail in the physiology journal summary that I noticed was: “Dietary intake was high in protein [2.3 ± 0.1 g·kg−1 lean body mass (LBM)]”. It sounds like this 92 year old has a protein intake in line with Peter Attia’s recommendations.
Tim - this story is a great find. Its the sort of story that gives me hope I can be active into my late 90s!
It seems most people here could likely start doing an exercise program like this guy and achieve many of the same things he has. This is the type of roll-model I can buy into, and then layer on the longevity drugs and maybe we can maintain it for another decade or two beyond what he has done so far.
Not to be glib, but my presumption is he is not on any “life-style” medicines. By these, I mean metformin, statins and possibly others. It would be great to find out. Someone invite him here
@RapAdmin The table below gives an idea of how fast he’s rowing. Not to denigrate his achievement, but it should be pointed out that his world records are based on his performance against his peers; i.e., other 90-year-olds. Not quite as fast as rowers half his age, he’s still a remarkable specimen, what some would call an “iron rail.” I wonder if he celebrates with a pint of Guinness.
Male 2000m Rowing Times
A good 2000m time for a man is 07:04.1. This is the average 2000m time across men of all ages. The fastest 2000m time rowed by a man is 05:35.8.
I think what you might be missing in your assessment (or appreciation of just how amazing it is) is the fact that he had essentially been a couch potato until his 70s. His metrics in terms of VO2Max and power output are probably where Peter Attia wants you to land in your 90s … by ambitiously overtraining NOW. He makes an inference from observational data of how VO2Max decreases with age, that you need to start off really high to have “padding” built in for old age.
He says in your 40s you won’t be as strong if you just started doing everything right 2-3 years ago as someone who was at his peak in his mid 20s.
I did think when I heard that that it was an inferential stretch. There’s path dependencies making it much less likely for people who didn’t build strength and exercise habits in their younger years to do a 180 in middle age of beyond. And that alone could explain the epidemiological data.
I’m not sure I buy into his deterministic view at all. My intuition tells me, if anything, that elite athletes who hit their peak in their 20s or early 30s might have worn out parts of their body sooner (e.g., joints). On the one hand they reap advantages from their early bird ways about exercise but there might be hidden costs.
This guy seems to disprove Attia’s deterministic calculus as according to that view, he has no business being this strong and fit in his 90s, having only started in his 70s.
Yes, this truly astounding. I mean I am sure there are many super athletes that continue their exercise programs into their 90s, but the situation this guy has succeeded in should give hope to everyone, even the non-athletic.
I think the biggest problem is people don’t want to, not that they can’t. And being weak and not exercising is a vicious cycle. I’m guilty of this myself. I only got really fit in 2019 and it took HUGE willpower and membership to an expensive gym with no-show fees for booked sessions and a trainer keeping me accountable. Combined with keto and overall good choices it was the best I had ever felt but the moment the gyms closed from covid it all went downhill and I’ve been kicking myself to get back on track without much success.
Some people naturally love exercise. They get that dopamine high very soon and that keeps them going. I get mine very late into a workout, if at all. Now obviously when we’re young we can maintain sufficient muscle tone to let us pick up easier if we choose to. The older we get the harder it is as sarcopenia and crappy cardio shape hit us like a brick wall. All it seems to mean though is that the hill is that much steeper and it’s going to be that much less pleasant to climb it. But it can be done — there’s no physiological impediment to muscle adaptation and growth.
One thing that surprises me is Peter Attia doesn’t give any thought (or at least mention) to EMS stimulation for older people. His clients surely could afford it and it would help them fully recruit those type 2 fast twitch muscles that don’t get activated at all unless the workout is strenuous — EMS could, in principle, via super maximal contractions. This could be a very important adjunct for staving off sarcopenia.
@medaura I don’t think results like his can be repeated or predetermined by a certain fitness routine followed by almost anyone. The guy’s a freak, an outlier at the far end of the curve. He probably doesn’t have arthritis and, like you said, he probably benefited from not overtaxing himself in his 20s, 30s and 40s. And I’d bet that, unlike you, he gets flooded with endorphins.
Also, in contrast to you, @Agetron, he didn’t start in negative territory. He’s one of those thin, wiry guys who never had a tire around his waist. He deserves all his accolades, but you do too, as much or more. You climbed out of a deeper hole.
Yes I think he would have to be flooded by endorphins to ask for MORE rowing after his first session in his 70s. Then again you’d think if that were the case he would have discovered a love of sports or exercise during his first 73 years on this planet.
And yes you’d have to assume he lands into his 70s without debilitating or otherwise rate limiting problems like arthritis. But I happen to know a lot of 70 something year olds without arthritis who are my dad’s generation (I’m from a Mediterranean country if that explains anything) so it’s not that freaky. Yet most of them sit around in cafes and don’t take up this kind of exercise regime.
Basically I think the level he was at in his 70s to enable him to even take up exercise is not that freaky.
The ability to take up exercise in a person’s 70s (and without major health issues at that age) is probably a lot more unusual in the US than it is in European countries.
Something about the diet and lifestyle in Europe has people closer to a “golden mean” most of their lives. Meaning I see far fewer Europeans in their late teens to 20s or 30s being as maximally fit as their US counterparts (sports aren’t nearly as big a deal at school as they are in the U.S. so that’s how it starts). But then they just stay active and are more often active into their 70s and beyond. My own parents are a good example. My mom eats worse than my dad or for whatever reason has a fatter phenotype but is also almost 11 years younger. He’s 72, never really played a sport his whole life, but is trim and they both travel a lot, recently hiked to Machu Pichu. They swim in the summer. Nothing extraordinary but according to Attia’s calculus given my dad’s inputs he shouldn’t even be close to doing what he’s doing in his 70s.
@medaura And rowing, with its low impact, is a very forgiving sport.
Yes, the risk for shoulder injuries is high, but good technique can take you a long way.
His program seems to be pretty much identical to what Peter Attia recommends. Richard Morgan does Zone 2, 3, and 5 cardio (Attia focuses on Zone 2 and 5) with weight training. Plus a high protein diet. I’m pretty much following the same program with a little more weight training and a little less cardio (3 days a week of each). I’m 65 and it’s working well so far. We don’t know his exact health status when he started, but I think most people could follow the program, they just may need to start slower if they have existing health issues.
Does anyone know where you can find the full case study without paying the $25?
We have a number of people here who seem to have some access to these types of publications. Perhaps one of them has access to this pub and can post the paper… I’d like to read it too, as I’m sure many would here.
From personal experience I’ve got nothing to recommend as I was on the point of buying a system but then got pregnant and it’s counter-indicated so I’ll wait till I’m post partum and see if there’s a newer version out by then (summer).
But of the ones I’ve researched the best seem to be the highest power ones (15-16T, 6000-6500 Watts) with an RF component built in to heat up the muscles and simulate the hyperthermia of exercise.
Got my eye on this unit:
I’d get the 5 handle one with RF. You can check out YouTube videos of emszero or ems neo to see people’s results.
