In the game of life, more than half of all men are benchwarmers, says the American Heart Association (AHA). That means that more than 50 percent of men don’t get moving for a minimum of a half-hour a day, three days a week.
That’s a sin, Dr. Goldberg says. “Studies show that exercise may be more effective at heading off an early death than quitting smoking, losing weight, or stopping drinking,” he says. Here are some tips for getting in gear.
Prevent the big “C.” After studying 47,723 male doctors for six years, Harvard researchers found that men who got the most exercise had only half the risk for colon cancer as those who got the least. So, do your colon a favor by exercising for 30 minutes at least three times a week, recommends Dr. Goldberg.
Aim for gains. It doesn’t matter what your fitness level is when you start. It matters that you improve, says Dr. Goldberg. Researchers at the Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research studied the effects of increasing fitness levels on 10,000 men over a five-year period. Men who improved their fitness level enough to run a minute longer than their original treadmill time also had a lower death rate than those who stayed unfit. In fact, every one-minute increase in maximum treadmill time equaled an impressive 8 percent drop in risk of death.
“You should constantly challenge yourself to improve your fitness level,” says Dr. Goldberg. If your exercise of choice is walking or running, try to increase your speed or your distance every few months, he suggests.
Decline the decline. As you age, it’s likely that your physical performance will decrease over time, and the more that performance decreases, the more susceptible you can be to disease. You can slow that decline simply by exercising more, says Dr. Bortz. After about age 30, people who exercise start to see only a 0.5 percent decline in performance each year, he says. “Unfit folks of the same age see a 2 percent decline. That means the man who exercises will have surrendered only about 15 percent of his vital capacity by the time he’s 65; the non-exerciser, 70 percent.”
The AHA estimates that more than 30 percent of men ages 45 to 54, more than 40 percent of men ages 55 to 64, and more than 55 percent of men ages 65 to 74 have high blood pressure. Making matters worse, about 50 percent of men in this country have cholesterol levels higher than 200 milligrams per deciliter. And that’s just the numbers that have been reported. Many men are never diagnosed.
“There’s just no excuse,” says Ichiro Kawachi, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of health and social behavior at the Harvard School of Public Health. “These are conditions that are easily detected and treated.” Here are some things you can do yourself to minimize the damage.
Burn your arteries clean. Playing half-court hoops for 30 minutes a day can raise your levels of “good” high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol by as much as 6 milligrams per deciliter. A group of Spanish researchers has found that, on average, for every 100 calories you burn a day, your levels of artery-clearing HDL cholesterol rise by about 2 milligrams per deciliter.
Go low. Researchers from several U.S. cities put 459 folks on a low-fat diet chock-full of fruits, vegetables, grains, and low-fat dairy products. After eight weeks, those with high blood pressure saw their systolic pressure (the top number) drop an average of 11.4 points and their diastolic pressure (the bottom number) dip an average of 5.5 points. This may sound like a lot to swallow, but the famous Food Guide Pyramid recommends eating 2 to 3 servings of dairy products, 3 to 5 servings of vegetables, 2 to 4 servings of fruits, and 6 to 11 servings of grains every day.
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