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Man, 95, still works out in a gym, shares 5 simple tips for a long life

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Man, 95, still works out in a gym, shares 5 simple tips for a long life

At 95 years old, David Scott is a regular at the gym, lifting weights to keep his muscles strong — the latest chapter his lifelong health routine.

He works out at Planet Fitness in Dover, New Hampshire, three times a week where he uses weight machines to target his shoulders, arms, legs and abs. For cardio, the U.S. Army veteran also walks several times a week.

“It makes me feel good,” Scott tells TODAY.com about his exercise habits. “The circulation of the blood is important if you get too sedentary. And it’s also good for the mind.”

Scott and his 86-year-old wife, Lydia, live independently in their house in Dover. Both share a lifelong love of sports — the couple met on a bus in her native Italy as they headed to ski in the Alps and struck up a conversation on the ski lift.

“When we got to the top (of the mountain), she said, ‘Let’s go,’ and she disappeared. She skied much faster than me. But I finally caught up to her,” Scott recalls. “For me, it was love at first sight.”

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“For me it was, too. Two weeks later, we were engaged,” Lydia Scott tells TODAY.com. They’ve been married 62 years and have three children.

Scott and his wife, Lydia, on their wedding day in 1962.Courtesy David Scott

Scott says he’s in good health as he approaches 100. Here is what to know about the almost-centenarian and his advice for living a long life:

Eat a healthy diet

Scott and his wife eat the Mediterranean diet, which is famously healthy for the heart and brain. The menu includes home-cooked meals with lots of fruits and vegetables, some chicken and fish, and plenty of olive oil.

The couple has a garden where they grow salad greens, carrots, zucchini, string beans, edamame, Brussels sprouts, broccoli and all kinds of herbs.

David Scott and his wife gardening.
Many of the fruits and vegetables for their homecooked meals come from their own garden.Courtesy David Scott

Lydia Scott is the cook in the house.

“I make lots of soups, which I freeze for the winter. Plus, we eat fresh veggies all summer,” she says.

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“I also make jams with all the fruits we grow, and I freeze lots of berries for smoothies.”

David Scott’s favorite dish is the “spaghetti that my Italian wife makes,” he says. “I’ve never eaten so well after I got married.”

Vegetable-heavy pasta dishes are a tasty, healthy part of the Mediterranean diet.

For a long life, Scott advises others to stay away from fatty foods and keep alcohol consumption to a minimum, sticking to a bit of wine rather than hard liquor if choosing to drink. He stopped drinking alcohol about 20 years ago.

For dessert, Scott likes dark chocolate, which is rich in polyphenols, or beneficial compounds produced by plants.

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Pick the right spouse

When asked about his secret to longevity, David Scott is quick to reply.

“A good wife,” he says without hesitation. “She knows what I need and she’s there.”

Married people have a significantly greater life expectancy and active life expectancy — the number of years without disability — compared to their unmarried peers, with men particularly enjoying the protective health effects of marriage, studies have found.

Married men tend to eat better, exercise more and get more regular medical care than unmarried, divorced or widowed males, according to Harvard Health.

Being married even boosts the chances of surviving cancer, research suggests.

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Think positive

But Lydia Scott believes there’s more to her husband’s longevity than their long marriage.

“The secret is having a positive way of thinking and having also a good sense of humor and accepting life the way it is. And not having too many complaints,” she says.

Optimists live longer, studies have found, perhaps because optimism may help people cultivate and maintain healthier habits, and regulate their emotions during stressful times.

David Scott.
Scott regularly walks to complement his fitness routine.Courtesy David Scott

Be adventurous

Scott went to Harvard at 16, joined the U.S. Army when he was 17 in 1945, then returned to the university after the end of World War II to graduate with a degree in Greek philosophy. 

He went on to Harvard Business School and worked for several companies before he decided to move to Europe.

“I thought I should go to Italy because I like to ski,” he recalls. The bachelor was working in a U.S. factory in Milan when he had that fateful meeting with his future wife on a bus heading to the ski slopes.

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He lived in Italy for two decades and traveled to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Nigeria as part of his work before moving back to the U.S., writing about his adventures in a book titled, “My Twenty Years in Italy: How Opera and Skiing Changed My Life.”

Move your body

Scott still remembers being impressed as a 10-year-old when he read a magazine article about a muscular man who said people could become as big as him if they followed an exercise routine. 

Being strong has been on his mind since then, especially because he grew up in Chicago in a “rather tough neighborhood,” he says.

He always liked sports, playing football and wrestling in college.

Old photo of David Scott in wrestling uniform.
Scott was a wrestler in college.Courtesy David Scott

He and his wife love to ski. Lydia Scott also practiced fencing and was on the Italian team. In later years, she did tai chi and qigong — exercises that tap into the mind-body connection.

“Doing sports is very important in our family,” she says. “We were always doing many, many sports and our children are also into sports a lot.”

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Put the fun back in your fitness routine with this 10-minute follow-along workout from The Curvy Girl Trainer Lacee Green

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Put the fun back in your fitness routine with this 10-minute follow-along workout from The Curvy Girl Trainer Lacee Green

Ever feel like beginner-friendly workouts are anything but?

That’s how BODi Super Trainer Lacee Green felt, so she devised a three-week, entry-level program designed for genuine newcomers to exercise—or those just getting back into it.

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Higher fitness levels linked to lower risk of depression, dementia – Harvard Health

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Higher fitness levels linked to lower risk of depression, dementia – Harvard Health
research review

People with high cardiorespiratory fitness were 36% less likely to experience depression and 39% less likely to develop dementia than those with low cardiorespiratory fitness. Even small improvements in fitness were linked to a lower risk. Experts believe that exercise’s ability to boost blood flow to the brain, reduce bodywide inflammation, and improve stress regulation may explain the connection.

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These 20-Minute Burpee Workouts Replaced His Entire Gym Routine – and Transformed His Physique

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These 20-Minute Burpee Workouts Replaced His Entire Gym Routine – and Transformed His Physique

While many swear by them, most people see burpees as a form of punishment – usually dished out drill sergeant-style by overzealous bootcamp PTs. Often the final blow in an already brutal workout, burpees are designed to test cardiovascular fitness, muscular endurance and mental grit. Love them or loathe them, they deliver every time.

For Max Edwards – aka Busy Dad Training on YouTube – they became a simple but highly effective way to stay fit and lean during lockdown. Once a committed powerlifter, spending upwards of 80 minutes a day in the gym, he was forced to overhaul his approach due to fatherhood, lockdown and a schedule that no longer allowed for long, structured lifting sessions.

‘Even though I was putting in hours and hours into the gym and even though my physique was pretty good, I wasn’t becoming truly excellent at any physical discipline,’ he explained in a YouTube video.

‘I loved the intentionality of training,’ says Edwards. ‘The fact that every session has a point, every rep in every set is helping you get towards a training goal, and I loved that there was a clear way of gauging progression – feeling like I was developing competence and moving towards mastery.’

Why He Walked Away From Powerlifting

Despite that structure, Edwards began to question whether powerlifting was sustainable long-term.

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‘My sessions were very taxing on my central nervous system. I was exhausted between sessions. It felt as if I needed at least nine hours of sleep each night just to function.’

He also noted that his appetite was consistently high.

But the biggest drawback was time.

‘I could not justify taking 80 minutes a day away from my family for what felt like a self-centred pursuit,’ he says.

A Simpler Approach That Stuck

‘Over the course of that year I fixed my relationship with alcohol and I developed, for the first time in my adult life, a relationship with physical training,’ says Edwards.

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With limited time and no access to equipment, he turned to burpees. Just two variations, four times a week, with each session lasting 20 minutes.

‘My approach in each workout was very simple. On a six-count training day I would do as many six-counts as I possibly could within 20 minutes. On a Navy Seal training day I would do as many Navy Seal burpees as I could within 20 minutes – then in the next workout I would simply try to beat the number I had managed previously.’

This style of training is known as AMRAP – as many reps (or rounds) as possible.

The Results

Edwards initially saw the routine as nothing more than a six-month stopgap to stay in shape. But that quickly changed.

‘I remember catching sight of myself in the mirror one morning and I was utterly baffled by the man I saw looking back at me.’

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He found himself in the best shape of his life. His energy levels improved, his resting heart rate dropped and his physique changed in ways that powerlifting hadn’t quite delivered.

‘It has been five years since I have set foot in a gym,’ he says. ‘That six-month training practice has become the defining training practice of my life – and for five years I have trained for no more than 80 minutes per week.’

The Burpee Workouts

1/ 6-Count Burpees

20-minute AMRAP, twice a week

How to do them:

  • Start standing, feet shoulder-width apart
  • Crouch down and place your hands on the floor (count 1)
  • Jump your feet back into a high plank (count 2)
  • Lower into the bottom of a push-up (count 3)
  • Push back up to plank (count 4)
  • Jump your feet forward to your hands (count 5)
  • Stand up straight (count 6)

20-minute AMRAP, twice a week

How to do them:

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  • Start standing, feet shoulder-width apart
  • Crouch down and place your hands on the floor
  • Jump your feet back into a high plank
  • Perform a push-up (chest to floor)
  • At the top, bring your right knee to your right elbow, then return
  • Perform another push-up
  • Bring your left knee to your left elbow, then return
  • Perform a third push-up
  • Jump your feet forward
  • Stand or jump to finish

Headshot of Kate Neudecker

Kate is a fitness writer for Men’s Health UK where she contributes regular workouts, training tips and nutrition guides. She has a post graduate diploma in Sports Performance Nutrition and before joining Men’s Health she was a nutritionist, fitness writer and personal trainer with over 5k hours coaching on the gym floor. Kate has a keen interest in volunteering for animal shelters and when she isn’t lifting weights in her garden, she can be found walking her rescue dog.

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