Small changes in diet, exercise and sleep may extend life by a year when put into practice together, while making larger changes could provide more than nine additional years of life, according to a new study.

Combining changes in diet, sleep and exercise also increased “health span,” or the number of years a person may live without major health complaints.

“These findings highlight the importance of considering lifestyle behaviors as a package rather than in isolation,” said lead study author Nick Koemel, a research fellow in physical activity, lifestyle and population health at the University of Syndey’s main campus in Camperdown, Australia.

“By targeting small improvements across multiple behaviors simultaneously, the required change for any single behavior is substantially reduced, which may help overcome common barriers to long-term behavior change,” Koemel said in an email.

READ MORE: Can’t sleep? Take steps to improve your sleep hygiene, which boosts health.

However, that finding is far from conclusive, said Kevin McConway, professor emeritus of applied statistics at the Open University in Milton Keynes, United Kingdom, who was not involved in the study.

“A snag is that the paper uses complicated statistical methods that are not always described clearly,” McConway said in an email. “It’s therefore difficult to tell to what extent the findings have emerged from the researchers’ choice of statistical analyses, rather than things that are clearer from the data.”

Using scientific modeling, Koemel and his team found combining as little as five additional minutes of sleep, two minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity (such as brisk walking or taking the stairs), and an additional ½ cup of vegetables a day might lengthen life by a year.

However, this predicted outcome was only for people who had an extremely poor diet, slept less than six hours per night and only exercised about seven minutes a day. In addition, it wasn’t until the model’s lifestyle improvements greatly increased that the results became scientifically significant.

“All of the gains reported in this study are theoretical,” Koemel said. “We cannot claim a direct causal effect from the lifestyle patterns. These findings should therefore be interpreted as expected or projected benefits under assumed behavioral variations, rather than confirmed effects of an intervention.”

The greatest gain in longevity — 9.35 years — and health span — 9.46 years — came with the combination of an addition of 42 to 103 minutes of exercise and sleeping between seven and eight hours a day, while also eating an extremely healthy diet that included fish, whole grains, vegetables and fruits.

Adding exercise to the mix moved the longevity needle the most — a fact that did not surprise preventive cardiologist Dr. Andrew Freeman, director of cardiovascular prevention and wellness at National Jewish Health in Denver.

“Exercise is the elixir of youth,” said Freeman, who was not involved in the study. “But let me be clear — this study should not be interpreted as exercising for exactly two minutes and stop, you’ve accomplished a goal.

“Rather, you should aim to get 20 to 30 minutes of brisk, breathless physical activity, combining strength and cardio in every day. That advice has not changed over decades of study.”

READ MORE: Want to start moving? Check out this guidance to ease into walking.

The study, published Wednesday in the journal eClinicalMedicine, looked at almost 60,000 participants from England, Scotland and Wales in the UK Biobank, a longitudinal health study, who were followed for an average of eight years. Everyone in the study provided information on their diet — including ultraprocessed foods, such as sugar-sweetened beverages. A subset of the group also wore wrist watches that provided more objective measurements of movement and sleep.

Researchers gathered this medical data and used it to form theoretical scenarios of improved longevity and health span, which was defined as the number of years free of cardiovascular disease, dementia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and type 2 diabetes.

Enjoying a longer life and a longer health span, or remaining free of disease, aren’t the same thing, Koemel said. “Combined improvements in sleep, physical activity, and diet were associated with longer lifespans, even if people still developed some chronic conditions later in life.”

READ MORE: Want to improve your diet? Instead of making drastic changes, you can ease into the Mediterranean diet.

After adjusting the findings for many variables — such as the amount of ultraprocessed foods, smoking, alcohol use, body mass index, insomnia, snoring and daytime sleepiness — the results differed depending on how much of each behavior change was accomplished.

In addition to the lowest and highest levels of the lifestyle changes discussed above, researchers also found lower levels of exercise — less than 23 minutes a day — sleeping seven to eight hours a night, and an excellent diet were associated with nearly four more years of life and three years of health, the study found.

Moderate levels of exercise (between 23 and 42 minutes a day), sleeping up to eight hours per night, and a high-quality diet were associated with a greater improvement of an additional seven years of life and just over six years of good health. So many calculations! What does it all mean?

“This is not about the absolute minutes you exercise or sleep or the number of pieces of broccoli you eat. It’s about making sure that all the things you do in your life are synonymous with health,” Freeman said.

“This is a great time of year to reflect on how you live and make big changes that will set you up for a life of wellness by modifying your life’s trajectory,” he said. “The overall signal in the noise is if you live well, your health span and then your lifespan will be longer.”

Every year, countless individuals — including many from within the U of A community — make new year’s resolutions focused on health and fitness. However, the spark of motivation that accompanies the start of a new year often causes people to push too hard, too fast, setting overly ambitious goals that are abandoned by the time February arrives.

Michael Kennedy, a Clinical Exercise Physiologist and Associate Professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation, shares his expertise and tips for success if you’re looking to build a sustainable exercise routine that lasts all through the year.

Start by establishing your baseline 

Before you make an exercise plan, Kennedy explains, it’s important to assess where you’re starting from. A reasonable fitness goal for someone who is completely sedentary will be very different than for someone who already regularly incorporates physical activity into their daily routine. “Our bodies regulate how much capacity or function we have based on how much stress you impose,” explains Kennedy, which means different people will be able to handle a very different amount of intensity or overload dependent on what their activity has been like in the past.

One of the most accurate ways to figure out your baseline is through fitness testing, a service that the U of A offers through its Fitness Testing Services program, where Kennedy is director. It’s not just for elite athletes — regular individuals can sign up to have several health measures assessed, including cardiorespiratory or aerobic fitness, muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility, neuromuscular health and body composition.

“Testing gives you real evidence of your baseline fitness, and then through that feedback we can give you very clear recommendations on the intensity, duration, frequency and types of exercise that are appropriate for your training program.”

Follow the 15 per cent rule 

Kennedy covers several training principles in his Introduction to the Biological Aspects of Fitness to Health class, including the overload principle. Essentially, once you’ve figured out what your baseline is, you should avoid setting goals that have you exceeding it by more than 15 per cent. If you’re already running for 30 minutes a few times a week, for example, increase a few of your runs to 35 minutes per week.

For an individual who is completely sedentary, for example, “increasing to 10 or 15 minutes of physical activity a few times a week is a good start.” A training plan involving high-intensity, 90-minute fitness classes is a recipe for disaster, and likely injury.

And, Kennedy notes, you should keep the 15 per cent rule in mind when thinking of intensity as well. For example, if you regularly go for 30-minute walks, aiming to slowly increase the duration of your walks at the same pace is a reasonable and sustainable goal. Interested in a more high-intensity form of exercise for the new year, such as cross-country skiing or running? Don’t make the mistake of planning for the same duration as your lower-intensity workouts — instead, lower your amount of minutes as your body adjusts. 

“As I say to my students, intensity and duration are inversely related — as one goes up the other should go down.”

If you keep this in mind, your body will have the chance to adapt and keep pace with your resolution-fuelled enthusiasm.

Individualize your plan based on both capacity and interest

A common tip for those with fitness goals is to find a buddy to help motivate you to show up for your training sessions or exercise classes. While this may help with accountability, Kennedy warns that it can be a mistake in terms of sustainably reaching your health goals. “People are very social animals, so they want support,” he says, which often leads to people agreeing to accompany a friend to a workout class that’s too intense for them. “The training principle associated with that is individualization — what’s good for you is not necessarily good for me.”   

Kennedy also recommends finding activities you actually enjoy, rather than what you think might be the most effective, when designing your fitness plan. “Don’t do things that are good for you but that you absolutely hate — that’s not going to lead to long-term changes in your lifestyle and health-related fitness.”

Those who far prefer venturing outdoors over sweating in a gym can do so year-round, even in our northern climate; simply keep in mind that “cold is a major physical stressor,” says Kennedy.

“Spend the money and the time to dress appropriately, cover your mouth and cover your skin, because those two things can really change your nervous system and how it’s responding to your lung function and body temperature.”

Assess your schedule — and be realistic

While it may seem obvious, keep in mind that it’s also crucial to consider what your current weeks look like when planning a fitness program. “Any program is not worth the screen or paper it’s written on if it can’t fit into your actual life schedule,” says Kennedy. 

He recommends taking a look at an average week in your life and breaking it into two-hour blocks, spotting where there are windows of leisure time. Those are the opportunities to fit in physical activity — creating an idealistic plan and then trying to shoehorn it into your schedule where it simply doesn’t fit won’t lead to long-term success.

Know how to identify symptoms that you’re pushing too hard 

It’s normal to feel sore after a workout, especially if you’re pushing yourself, but how do you know when you may be taking things too far? According to Kennedy, a good rule of thumb is that if you’ve taken over-the-counter medications such as Advil or Tylenol to reduce subjective muscle soreness that is still lasting over 72 hours, “you’ve probably gone too hard.”

And don’t be tempted to ‘tough it out’ — “one of the things that can happen with severe muscle soreness is a leakage of proteins into the blood, and if too much leaks out this can be really hard on your kidneys.” 

Beyond muscle soreness, other physical signs of what Kennedy refers to as “overreaching” include a racing heart when you are trying to fall asleep, dry mouth, restless sleep, cravings, an increase in daytime drowsiness and mood disturbances (feeling grumpy or feeling flat). 

What: Bomber Fitness

Where: Needham, Massachusetts

An exercise science major at IC, Woodilla was working for a medical fitness facility in Boston when she was furloughed during the COVID pandemic. While looking for work, she came across PEX Health and Fitness, which provides a collaborative workspace for fitness and healthcare professionals, providing them with a facility and machines while covering the overhead costs. That gave her the idea (and provided the support necessary) to start Bomber Fitness, operating out of a three-story facility that she shares with other wellness practitioners.

Woodilla, who describes herself as “a guide helping clients up the mountain,” focuses her personal training on clients who have reached the end of their insurance-approved physical therapy. Many of these clients have a physical disability.

“Often, when someone recovering from an injury or dealing with a medical condition sees their results plateau in physical therapy, insurance will stop covering it,” she said. “But those individuals may have a disability that requires constant work, and they need a safe space where they can meet their fitness and wellness goals.”

Woodilla was inspired to work with that population after interning at Chapter 126 Sports & Fitness, an adaptive sports and fitness facility in Bristol, Connecticut, during her final semester at Ithaca.

“My time at Ithaca, both in the classroom and in my work in the Wellness Clinic, instilled a lot of great morals in me,” she said. “I believe everyone deserves of a place where they can explore their limits safely.”

No two health and wellness journeys are alike, so perhaps fittingly, no two journeys towards owning a gym or wellness center are the same either. But as these stories show, Ithaca alumni are making their mark in the fitness industry and ensuring their clients are living their best lives.