What Mattered Most and Least for Longevity

Cardio fitness tends to be the biggest predictor of mortality, as the study results suggest, Powers says. “People often die from cardiovascular disease,” he says. “Being flexible doesn’t typically impact that risk.”

While flexibility is a major focus in certain forms of exercise, such as yoga and Pilates, the researchers didn’t find a link between higher flexibility and longer life.

“I’m not too worried about flexibility,” Powers says. “It often improves with other areas of fitness. By itself, it doesn’t relate to fitness the way some of these others do.”

Fitness May Better Predict Lifespan Than Disease Alone, According to Doctors

Doctors will often look at whether someone has these diseases when trying to determine their lifespan and risk of early death, Dr. Liang says. “These measures tell us which conditions a person has accumulated, but they tell us less about what that person can still physically do,” she says. “They may also be less informative for older adults who have not yet developed overt disease or disability.”

These fitness tests “look at things from a different standpoint,” Power says. “If someone has a bad heart, that’s a bad indicator of lifespan,” he continues. “On the other hand, if we know a person’s functional ability, too, we can adapt lifestyle choices to try to improve their health.”

The tests may also help doctors better assess patients’ overall health, regardless of disease, Powers says. “There is a severity of illness, and it can be difficult at times to assess risk and future longevity,” he says. “These types of tests give us specific information.”

The Study Has Strengths and Limitations

The study analyzed very detailed information from a relatively large group of people, Powers points out. But there are a few limitations.

Because the study was observational, it can’t prove that people with lower scores on fitness tests had shorter lifespans; it simply found a link. The participants’ physical fitness was measured at a single point in time, making it hard to know whether it changed over time.

The researchers also didn’t examine how the participants died, making it difficult to know if their fitness may have been a potential factor. Smoking status also wasn’t recorded.

How to Improve Your Fitness With These Measures

Powers doesn’t suggest trying to improve your fitness solely to excel at these tests. But he does recommend focusing on cardiorespiratory fitness for overall health and longevity.

If you haven’t been physically active, it’s usually helpful to start with small amounts of exercise and work your way up, according to Albert Matheny, RD, CSCS, cofounder of SoHo Strength Lab in New York City. “Walking is always a good baseline exercise,” he says. “You can also bike if you need something lower-impact.” From there, he suggests increasing the speed, intensity, and distance of your exercise to increase fitness over time.

Liang stresses that doing what you can to meet physical activity guidelines should help to improve your test performance and, potentially, lifespan. “What our findings do suggest is that physical fitness is a potentially modifiable marker of physiological reserve, rather than simply a fixed consequence of aging,” she says. “Starting with small amounts and building up gradually is reasonable, particularly for people who have been inactive.”

When asked by a young follower how he stays fit despite a packed political schedule, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi didn’t talk about fancy workouts or expensive diets. His answer was surprisingly simple: If I have to work out at 11 pm, I’ll do it at 11 pm. Fitness, he said, is about persistence, not convenience.

His philosophy echoes what exercise science has been saying for years: the best workout is the one you actually do consistently.

DOES THE TIME OF DAY REALLY MATTER?

Not as much as most people think. Morning workouts often get the spotlight because they’re easier to turn into a habit. But research shows that regular exercise at any time of day delivers major benefits for heart health, metabolism, mood and longevity.

If your only free hour is after dinner, that’s still far better than skipping exercise altogether.

The real difference isn’t 6 am vs 11 pm, it’s doing it four or five days a week instead of once every few weeks.

WHY CONSISTENCY BEATS MOTIVATION

Motivation is unreliable. Habits are not. People often wait until they “feel motivated” to exercise, but motivation naturally rises and falls depending on stress, sleep and workload.

Rahul Gandhi’s approach flips that idea: schedule fitness like any other important commitment. Sports psychologists call this behavioural consistency, repeating an action until it becomes automatic rather than emotional.

CAN YOU WORK OUT AT 11 PM?

Yes, but with a few caveats. Late-night exercise is perfectly safe for most healthy people. In fact, many people naturally perform better in the evening because body temperature, flexibility and muscle strength tend to peak later in the day.

However, very intense workouts right before bed may make it harder for some people to fall asleep.

If you’re exercising late, experts generally recommend:

• Finish vigorous workouts at least 60-90 minutes before sleeping
• Keep the room cool afterward
• Avoid heavy meals immediately after training
• Prioritise recovery and adequate sleep
• A relaxed yoga session or moderate strength workout is less likely to interfere with sleep than an all-out sprint session.

THE THREE THINGS RAHUL GANDHI AVOIDS

Alongside exercise, Gandhi also spoke about habits that can quietly undermine fitness: poor eating, excessive alcohol and constant snacking.

These habits matter because exercise alone cannot fully offset an unhealthy lifestyle.

Think of fitness as a three-legged stool:

• Movement builds strength and endurance.
• Nutrition fuels recovery.
• Sleep allows the body to repair itself.
• Remove one, and the whole system becomes less stable.

IS THERE AN IDEAL FITNESS ROUTINE?

Not really. The most effective routine is one you can sustain.

A balanced weekly plan usually includes:

Strength training: 2–3 days

• Cardio: 150 minutes of moderate activity weekly
• Mobility or yoga: A few sessions for flexibility
• Rest: At least one recovery day

Rahul Gandhi has previously said his own routine includes martial arts, swimming, running and yoga, a mix that covers strength, endurance and flexibility.

Fitness isn’t built on one perfect workout or one perfect morning.

It’s built on the ordinary decision to show up, whether that’s before sunrise, during a lunch break or at 11 pm after a long day.

As Rahul Gandhi’s philosophy suggests, the clock matters far less than the commitment to keep moving.

– Ends

Gillian Anderson has never been a gym bunny. Instead, there are two gym-free, affordable and efficient ways she stays fit – and neither requires much effort. Speaking of her preferred workouts, the X-Files star and mum-of-three, who turned 58 yesterday, previously told the Daily Mail, ‘I don’t try that hard to stay in shape.’

But while she might not be one for pushing herself, she does know how beneficial keeping active with age is. On an episode of How To Fail with Elizabeth Day, she shared that after decades of stubbornly rejecting exercise, since turning 55, she felt ‘ready’. ‘People talk about longevity and if you want to live longer or be able to pick up your grandchildren, and so in that context, I feel like: OK, I’m ready now,’ she said. ‘I am going to do it the way I want to do it.’

Below, find the two workouts she does right now, and everything she’s said about her routine.

NEAT exercise

On How To Fail, she shared that she had started to ‘work with a trainer on an app.’ ‘She sends me things,’ she explained. ‘You know, it’s even the smallest things such as not taking the lift, taking the stairs, you know, all the things that you hear.’

The type of movement she’s referring to is known as NEAT exercise. Standing for Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis, it’s the energy you burn through everyday movement that doesn’t require the time taken on planned workouts, like walking, gardening and doing household chores.

As Anderson explains, it might not feel like much effort, but everyday movement like this has a much bigger impact on your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) than your structured gym workouts. NEAT accounts for roughly 50% of the calories you burn each day; structured exercise typically contributes to only around 10%. It’s about finding more opportunities to move across each day – without having to carve out time for intentional exercise. Some examples include:

• Washing the car
• Fidgeting
• Walking upstairs
• Walking the dog
• Carry grocery shopping
• Gardening
• Playing with children or pets
• Using a standing desk
• Walking to the gym, shops, office instead of taking public or private transport

Yoga

Yoga has been a two-for-one mind-and-body workout in Anderson’s fitness routine for years. She first mentioned it in an interview with InStyle in 1998, when she was explained she had been practicing since attending DePaul University in Chicago. ‘I remember it was 3 in the morning and I’d just come home and I was going to do yoga,’ she laughed. ‘I did this one posture that you’re not supposed to do if you had any alcoholic beverages. And I did it collapsed on the floor.’

One year later, she told Redbook she had been ‘doing yoga again for the first time in a long time’, adding that, ‘I always thought that unless I was sprinting and lifting weights, I wasn’t doing anything.’

In 2015, she told the Daily Mail: ‘I go through stages of yoga a few times a week.’ Just last year, she revealed to Elle that she still uses ‘meditation and yoga’ to connect her mind to her body, adding that ‘I do notice the difference when I allow myself the time to take that space and connect the mind and body.’

From attending university in 1996 to now, that’s 30 years of a regular yoga practice. And it’s no wonder Anderson has stuck with it: studies show that as well as calming your mind, it will boost flexibility, strength, balance and mobility – all especially important as we age. Double the benefits from a single workout.

Anderson’s routine is a reminder that fitness doesn’t have to mean pushing your body to its limits or carving out hours per week for gym workouts. Her biggest priorities are making fitness fit seamlessly into her life and making it functional: she uses NEAT exercise to prolong her life and stay fit for grandchildren; practices yoga to bring her mental clarity; and she’s previously shared that she brings in a personal trainer when a particular acting role requires it. It’s about making it work for you.

As Women’s Health UK’s fitness director and a qualified Pilates and yoga instructor, Bridie Wilkins has been passionately reporting on exercise, health and nutrition since the start of her decade-long career in journalism.

Advertisement

After earning a first-class degree in journalism and NCTJ accreditation, she secured her first role at Look Magazine, where she launched the magazine’s health and fitness column, Look Fit, before going on to become Health and Fitness writer at HELLO!

Since, she has written for Stylist, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Elle, The Metro, Runner’s World and Red. Today, she oversees all fitness content across Women’s Health online and in print, spearheading leading cross-platform franchises, such as ‘Fit At Any Age’, which showcases the women proving that age is no barrier to exercise.

She has also represented the brand on BBC Radio London, plus various podcasts and Substacks – all with the aim to encourage more women to exercise and show them how. Outside of work, find her trying the latest Pilates studio, testing her VO2 max for fun (TY, Oura), or posting workouts on Instagram.