I think so, but what is the best level of exercise?
I'm 58, always I do some exercise, now (since jan-2015) I train in a master club of swim. My level in the competitions is 75% of European champion of my cathegory, this is the normal level of all my team's partner, nobody is an ex agonistic, but ... I am the oldest!
I can improve again the style, the specific muscles and the VO2max, but ... it's good or too much for aging? (Certainly good for spirit and feel healt)
It seems that quite hard exercise few times per week is perhaps the optimal when it comes to health. More than that is ok as well, if you want to improve your VO2max etc. - you just don't get any extra health benefits after 5-6 hours of training per week. I haven't seen anything to suggest that older people could exercise too much or too hard, in fact I think seniors could exercise a lot harder than they usually do, especially as there's a lot of evidence that reaching a high HR is good for your system.
Interval training (HIIT) has been studied with elderly and even with people who have a heart condition, and while HIIT is very hard for heart etc., there doesn't seem to be any negative effects related to it and it actually is beneficial to heart function. For example http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/22694349 - "HIIT appears to be a safe and effective alternative for the rehabilitation of patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and heart failure (HF)."
For you, I suggest participating in masters swimming competitions for next 30 years. Have fun training!
Edited by proileri, 05 November 2015 - 03:35 AM.