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…with just one extra hour of training per month, you can slow down the biological aging process?

American triathlon coach Alan Couzens made an interesting discovery: his athletes lost about as much aerobic fitness each year due to aging as they could gain from adding just one extra hour of training per month. This means: 15 minutes of additional training per week can slow the biological aging process—at least from a sporting perspective.

That sounds very interesting at first. But it could be difficult to maintain in the long run. Because in ten years, that would mean 2.5 extra hours of training per week. This inevitably raises a central question: How much of the physical decline with age is unavoidable—and how much is simply due to a lack of training?

This exact question was studied by sports scientist Johannes Burtscher from the University of Lausanne in a meta-analysis, and he came to the following conclusion: Only about 50% of fitness loss with age is actually due to aging. The other half is related to reduced training volume.

VO2max decreases from the age of 25

The so-called VO2max, or the maximum oxygen uptake of the body, is a key indicator of endurance performance. It decreases by an average of 10% per decade starting from around age 25—and even more rapidly after age 60.

However, this decline varies greatly among endurance athletes: the more one continues to train, the less is lost. Those who stop training can lose a large portion of their VO2max within just a few weeks—up to 20% after a 12-week break.

Burtscher’s analysis showed that for men, 54% of age-related losses can be explained by differences in training volume, and for women, 39%—though less data is available for women. People who train consistently over the years lose, on average, only about 5% of their VO2max per decade—half as much as non-athletes.

What can we learn from this?

• You don’t get old because you train—you get old when you stop.
• Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced athlete: studies clearly show that continuous endurance training can have tremendous effects on health, fitness, and quality of life, even in old age. It’s not about peak performance—it’s about consistency, ease, and joy in movement.
• Those who make training a habit, and let breaks be the exception, benefit twice: physically and mentally.