A 47-year-long Swedish study has revealed that physical fitness and strength begin to decline earlier than some might have imagined. However, the encouraging news is that starting to exercise in later adulthood can still enhance physical capacity and slow this decline. The long-term Swedish study, conducted at the Karolinska Institute, tracked individuals for 47 years to study how physical fitness, strength, and muscle endurance develop during adulthood. The findings indicate that physical performance starts to decline around the age of 35. Participants who engaged in physical activity during adulthood showed a 5-10% increase in physical endurance. Maria Westerståhl, a lecturer in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and the lead author of the study, says: 'It is never too late to start moving.' In contrast, the SPAF study repeatedly measured the physical fitness and strength of the same participants across Sweden for nearly half a century, making it one of the most comprehensive studies of its kind. The results show that both physical fitness and strength begin to decline at age 35, regardless of the amount of training individuals received in earlier stages of life. Published in the journal Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle, the research offers a rare long-term view of how physical capacity changes over decades, rather than relying on one-off measurements at a single point in time.
