--- title: Exercise: Here's How to Make Sure No One Can Ever Guess Your Age description: As you get older, your body reliably falls apart. Right? Not even close, finds a new study published in the Journal of Physiology. Age really... canonical: https://time.com/3655738/aging-exercise/ author: Mandy Oaklander article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-01-06T16:56:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T03:19:23.148Z article:section: Health og:title: Here's How to Make Sure No One Can Ever Guess Your Age og:description: As you get older, your body reliably falls apart. Right? Not even close, finds a new study published in the Journal of Physiology. Age really... og:url: https://time.com/3655738/aging-exercise/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt95a9688c7e1bc455/69877859e53aba30154d6dba/cycling-man.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2912 og:image:height: 1638 og:image:alt: man cycling og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's How to Make Sure No One Can Ever Guess Your Age twitter:description: As you get older, your body reliably falls apart. Right? Not even close, finds a new study published in the Journal of Physiology. Age really... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt95a9688c7e1bc455/69877859e53aba30154d6dba/cycling-man.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's How to Make Sure No One Can Ever Guess Your Age > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=947ead30-50ff-4fd5-82cf-4f9f6c7d4ec9&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1)  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Jan 6, 2015 4:56 PM UTC  Silhouette cyclist Silhouette cyclist Getty Images  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Jan 6, 2015 4:56 PM UTC As you get older, your body reliably falls apart. Right? Not even close, finds a new [study](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1113/jphysiol.2014.282863/abstract) published in the _Journal of_ Physiology. Age really is nothing but a number—but if your number happens to be high, that only applies if your exercise levels are, too. The study from King’s College London and the University of Birmingham in the U.K. looked at older adults all between ages 55-79 who were very active cyclists. The researchers collected extensive physiological information of every person, including heart stats, respiratory and metabolic levels, endocrine functions, hormones, brain power and bone strength. Many of these measures showed a significant association with age—but they varied so much from person to person that no single measure was able to reliably predict a person’s age. That’s probably because exercise levels have such a strong influence over many of those numbers, the study authors note, and being sedentary arguably plays the biggest role. Said Norman Lazarus, study co-author and professor at King’s College London, in a press release, “Inevitably, our bodies will experience some decline with age, but staying physically active can buy you extra years of function compared to sedentary people.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3655738/aging-exercise/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3655738/aging-exercise/"},"headline":"Here's How to Make Sure No One Can Ever Guess Your Age","datePublished":"2015-01-06T16:56:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T03:19:23.148Z","description":"As you get older, your body reliably falls apart. Right? Not even close, finds a new study published in the Journal of Physiology. 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