Consistent lifelong exercise preserves heart muscle in the elderly that can match and even exceed that of healthy young sedentary people, a new study says.

According to Reuters, the study, which involved studying 121 people without heart disease monitored with regular exercise, was presented on Saturday at the annual scientific meeting of the American College of Cardiology in New Orleans It is the first one to evaluate the effects of lifelong exercise on heart mass.

The findings suggested that physical activity preserves the heart’s youthful elasticity. It also showed that “elderly people with a documented history of exercising six to seven times a week throughout adulthood not only kept their heart mass, but built upon it — having heart masses greater than sedentary healthy adults aged 25 to 34.”

“One thing that characterizes the aging process by itself is the loss of muscle mass, particularly skeletal muscle,” said Dr. Paul Bhella, a researcher from John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas who presented the study at the conference.

“But we are showing that this process is not unique to skeletal muscle, it also happens in cardiac muscle,” he added. “A heart muscle that atrophies is weaker.”

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