He's 81 Years Old, But Is As Fit as a 20-Year-Old

At 81 years old, most people are slowing down and they're near their deathbed. But this Spanish man, he just broke the 50 km world record for his age group and he ran faster than most 30 year olds. Researchers published a new study about this man and his fitness metrics at the age of 81. The results are quite phenomenal. He had the equivalent VO2max and fitness of average 20 year olds. This guy just broke the world record for the highest VO2max of 80 year olds with a VO2max of 52.8 mL per kg per minute and he broke the world record for the 50 km run with a time of 4 hours 47 minutes 39 seconds which is an average pace of 10.5 km per hour for 50 km straight. And he also broke the world record for the marathon in the 80 year old group of 3 hours 39 minutes and 10 seconds. The crazy part is that he didn't start exercising until the age of 66 and he started competing only in his 70s. This guy is a testament to what's possible for your fitness in your 80s. He literally has better cardio than most 30 year olds and he rivals the fitness of an average 20 year old. In this video I'm going to break down the study about his fitness metrics, I'm going to talk about his training routine and what else did he do to reach top 0.0001% of fitness for people in their 80s. We know he's a Spanish man but his full identity remained anonymous within the scope of the research paper. He's 157 centimeters in height, 58.9 kilograms in body weight with a BMI of 23.9. The most significant and phenomenal thing about him are his cardio-respiratory fitness stats. His VO2 max while running is 52.8 milliliters per kilogram per minute. That's the highest value ever recorded in 80 year olds. A VO2 max of 52.8 is the equivalent to the 70th percentile of 20 to 30 year old men making him as fit as the average 20 year old. To be honest to have a VO2 max of 52.8 you need to be even slightly above average in your 20s because you're not just going to spawn into the world with a VO2 max of 52. An untrained 20 year old might have a VO2 max of around 45 to 48. His maximal heart rate while running was 155 beats per minute. For his age it's estimated to be 139 beats per minute which means his heart is significantly more powerful and fitter than what's expected for his age. His stroke volume was 98 milliliters. Max cardiac output 15.3 liters per minute. Oxygen extraction 164.1 milliliters per liter. Oxygen diffusion capacity 75.3 milliliters per minute. Overall we're talking about an extremely fit individual who can even run laps around average 30 year olds. So how did he become so fit? Is it just genetics or was he an athlete his entire life? He only started running at the age of 66 which is quite late. However he had accumulated about 15 years of training which is relatively enough. His weekly running volume consisted of 65 kilometers per week during the off-season. That's an average of 9.3 kilometers per day. During specific phases in preparation of events he routed up to 120 kilometers per week. In total he ran 3500 kilometers per year which is about 9.5 kilometers per day. His average exercise frequency was six to seven sessions per week. During the general phase of his training he did continuous running at a pace of around five to six minutes per kilometer. During specific phases he introduced interval training. The intervals consisted of distances from 200 meters up to eight kilometers at a pace of five to ten seconds per kilometer faster than the target race pace. This means that during the training he was running a little bit faster than during the actual events. His training periodization followed the linear model. Linear training is a progressive structured training method where you gradually increase the volume and or intensity in a stepwise manner over time. Basically you're peaking for the event. During the races his slowest pace was 9.4 kilometers per hour and his fastest pace 11.3 kilometers per hour. We don't have any information about his general diet, his supplements, his sleep, his recovery methods because they weren't described in the study. We don't know if he did any other type of exercise like resistance training or weightlifting. Despite that he had quite good muscle mass for his age with no resistance training. His DEXA scan results show that he had 19.5% total fat mass, 76.8% total lean mass with an appendicular lean mass index of 7.9. That would put him in the top 10% of people in his age and he would have the muscle mass of someone in their 60s. The average 20 to 30 year old has an appendicular lean mass index of around 8 to 9 so he's slightly below the average of muscle mass for 20 to 30 year olds. His bone mineral content was 2.24 kilograms and bone mineral density 1.14 grams per square centimeter. His bone density is about 15 to 20 percent better than other people of his age and it's better than people in their 70s. However it's not better than people in their 20s or 30s who would have a bone mineral density of around 1.2 to 1.25 grams per square centimeter. So overall he had exceptional cardiorespiratory fitness and pretty good body composition especially given the fact that he probably didn't do resistance training. A few months ago I published a video about an 80 year old Norwegian man who also had a VO2 max of 50 milliliters per kilogram per minute which is exceptional. That would have put him between ages 25 and 35 and back in 2015 he would have had the world's highest VO2 max for his age. However now this 81 year old Spanish man broke that VO2 max record. Both people are extremely fit. The difference might be their exercise program. The Norwegian man was able to do L-sit pull-ups and other impressive feats of strength. He seems to have had a more balanced exercise routine incorporating resistance training to maintain more muscle and strength. Now the caveat is that the Norwegian man also spent most of his training doing aerobic exercise. He did 20 minutes three times per week for aerobic exercise and 10 minutes three times per week for resistance training. So the majority of his training was also aerobic exercise. But the difference is that he exercised significantly less than the Spanish man. The 81 year old Spanish man doesn't appear to have any health conditions. The researchers found no medical conditions, no complaints. He was in perfect health. He had amazing fitness and good body composition. So realistically he's going to live for another 10 to 20 years unless something catastrophic happens to his health. VO2 max is one of the best predictors of survival. I've managed to take my own VO2 max from above average to the elite level for my age group. Check out my video on the workout plan that helped me to achieve it next.