{"id":756339,"date":"2026-09-01T05:22:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T05:22:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/756339\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T05:22:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T05:22:21","slug":"the-size-of-this-body-part-could-predict-how-long-youll-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/756339\/","title":{"rendered":"The Size Of This Body Part Could Predict How Long You’ll Live"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’ve written before at HuffPost UK about how the size of a person’s temporalis (chewing) muscle<\/a>\u00a0could reveal their dementia risk.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And your glutes’ strength and size may even show how you’re ageing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As it turns out, another muscle measure \u2013 our calf size \u2013 has been associated with a longer lifespan, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This seemed especially true<\/a> in older adults.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What can your calf size say about your longevity?<\/p>\n

In 2021, researchers published a paper<\/a> after following 796 older adults over nine years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By the end of the study, 197 of the participants had died. Those with a low BMI (less than 18.5) were at a significantly higher risk of mortality.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And of those studied, older adults with calf circumferences under 31cm seemed to have roughly double the risk of death during the almost-decade-long follow-up period.<\/p>\n

The study authors concluded calf circumference “was an independent predictor of mortality”.<\/p>\n

A systemic review<\/a> involving 37 cohort studies, meanwhile, found that for a 1cm increase in calf circumference results, the risk of death decreased by 5%.<\/p>\n

Yet another paper suggested<\/a> that calf circumference is\u00a0“is a convenient and predictable marker of frailty in older adults,” having shown that the “best cut-off value was 29.5\u2009cm in [men] and 28.5\u2009cm in women”.<\/p>\n

Why might calf size matter so much?\u00a0<\/p>\n

We can’t say for sure yet. But some researchers think<\/a> that it could reveal a person’s level of sarcopenia, or age-related muscle loss.<\/p>\n

The lower our muscle mass, especially as we age<\/a>, the likelier we are to face issues like falls and frailty.<\/p>\n

Scientists have learned<\/a> that stronger, more active calves seem to lower our risk of conditions like type 2 diabetes, too.<\/p>\n

How can I strengthen my calf muscles?<\/p>\n

Luckily, it’s possible to grow your calves. PureGym suggests<\/a> two to four training sessions a week.<\/p>\n

Some exercises that could help include:<\/p>\n

Weighted farmer’s carries.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And if you’re a little gym-shy, walking uphill seems to go a long way<\/a>, too.<\/p>\n

Related…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We’ve written before at HuffPost UK about how the size of a person’s temporalis (chewing) muscle\u00a0could reveal their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":756340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[249717,59,102,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-756339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-a-brain-circuit","tag-gb","tag-health","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=756339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/756340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=756339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=756339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=756339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}