{"id":576678,"date":"2026-04-10T21:34:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T21:34:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/576678\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T21:34:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T21:34:19","slug":"5-keys-to-healthy-aging-from-the-father-of-aerobics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/576678\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Keys to Healthy Aging From the Father of Aerobics"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you believe your days of aerobics are behind you, think again. According to Dr. Kenneth Cooper, who pioneered aerobics for improving health, remaining physically active<\/a> is critical for combating diseases and driving healthy aging. And he should know, because at age 95, he still works out five days a week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNo drug can replace the effects of an active lifestyle,\u201d says Cooper, a preventive medicine doctor and researcher who regularly sees patients at the Cooper Clinic in Dallas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

An Oklahoma native, Cooper was active as a boy and ran track in high school (he had Olympic aspirations). At the time, many experts thought too much heart-pumping movement could have adverse effects on health and specifically the heart.<\/p>\n

Support for Staying Active<\/p>\n

If you can use a professional trainer to learn some basics about physical activity, Cooper recommends it. He\u2019s a fan of muscle activation technique (MAT) specialists, who can pinpoint issues with your muscles, including weakness and tightness. If you can work out only at home, there\u2019s a lot you can do with light weights and resistance bands, he adds.<\/p>\n

But Cooper didn\u2019t always maintain his physical fitness, especially when attending the University of Oklahoma School of Medicine. He was out of shape in his late 20s and experienced chest pains, though nothing was wrong with his heart. \u201cAt 29 years of age, I was a mess,\u201d Cooper recalls.<\/p>\n

He took up running in the early 1960s while working toward a master\u2019s degree in public health at the Harvard School of Public Health. He says it was then that he learned more about preventing diseases, not just treating them.<\/p>\n

In the mid 1960s\ufeff, he completed the aerospace medicine residency program and began developing an exercise conditioning program for the Air Force at Wilford Hall U.S. Air Force Hospital in San Antonio. There, he formulated the 12-minute and 1.5-mile fitness treadmill tests, which are used widely today among coaches and trainers. He wrote his first book, Aerobics, in 1968, which became a global movement. In 1989, Cooper and colleagues published a landmark study that used the treadmill test to show that the higher a person\u2019s fitness level, the lower their mortality risk, especially from heart disease and cancer.<\/p>\n

In his 20th book, Grow Healthier as You Grow Older, Cooper writes that in the military, he began dreaming of a preventive medicine clinic. Today, thousands visit the 30-acre Cooper Clinic campus in Dallas \u2014 complete with a hotel, gym and spa \u2014 to undergo extensive one-day testing. This helps people understand how to improve their mental and physical health with exercise, naturally, at the core.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Dr.<\/p>\n

Dr. Kenneth Cooper exercises about five times per week.<\/p>\n

Courtesy Ron Jenkins\/Sunwest Communications<\/p>\n

How Cooper works out<\/p>\n

\u201cFitness is a journey, not a destination,\u201d Cooper says. Before he goes home from work at night, he spends 30 minutes pedaling on a recumbent bike while watching TV, pushing his heart rate to about 130 beats per minute using a heart rate monitor. He also does about 10 minutes of weight training three times a week. And he walks his dog about 15 to 20 minutes per day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI use exercise at the end of the day to burn off stress,\u201d says Cooper, adding that it helps him sleep better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you believe your days of aerobics are behind you, think again. According to Dr. Kenneth Cooper, who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[253386,253387,253385,337,97,48832,2749,73952,249726],"class_list":{"0":"post-576678","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-aerobics-for-older-adults","9":"tag-body-roundness-index","10":"tag-dr-kenneth-cooper","11":"tag-fitness","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-healthy-aging-tips","14":"tag-longevity","15":"tag-preventive-medicine","16":"tag-strength-training-after-60"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}