2024-01-30 20:29:00
Irishman Richard Morgan only discovered his passion for sport in his seventies. Now, at 93 years old, he is as fit as a 30 to 40 year old.
Richard Morgan has already won four world championship titles in indoor rowing. – www.Row2k.com
the essentials in brief
- The Irishman Richard Morgan is a sports fan.
- At 93 years old, he has the fitness of a healthy 30- to 40-year-old man.
- He has already won the indoor rowing world championship four times.
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Richard Morgan is a remarkable retiree. At 93, the Irishman has the fitness of a healthy 30- or 40-year-old man. He is a four-time world indoor rowing champion and his life offers valuable lessons regarding aging.
Morgan wasn’t always so fit. As the Washington Post reports, he only began exercising regularly in his 70s. Despite his late start, he has now rowed a distance that spans almost ten times around the globe.
A recently published study in the Journal of Applied Physiology examined Morgan’s training, nutrition and physiology in more detail. The results suggest that Morgan is a role model for healthy aging in many ways. A model pensioner with the heart, muscles and lungs of a person less than half his age.
Training in the garden house
Despite his impressive fitness, Morgan is quite normal in other areas: the former baker with creaky knees mainly trains in his garden shed.
Richard Morgan is already 93 years old, but in great shape: a laboratory experiment showed that he has the fitness of a healthy 30 to 40 year old man. He’s a sports fan. His flagship discipline is indoor rowing – he has already won four times at the World Championships. The scientists were amazed by the pensioner: “It was one of the most inspiring days I have ever spent in the laboratory,” says Professor Philip Jakeman.
Researchers were particularly interested in finding out what Morgan’s late training did for his aging body. “We need to look at very active older people if we want to understand aging,” said one of the study authors.
Many questions regarding the biology of aging remain unanswered. For example, whether the physical slowing and muscle loss that normally accompanies aging is normal and unavoidable. Or whether they are perhaps at least partly due to a lack of exercise.
80 percent muscle
The researchers invited Morgan to the lab at the University of Limerick in Ireland. They measured his height, weight and body composition and collected information regarding his diet. They also checked his metabolism and his heart and lung function, according to the Washington Post.
They then asked him to get on a rowing machine and complete a simulated 2,000-meter time run. Meanwhile, they monitored his heart, lungs and muscles.
Do you do sports regulary?
“It was one of the most inspiring days I have ever spent in the laboratory,” said Philip Jakeman from the University of Limerick. Morgan proved to be a powerhouse: his 75 kilograms consisted of around 80 percent muscle and barely 15 percent fat. A body composition that would be considered healthy for a man decades younger.
The joy of sport
Morgan likely has some genetic advantages, the scientists note. Rowing skills seem to run in his family.
“There is a certain joy in winning a World Cup,” Morgan said through his grandson with almost comical modesty. “I started from scratch and suddenly realized that there was a lot of joy in it.”
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