Exercise training preserves aerobic power (VO2 max), which is crucial for maintaining functional capacity and delaying disability associated with aging.

“but one of the most important things is that it preserves your aerobic power this V2 Max and so think about um a cliff right and you're heading towards that Cliff with aging and that Cliff is where the maximal effort that you have in your body that you can do is what you need to do activities of daily living that's in that three to four metabolic equivalent met is the amount of oxygen you need to just sit here quietly three and a half MLS of oxygen per minute per kilogram of body mass and once you get to that you're really kind of in trouble right because then everything you do in life is a maximal effort well if that point is here and you're a master's athlete and you're up here when you're young right and you train all your life you stay above that really well if now you're unfit and you don't exercise your life and you're heading towards that Cliff what you want to do is change that trajectory and either push it up or flatten the curve a bit so that you prolong that period before you become disabled and that comes down to both endurance training and strength training because you need both of those to be able to maintain functional capacity”