Cantarians and near-centarians like Warren Buffet, Charlie Munger, Jimmy Carter and Henry Kissinger: They did't stop puttering around. If we're optimizing for lifespan the rule is simply to keep moving.

My Grandpa was a railroad engineer, he retired a strong, healthy man at 65, sat down on the lazy boy and wasted away, he died at 74. My Grandpa's younger brother was a farmer, he had no retirement plan, he worked that farm until he was 88.

  > Few of the participants did much vilpa—the median was just 4.4 minutes per day. But even that was associated with a reduction in the chance of dying, from any cause, of up to 30% in the following seven years for which the average participant was monitored.

  > Exactly why vilpas seem to be so good for you is not yet clear (one theory is that they work in essentially the same way as high-intensity interval training...

Hate to be that guy, it seems a pretty obvious explanation is that people a few years away from death are less likely to be capable of short bursts of intense activity, and it’s a symptom rather than some protective effect. I don’t disagree with the recommendation to try and fit bits of exercise in, it can’t hurt thought isn’t necessarily as effective as advertised here.