[lunar11 (OP)]

I heard that on average the human heart beats 3 billion times.
Lets say a person exercises everyday for an hour and the pulse rate increase to 120 beats for the entire hour. This means that the 'allocated' 3 billion beats is been reached quicker, and so the life-span would decrease.
However, exercise is good for you. What have I missed here?

[CliffordK]

Much of the body is dictated by "use it or loose it".
And, it is good to clean out the old pipes once in a while.

So, without exercise, one will get weaker, get more osteoporosis, and etc.

With exercise, the heart should also be stronger, and thus last longer.
Cartilage?  I believe moderate, low impact (but not no impact) exercise is good for the cartilage too.

The question I've wondered...
Say, you exercise for 1 hr a day, 365 days a year for 50 years...  That equals 18,250 hours.
Now, divide that by 16 (waking) hr days, and one gets 1,140 waking days, or a little over 3 years of just exercising.

So, if you like exercise, that is one thing, but one should hope to live an extra 3 years, or it is all wasted time.

[lunar11 (OP)]

Something just occurred to me regarding your calculation.
My pulse rate is about 55 beats per min (I do exercise). Normal rate is 70 beats per min. This must make a difference too.

[CliffordK]

Something just occurred to me regarding your calculation.
My pulse rate is about 55 beats per min (I do exercise). Normal rate is 70 beats per min. This must make a difference too.

Excellent point.
I didn't do any calculations on the hear beats.  But, perhaps by peaking at a high rate of beats for a few hours a day, then generally having a lower rate, the average number of beats is about the same.

[wolfekeeper]

The only known way to increase maximum lifespan is calorie restriction (with adequate nutrition).

Some scientiests also tried it with and without exercise. It turned out that calorie restriction with exercise didn't fare so well and calorie restriction without exercise. However, normal nutrition with and without exercise was the other way around (but with much shorter lifespan). But this was in an animal model.