So the number one reason people end in care facilities is because they can’t get off the toilet, or up from being on the floor.

The stronger/healthier you are now (and maintain it), the less likely you will break a bone as you age.

We store calcium in our bones until about age 30, when it starts to slow. I think by age 50,its really slowed to a crawl. As we age, we become less and less efficient at storing calcium due to hormonal changes, which leads to weaker bones - why older people break bones more easily.

So build your muscles before age 40, as the strength of muscles impacts bone density (since they attach to bones, and the stress they induce at origin/insertion influences bone density). Trying to build muscle as you age gets more risky for because of this stress.

Also improve your cardiovascular capacity now. Ira easier to do than when older, has long term health influence, and isn’t the risk of doing it when you’re older.

Everything gets harder as we age. The more you improve conditioning now, the better tomorrow will be.

For example, take my aunts and uncles.

I have two uncles and one aunt on one parent’s side. One uncle is nearing his late seventies but has always been active, doing rock climbing, hiking, kayaking, etc, and tends to eat well. He looks younger than people I’ve met in their sixties and some in their late fifties and is in better physical shape than many of my peers.

The other uncle is five years younger and has had more physically active jobs over his life, but doesn’t really exercise recreationally. He looks older than his older brother and is rapidly declining physically with age, both in health and capability.

My aunt is 11 years younger than her oldest brother and is worst off of all. She has always eaten poorly but never ran heavy (she has an eating disorder), didn’t exercise past her twenties, and made generally poor health decisions. She’s a wreck but is self sufficient despite looking and moving like a walking corpse.

The other side of the family is pretty simple - they were descended from farmers but, despite no longer farming, continued to eat like they were. Of the three brothers, only my father made it past his fourties, the rest dying of cardiovascular diseases. He died of preventable illness in his early sixties but had been disabled for over twenty years. Of the four sisters, each has been on disabled for over thirty years from complications due to obesity and diabetes.

So yeah, I exercise. I also have a heritable chronic illness, but that’s from the side with the fit uncle, and we ALL have it on that side. By moving around enough and not eating like shit, we’re doing better than the “normals” that are dead and disabled.

Oh, and my mom looks easily ten years younger than her actual age and absolutely could kick my ass.