Bob Hope, known for his vaudeville, acting, comedy, and his hosting gig at the Academy Awards a record 19 times, died in July 2003, two months after his 100th birthday.
Back in the ’80s, when he was a spry 78, he said he made sure to walk 2 miles every day, no matter where he was, per Men’s Health.
He learned this lesson from his grandfather. “When he was 96 years old, he walked two miles to the local pub every day to get a drink. He died within a month of his 100th birthday, and he remained mentally sharp till the very end,” said Hope.
There’s science to back up their method. A 2024 study published in the British Journal of Sports Science analyzed health and mortality data from the 2019 US Census, the 2003—2006 National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey, and the National Center for Health Statistics. Using a mathematical model, the authors predicted that people who walk for around 160 minutes a day live an average of five years longer than their sedentary peers.
They speculated that if the least active Americans walked for an extra 111 minutes daily, they could live up to 11 years longer.
