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Crowley: Sore joints, arthritis, obesity, the apathy, the lack of sexual interest.

When you think about aging, you think that all that stuff is coming.

It doesn't have to.

I can ski better than I could 15 years ago.

A summer ago, I did a 100-mile bike ride with a pal in the Colorado Rockies.

Lodge: If someone who is sedentary really commits to exercising six days a week, he would be something like 10 or 15 years younger in the functional respect within a year.

Q: How much exercise?

Crowley: Steady, remorseless exercise.

You've got to do strength training; you've got to do aerobics.

Six days a week, 45 minutes a day.

If you have to start out at 20 or 30 minutes, fine and dandy, but you really should get to 45 minutes and stay there for the rest of your life.

Q: Why weight training?

Crowley: You get more bone mass, the grippers that attach your bones to your muscles get grippier, and the goop gets goopier between the joints.

The message system that tells your body how to respond to unevenness in the road gets younger.

You don't fall down as much.

Q: What is the science behind exercise and aging?

Lodge: The cells in our body turn over all the time.

Every time the cells regrow, they regrow either a little bit stronger or a little bit weaker, depending on what you ask of them.

If you're an early human out on the savanna and the message is there are very few calories available because it's wintertime, your body is ...