Learning to play recreational soccer can make older men fitter and healthier, a new study finds.

A team of Danish researchers decided to look at the effect that a year’s recreational soccer training would have men between the ages of 63 to 75 year old.

The study involved nine men, who were healthy, but who had not played soccer, and compared them with eight healthy men, who were the control group.  They were tested for such factors as body mass index (BMI), body composition and muscle function both after four months and again after the year of training.

After four months, the men registered improvements of 15 percent in cardiovascular fitness, 43 percent in interval work capacity and 30 percent in functional capacity.  After a year, they had an average three percent reduction in BMI purely from the loss of fat, as well as better blood sugar control.

In addition, tests showed that their bodies were better able to ward off damage from oxidation, a cellular process believed to cause aging, and they also had a reduced risk of heart disease and diabetes. In addition, one of the greatest improvements was that of muscle mass, which was equal to gains from strength training.

"As we get older, we lose muscle mass, and that reduces our ability to maintain a physically active lifestyle. That is why it is important to preserve muscle mass into our later years, if we are to manage by ourselves for longer when we are old. In this study we saw how the participants reduced their body weight without losing muscle mass,” said researcher Thomas Rostgaard Anderson, of the study, which appears in PLOS ONE.