Mick Jagger Trains Five to Six Days a Week at 83: Ballet for Balance, Yoga for Mobility and Pilates for His Core

Mick Jagger is 83 and trains five to six days a week. He alternates: gym, running, swimming, cycling and dance. He says he can walk up to 12 kilometres a day. On top of that, he does ballet, yoga and Pilates. That is the schedule of a professional athlete, not a pensioner.

His sleep pattern is pure rock'n'roll: he goes to bed around 2 am and gets up around 10. Trainer Miguel Lordán says that's not a problem, because a consistent routine matters more than the exact hour. Alejandro Marset adds that sleep is when the body's tissues repair themselves.

Lordán recommends at least five days of training a week, with lighter activity, such as walking, on the other days. "At 83 you have to be one hundred percent active," he says. Marset is more cautious: six days is fine for someone who is prepared, but the right frequency depends on the person. A sentence worth remembering before anyone throws themselves into Jagger's programme next Monday.

Marset stresses that cardiovascular endurance is just as important as strength, because both support everyday tasks like climbing stairs. Ballet preserves balance and range of motion, yoga keeps mobility and the small stabilising muscles working, and Pilates strengthens the core. Together they reduce the risk of falls, which becomes more and more important with age.

His diet is varied, balanced and organic, and he has cut back significantly on alcohol. None of this is a new secret - we all know the list. The difference is that Jagger didn't start at 80. This is the result of a lifetime of training, not a miracle programme for pensioners.

The question isn't whether we can be Jagger. The question is why we wait for a doctor to tell us to start.