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In my early seventies, I was able to do 12–15 miles hikes. This one had over a 3000 ft elevation change in the Grand Tetons to get to the lake.

Or others in the Canadian Rockies.

Not sure if I can do those now - it’s been a few years. But at 84, I still walk a lot - sometimes shorter hikes near my home on the coast of California, and a lot of time on my hilly local golf course (where I’ve played four consecutive days this week - walking).

But I’ve been lucky - and a lot of seventy somethings, through no fault of their own, have a hard time walking any distance or navigating hills. (My late older brother would have had difficulty walking a couple of blocks at that age.)

But one is never too old to start walking if they are not otherwise compromised in such a way that they can’t. One can walk twice as far as a distance they can walk easily. By that I mean, if you are easily able to walk around the block, you could always go twice that far. So starting to walk again and be active is just a matter of starting small and working up to longer distances. If in one’s seventies one can walk comfortably, it is probably healthy for them to walk a half hour each day - or at least every other day.

I played golf with two of my friends this week (both in their early seventies) who have been ‘out of commission’ for a year or two - with knee surgeries, a hip replacement, etc. It was great to see them out on the golf course again. It has taken awhile for them to slowly work their way back to being able to do that - but it is the best thing they can do.