Physical fitness and performance. Training for old age: production functions for the aerobic exercise inputs.

Purpose: This paper attempts to develop production functions (PF) between aerobic exercise inputs and long-run health outputs. Future studies could use such PF for estimating the benefits and costs (broadly defined) of different exercise programs to help develop optimal (utility maximizing) ones.

Methods: To develop the PF, the paper reviewed the biomedical literature for the major dose-response relations between health, physical fitness, and exercise.