Dana Santas, known as the “Mobility Maker,” is a certified strength and conditioning specialist and mind-body coach in professional sports, and is the author of the book “Practical Solutions for Back Pain Relief.”
When most people think about staying fit as they get older, they focus on the usual suspects: strength, mobility and cardio. But reaction time is a crucial cognitive and physical skill that rarely makes the list, despite its decline quietly affecting everything — including whether you catch yourself before a fall and how sharply your brain processes the world around you.
Reaction time is the interval between perceiving a stimulus — a curb, a misstep, an oncoming car — and initiating a physical response. It’s the speed of your nervous system’s decision loop, and as with muscle mass, it declines with age. This decline begins as early as your 20s and accelerates after 60, research has shown, with meaningful consequences for both physical safety and cognitive health.
As a mind-body coach who works with professional athletes across multiple sports, I’ve seen reaction-time training and tracking prioritized at the elite level for years. Yet for most nonathletes, developing the skill never reaches their fitness radar — even though it’s just as trainable as strength or cardio.
