With renewed debate on raising the retirement age, decades of health and fitness trends reveal a deeper challenge still unaddressed by policy discussion.
As the country moves closer to becoming an ageing nation by 2030, the question of whether the country should raise the retirement age has resurfaced with extreme intensity.
Advocates point to longer life expectancy, labour shortages, and international comparisons. Opponents fear job competition and declining quality of life for older workers.
But amid this heated debate, one critical question has not been asked: are Malaysian workers — especially civil servants — fit to work until the age of 65?
This is not a rhetorical challenge. It is a real, measurable concern grounded in the health and fitness data of Malaysia’s workforce. Unless this question is answered honestly, any discussion about extending the working years risks being detached from reality.
A Workforce Ageing Faster Than The Nation
Malaysia’s ageing problem is often framed in terms of demographics, but the truth is more complex. Malaysians are not just ageing chronologically, but many are also ageing biologically faster, due to physical inactivity, sedentary lifestyles, and chronic diseases.
We did not earn the reputation as Asean’s most obese nation overnight. It is the predictable result of years of sedentary lifestyles and inadequate prevention strategies, which policymakers have yet to fully address.
Ironically, nowhere is this more evident than in Putrajaya, the administrative capital of the federal government, where four out of 10 civil servants lead sedentary lifestyles and accumulate more than six hours of sitting time in a day, far above what health guidelines consider safe.
In any discussion to increase the retirement age policy, these are tge health realities that policymakers must contend with. A workforce struggling with non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are simply not built for longer working lives, unless some radical action plan of intervention is put into place to improve the probabilities.
The Missing Metric In Retirement Age Debate: VO2 Max
Being fit doesn’t solely mean having an ideal body mass index (BMI) or low body fat percentage. It simply means a fit person would be able to respond effectively to daily tasks without excessive fatigue.
So, in debating the health and fitness metric of a retirement age, understanding the impact of VO2 Max is the key.
Sports scientists use VO2 Max, or maximal oxygen uptake, to measure how efficiently the body uses oxygen. It is a gold standard indicator of cardiovascular health, and its relevance extends far beyond elite athletes.
VO2 Max is the single strongest predictor of heart disease, longevity, functional ageing, cognitive stamina, day-to-day energy, and resilience against chronic illness.
For office workers, VO2 Max affects daily performance in ways most people never think about. High VO2 Max is strongly associated with cognitive sharpness in decision-making, mental stamina during long meetings, resistance to the stresses of work, and sustaining the energy levels. Low VO2 Max, which is common in sedentary populations, predicts a functional decline.
This is indicated deeply in the retirement age debate, as VO2 Max naturally decline at a rate about 10 per cent per decade, starting around the age of 30. Thus, extending working life to 65 is not only an economic decision, it is also a physiological one.
If workers do not have the capacity to remain fit and healthy into their 60s, simply raising the retirement age will not deliver the benefits policymakers expect.
Having low VO2 Max is not simply a fitness issue. It has now become a workforce sustainability issue.
Raise Fitness Before Raising Retirement Age
Malaysia is not the first country to grapple with an ageing population. But countries that have raised retirement ages did not do so in isolation. They have in place health care systems, workplace wellness interventions, and fitness cultures that support older workers.
Japan extended the employment age only after building a national ecosystem of health-promoting workplaces, mandatory screenings, structured exercise programmes, and corporate wellness accountability. They understand the mission that longer careers demand better health, not just more years.
Singapore raised its retirement and re-employment age while aggressively integrating fitness into everyday work life — exercise classes in office hubs, step challenges, active commuting infrastructures, and workplace health grants. It has become a national economic strategy to create a healthy workplace ecosystem.
The United Kingdom paired its rising pension age with the ‘Active Wellbeing’ initiative, the largest physical activity campaign in its civil service. The message is clear: raising retirement age must be paired with raising fitness levels.
Malaysia’s Contradiction: Longer Working Lives, Lower Fitness
In Malaysia, the discussion appears to be happening in reverse. The retirement age debate is happening in a country where many workers already struggle to stay fit at 40, let alone 65.
The contradiction is hard to ignore as Malaysians are living longer, but not necessarily healthier. The civil service is ageing but not strengthening its fitness capacity. Workplace wellness programmes exist, but face barriers to getting more sedentary workers to participate.
If this trend continues, raising the retirement age could result in more workers with chronic diseases, which will strain the health care system, increase the number of medical leave days and health care costs, and lead to a decline in productivity. Simply put, extending the retirement age poses a huge risk without extending healthy years at the same time.
Workplace Wellness As A Policy Prerequisite
If Malaysia wants to explore increasing the retirement age to 65, it must first look into building a fit population of 1.4 million civil servants. This requires shifting workplace health campaigns from optional to essential. A national-level strategy could include:
- Using the VO2 Max assessment as a part of annual health check-ups, which works not as a penalty, but as a baseline to monitor and improve over time.
- A step-based initiative for sedentary workers to be integrated into human resource policies, which can be tracked through apps.
- Mandatory movement breaks every 60 to 90 minutes, which are aligned with global best practices.
- Redesigning offices to encourage movement such as increasing walking paths, centralised printers, and standing meeting spaces.
- Structured health and fitness programmes for workers aged 50 and above in order to prepare them physiologically for longer careers.
- Ministry-level wellness performance indicators that work similarly to tracking financial or administrative KPIs.
These are not new ideas. They are the same strategies used by other nations whose retirement reforms succeeded because workplace reforms came first.
Fit To Work Until 65? The Answer Depends On Policy Priorities
Ageing is inevitable, but unhealthy ageing is not. The debate on increasing the retirement age cannot be separated from this reality.
A population that remains physically active, mobile, and functionally fit into its 60s and 70s has very different needs and capabilities from a population ageing with disease, frailty, and low fitness.
The new retirement policy will depend heavily on workforce physiological conditions.
If policymakers want Malaysians to work longer, they must find ways to help us live healthier. Only then can a higher retirement age become viable, dignified, and beneficial to national policy.
Do cardio training to live longer. Do strength training to live better. Do both, if possible.
The author is a PhD candidate in health sciences.
- This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of CodeBlue.
